Andersen Legal builds up Australian offices

Andersen Legal has raided rival Australian firms for five new partners only months after its managing partner quit the practice.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' legal partner Anastasia Tsekouras, an expert in stamp duty and trusts, joins the Sydney operation, as does Kym Livesly, senior counsel and mining, oil and gas expert at Clayton Utz.

Gadens partner Peter Francis and Blake Dawson Waldron lawyer Darren Olney-Frazer will go to the Melbourne office.

Francis has spent the past few years developing Gadens IT practice. Transport specialist Olney-Frazer will be based in the corporate & commercial group.

Former Freehill Hollingdale & Page litigation partner and general counsel at a Victoria government department Penny Pengilley also joins the Melbourne team. She will concentrate on disputes and corporate insolvency work.

New managing partner Adrian Ahern says that the new appointments provide "significant strengths in key areas of our national practice".