Big Four accounting firm EY has hired Lisa-Marie McKechnie as a financial services partner in Sydney, from Australian firm Mills Oakley.

McKechnie specialises in superannuation and life insurance, advising trustees on their fund operations, including investment and asset management, interventions by regulators and restructuring superannuation arrangements, as well as acting for life insurers on compliance and regulatory matters and policy complaints and disputes.

She joined Mills Oakley in 2010 as the firm's first female partner in its Sydney office. Previously, she practised for almost five years at MinterEllison as an associate.

At EY, McKechnie joins financial services law partner Michelle Segaert, who joined the accounting firm's legal network in Sydney last August from Squire Patton Boggs, where she was a partner.

Big Four rival KPMG also recently hired a financial services partner in Sydney, recruiting in December Zein El Hassan, who led Norton Rose Fulbright's Australia financial services risk advisory team.

Hiring between the Big Four and traditional law firms has not been all in one direction. Last September, James Beckley left EY, where he was a corporate law director in Sydney, to join Australian firm Gadens as a partner.

Globally, EY's legal network has about 1,800 lawyers across 75 jurisdictions, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam in the Asia-Pacific region.

EY and all of its Big Four rivals have been particularly active in the Hong Kong legal market. Since last year, EY and PwC have aggressively expanded from international firms, while KPMG and Deloitte launched affiliated Hong Kong law firms.

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