Supremecourtnsw-Article-201702100424

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has filed a lawsuit against eight Australian partners, who are leaving to join White & Case.

In the case filed last week before the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, 167 HSF partners – led by Melbourne litigation partner Michael Pryse – are suing eight of the 10 partners who resigned in September to open two Australian offices for US firm White & Case.

The defendants are Melbourne partners Andrew Clark, Brendan Quinn, Alan Rosengarten, Josh Sgro, Tim Power, Jared Muller and Joanne Draper and Sydney partner Joel Rennie.

Hong Kong partner Fergus Smith and Singapore partner Matthew Osborne, who are also moving to White & Case, are not named as defendants in the suit. Former HSF Melbourne associates Adeline Pang and Ged Cochrane and special counsel Michelle Keen, all now partners at White & Case, are also not part of the suit.

While the former associates have already started at White & Case, the 10 partners are unable to move as fast. HSF Australia partners are subject to a six-month notice period after they resign and a further six-month restraint period, which forbids them from practising at a competing firm as a partner. That means the partners who resigned from HSF on 1 September 2016 can be barred from actually starting work at White & Case until September 2017.

With an estimated $23m (£18m) in combined revenue, the 10-partner departure will potentially expose HSF to a bigger risk of financial loss than individual exits. That, according to The Australian Financial Review, is why HSF wants to extend the six-month restraint period for the departing partners and hence the lawsuit.

According to court records, the parties appeared before Justice David Hammerschlag of the New South Wales Supreme Court on 3 February. Hammerschlag, who was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in 2007, was a partner at HSF legacy Sydney firm Freehill Hollingdale & Page between 1988 and 1991.

The parties will appear again at the court on 17 February for directions, when a judge – once assigned – will define the issues of the case and decide on material filing deadlines. The first hearing of the case is scheduled for 27 February, before Supreme Court Justice Robert McDougall.

HSF declined to comment.