MEDIA RELEASE

Recognition as the BEST CORPORATE LAW FIRM 2018 – MELBOURNE, one of the key APAC Insider Awards, is a powerful acknowledgement of a pioneering approach to designing and implementing legal and associated services for Roberts Gray Lawyers, Melbourne.

The principals of the three foundation divisions of Roberts Gray Lawyers worked together to create a new service delivery model to address key needs in the legal sector.

Mr Rhys Watson, Principal Corporate Advisory said a separate division was created to support business activity created by Free Trade Agreements.

“These agreements, in some cases, lead to escalated involvement in exports/imports but they also tend to generate interest in mergers, acquisitions and change-of-ownership transactions,” he said.

“Another area of interest, especially for Chinese companies, is listing on the ASX, as an alternative to listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which is often manipulated to some extent to facilitate tight capital account controls.”

“Providing a corporate advisory service, alongside the work of the legal team, means effectively addressing a suite of issues and concerns that may all be important for somebody pursuing multiple or complex business opportunities in Australia. That applies for local businesses and overseas investors,” said Mr Rhys Watson.

Mr Kevin Broadribb, Principal Government Relations, Lobbying and Strategic Communications said the signing of Australia’s Free Trade Agreements has led to scattered intelligence exercises and some ill-considered investments.

“Investors from other countries may not understand the complexities of the local political system and may not fully understand the limits and restrictions that are built into Free Trade Agreements,” he said.

“Local advice can prevent major problems and the right legal and political support is critical for matters going to the Foreign Investment Review Board,” said Mr Broadribb.

Mr Rhys Roberts, Managing Director and Senior Partner at Roberts Gray Lawyers said a lot of research and planning went into developing and refining the service delivery model.

“I set out to redefine the service delivery model for the law sector, with a strong emphasis on the broad range of commercial law, and it quickly became obvious that we needed a collaboration of specialists that went way beyond the traditional boundaries of law firms,” said Mr Roberts.

“We use a unique combination of specialists and we do this within the framework of our original work in Agile Law.”

“The escalating number of law firms saying they deliver ‘agile law’ is a robust testament to our pioneering work but we are still the front runners and we are definite market leaders in addressing the needs of clients by using ‘collaborating specialists’”, said Mr Roberts.

ENDS

For details of the awards:
https://www.apac-insider.com/awards