Skadden to pull out of Australia as international office closures continue
US firm is in the process of winding down two-partner Sydney office which is due to close in the first half of 2016
February 11, 2016 at 08:43 AM
3 minute read
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is set to pull out of Australia, with the firm in the process of winding down its two-partner Sydney office.
The five-lawyer office will close in the first half of this year.
One of the partners, Skadden's co-head of corporate finance Adrian Deitz will remain with the firm and will stay based in Sydney but will also work out of the firm's existing offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.
It is not yet known whether the remaining staff and lawyers will be offered packages to relocate or if they will leave the firm.
The remaining four lawyers, who specialise in corporate M&A and US securities law, include partner Mark Leeman, counsel Nicole Morath and Cecile Baume and associate Matthew Lim.
Skadden opened the office in 1989 and its lawyers have subsequently worked on matters including advising the Commonwealth of Australia and national private health insurer Medibank Private in 2014 on Medibank's A$5.6bn (£2.7bn) IPO and listing on the Australian Stock Exchange and acting the same year for energy trading company Vitol Group on its $2.6bn (£1.8bn) purchase of Shell's Australia downstream businesses.
The planned closure is the latest in a string of international exits by UK and US firms with Simmons & Simmons announcing last month that it will close its Abu Dhabi office after previously announcing plans to close its Rome base, while in September 2015 Allen & Overy confirmed that it would close its single partner Toronto base.
The news comes after Clifford Chance confirmed earlier this month that its Australia managing partner is set to leave the firm along with a fellow founding partner of the magic circle firm's Australia practice.
Sydney-based managing partner Mark Pistilli and M&A partner Danny Simmons are both leaving the firm, and will be on gardening leave until the end of June.
Recently announced international office closures:
- Simmons & Simmons – Abu Dhabi – January 2016
- Allen & Overy – Toronto – September 2015
- Olswang – Berlin – 'decoupling' announced – June 2015
- Simmons & Simmons – Rome – August 2015
- WilmerHale – Oxford and City – July 2015
- Winston & Strawn – Geneva – July 2015
- Herbert Smith Freehills – Abu Dhabi – June 2015
- Latham & Watkins – Abu Dhabi and Doha – March 2015
- Baker Botts – Abu Dhabi – May 2015
- Orrick – Frankfurt & Berlin – April 2015
- Fried Frank Hong Kong and Shanghai – January 2015
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – Barcelona – summer 2014
- Holland & Knight – Middle East – summer 2014
- Hogan Lovells -Prague – May 2014
- King & Wood Mallesons – Berlin- March 2014
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