Minter Ellison has hired two senior IP litigators and their teams from King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) in Australia.

Wayne McMaster was previously head of KWM's national IP and health & pharmaceuticals practice, whilst Robert Cooper worked alongside him on patent disputes and trademarks.

The Melbourne-based partners have joined Minter Ellison in the city with a team of 13, including a special counsel, three senior associates, four lawyers, a group of paralegals and support staff.

Australia chief executive partner John Weber said the hires came amid an increase in disputes work in the pharmaceutical sector.

"Minter Ellison is well positioned to take the opportunity to grow in areas of strong client demand in Australia – and dispute resolution in the pharmaceutical sector is one of those areas," he said.

"[The partners'] arrival brings a new dimension to our commercial disputes and intellectual property practices and will help to drive growth in those areas by opening up new client and market opportunities."

McMaster and Cooper are the latest in a long list of partners to have exited KWM since the merger of the Chinese and Australian legacy outfits.

Other departures in Australia in the last six months have included construction partner Beth Cubitt, who moved to Clyde & Co in November, corporate partner David Perks, who was hired by Gadens in September, and real estate partner Andrew Norman, who joined Clayton Utz in January.

Meanwhile Minters, which is among two of Australia's 'big six' law firms which remain independent, has made only a handful of lateral hires in Australia in the last year amid a slowdown in domestic M&A activity.

It has instead focused its efforts on Asia, launching a tax practice for the region in July with the hire of Ernst & Young duo Christian Pellone and Edward Lean in Hong Kong, and boosting its teams in China in November with the recruitment of two office managing partners from rival international firms.

They included corporate lawyer Jem Li who joined from Winston & Strawn in Beijing and projects partner Rebecca Silli who moved over from Gide Loyrette Nouel in Hong Kong.

The firm is also mulling opening a new office in Singapore.