Dentons has established its presence in Australia by taking parts of Gadens’ offices into its global network, one year after the merger was announced.
Dentons will take on Gadens’ Sydney and Perth offices. The deal also gives Dentons a base in Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby.
The offices advise on banking and finance, real estate, infrastructure, energy and natural resources sectors.
The combination comes short of Dentons’ original plan to merge with the whole of Gadens, which had seven financially separate offices including five in Australia, one in Singapore and one in Papua New Guinea.
Former Gadens Sydney partner, Steve Healy, who was also the firm’s head of property, construction and planning groups, has become Dentons Australia CEO.
Gadens’ Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne offices will continue to operate as Gadens. According to the firm’s website, it has 92 partners and over 700 staff across the three offices.
In November 2015, Dentons announced a three-way merger with Gadens and Singaporean firm Rodyk & Davidson.
While the Rodyk combination completed in April this year, the negotiations with Gadens lasted for nearly a year.
“The launch of Dentons in Australia and Papua New Guinea is another step in our drive to connect clients around the world to lawyers who know the communities, the culture and the business and legal environment of the markets,” said Joe Andrew, Dentons global chairman.
“Our clients, particularly those in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, responded enthusiastically to the announcement of our combination,” added Elliott Portnoy, Dentons global CEO.
The Australia launch means Dentons now operates in 57 countries.
