Australian firm HWL Ebsworth has hired a venture capital partner from global firm Ashurst.

Jason Maletic, the co-head of the venture capital and high growth team at Ashurst Australia, will lead the equivalent team at HWLE.

He acts for venture capital funds, early stage issuers, consortiums, high-net-worth investors, multinational corporations, banks and financial services companies. He has experience in all aspects of the investment process from due diligence, term sheet negotiation, seed funding, security terms for preference shares, warrants, convertible notes, employee share plans and eventually through to exit.

The hire is unusual in that HWLE rarely hires partners from large international firms and mostly looks to Australian firms for new lawyer additions.

“Jason’s arrival further reinforces our strong, national corporate and commercial offering, and I’m confident that his wealth of experience in the venture capital sector will add strategic value to our clients,” said Russell Mailler, chief executive partner at HWLE.

Mailer took over leadership of the firm following the unexpected death of long-time managing partner Juan Martinez earlier this year.

With 273 partners, HWLE is the largest legal partnership in Australia.

"We thank Jason for his work with the firm and wish him well for the future," an Ashurst spokesperson said.