Norton Rose Group announces 14 strong partnership round across 10 international offices
20 April 2011

International legal practice Norton Rose Group is promoting seven Senior Associates, seven Of Counsel and one Special Counsel in a 14 strong partnership round, which includes seven female promotions.

Peter Martyr, Group Chief Executive, Norton Rose Group commented:

“The geographical spread and number of promotions reflect the continued enlargement of the Group’s practice internationally. We are particularly delighted that seven of the promotions are women”.

The promotions will create four new partners in Asia Pacific (one in Canberra, one in Shanghai, one in Singapore and one in Sydney), four new partners in London, four in Europe (Amsterdam, Athens, Munich and Paris) and two in the Middle East (Abu Dhabi and Bahrain).

There will be six new partners in banking, four in corporate finance, three in dispute resolution, and one in real estate.

Details of the new partners are as follows:

Ben Allen (Dispute Resolution, Canberra )

Ben is a dispute resolution lawyer, who has acted in a broad range of commercial disputes relating to contracts, corporations law, equity, product liability, guarantees, commercial leases, real property, intellectual property, government and trade practices. His experience includes managing both large and small-scale matters in the Federal, Supreme and District Courts, dispute negotiation and mediation as well as a focus on arbitration in the major institutional arbitration regimes both domestically and within the Asia-Pacific region.

Eva-Maria Barbosa (Corporate Finance, Munich)

Eva-Maria is part of the corporate insurance team in Germany. She has broad experience of insurance regulatory and corporate insurance matters. Her experience includes work on insurance related M&A and restructuring projects, including exit strategies for discontinued business, run-off and cross-border outsourcing service agreements as well as mergers and cooperation agreements.

Arnaud Bélisaire (Banking, Paris)

Arnaud is a project finance lawyer who represents French and international clients in a variety of renewable and conventional energy related matters. He is active in general business, contract (in particular turnkey contracts), company law / acquisitions, regulatory and real estate matters. Arnaud advises developers and banks on renewable energy in France, focusing on solar, biomass and hydro power projects, as well as on-shore and off-shore wind farm projects.

Charlotte Bijlani (Real Estate, London)

Charlotte is a solicitor advocate and regularly advises developers, banks, investors and landlords on a variety of issues and disputes including tenant insolvency, rent review, dilapidations, service charges, forfeiture, restrictive covenants, pre-emption rights, leasehold enfranchisement, compulsory purchase, land assembly, professional negligence claims, business rates and possession actions. She also has extensive expertise in relation to actual and potential breaches of contract, distressed developments and debt enforcement.

Saskia Blokland (Corporate Finance, Amsterdam)

Saskia is a corporate finance lawyer based in Amsterdam. She specialises in private equity, M&A and joint ventures. She has been involved in a wide range of both international and domestic corporate finance transactions. Her experience includes advising on mergers & acquisitions, restructurings, controlled auctions, leveraged buy-outs, management buy-outs, joint ventures and public take-overs.

Andrew Buisson (Banking, London)

Andrew Buisson is a projects lawyer based in London, advising on non-contentious matters in the infrastructure and construction/engineering sectors, and specialising in PFI/PPP concession arrangements, and project-financed construction contracts and operation and maintenance agreements. Andrew has particular experience of advising on major transactions in the accommodation, transport and nuclear sectors, and advises a broad range of private and public sector clients, including G4S, the London Borough of Lewisham and Fusion for Energy.

Robert Driver (Banking, Singapore)

Robert is a lawyer in the banking team with wide ranging contentious and non-contentious experience in shipping, offshore and commodities. He frequently acts for banks, shipowners, oil companies and traders in relation to a variety of shipping, offshore and trading matters.

Joanne Emerson-Taqi (Banking, Bahrain)

Joanne is a construction lawyer based in our Bahrain office. Her main areas of focus are non-contentious projects and construction in the real estate and infrastructure sectors. She advises government institutions, concessionaires, project companies, developers, contractors, and financial institutions.

Sun Hong (Corporate Finance, Shanghai)

Sun Hong's main area of practice is corporate finance, covering foreign direct investment, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and corporate transactions involving PRC assets or entities. Sun Hong also has extensive experience of advising the clients on PRC regulatory aspects of banking transactions.

John Liberopoulos (Dispute Resolution, Athens)

John is a dispute resolution lawyer, specialising predominantly in shipping litigation and arbitration as well as contractual negotiations related to shipping. He has particular experience in charterparty and ship sale & purchase disputes, international trade, marine casualties, salvage, insurance and shipbuilding.

Marnie Mcconnell (Dispute Resolution, Sydney)

Marnie is an insurance lawyer and professional indemnity and directors & officers liability specialist, advising local and London underwriters, as well as providing insurance and contractual risk related advice to corporate clients. She has conducted Federal and Supreme Court litigation defending engineers, architects, project managers, quantity surveyors and private certifying authorities in disputes ranging from defects in residential and commercial property developments to large state-sponsored infrastructure projects. Marnie is a member of the Australian Insurance Law Association and the Australian Professional Indemnity Group.

Fiona Reilly (Banking, London)

Fiona has been involved in the nuclear industry for over 14 years. She has worked on all aspects of the nuclear cycle from new build and licensing to decommissioning, fuel storage and waste management. Fiona has a detailed understanding of the international regulatory framework within which the nuclear industry works and frequently advises on liability regimes, regulatory and reporting requirements as well as contracts relating to the development, construction, operation and maintenance of nuclear stations and the fabrication, storage and reprocessing of nuclear fuel.

Arun Velusami (Banking, London)

Arun is an energy projects lawyer based in London. Arun specialises in the development of energy projects in Africa and has acted for governments, sponsors and lenders on a wide variety of innovative and challenging projects across Africa. Arun will work closely with colleagues in our new offices in South Africa and his promotion demonstrates our commitment to be the leading the energy projects law firm for Africa.

Dino Wilkinson (Corporate Finance, Abu Dhabi)

Dino is a lawyer in the communications, media and technology team and has advised Islamic and conventional financial institutions, telecoms operators, professional services organisations and other corporate clients on a wide range of non-contentious IT and outsourcing matters, including data privacy and security, e-commerce, m-commerce and online payments. He has considerable experience of advising Middle East businesses on sourcing arrangements, technology contracts and intellectual property licensing.

For further information please contact:

Sarah Webster, Senior Public Relations Manager (London)

+44(0)20 7444 5942 sarah.webster@nortonrose.com

+44 (0)77 2535 0425

Samantha Magnusson, communications manager (Australia)

+61 2 9330 8138 samantha.magnusson@nortonrose.com

+61 434 116 696

Editors note