The London-based global law firm Allen & Overy (Britain’s fifth-biggest law firm) revealed this week that it would open a 14 partner haul from Clayton Utz in Australia next month, in a move expected to shake up the local market of top tier firms.

The London magic circle firm is to open new branches in Sydney and Perth with teams of 14 and three partners respectively. The Sydney team covers banking, corporate, capital markets and tax matters where as the focus on the Perth office will be corporate, energy and natural resources. The deal will go live on 1 March.

Few UK firms have ventured full-scale into Australia although more have been targeting the region. The most recent high-profile deal was Norton Rose’s merger with Deacons Australia, which went live at the beginning of 2010.

Allen & Overy – which has more than 5,000 lawyer’s worldwide – senior partner, David Morley, said: “Our decision to launch in Australia underlines the increasing importance of Australia in the global and Asia-Pacific economies. As Australia develops closer ties with its major trading partners, especially across the Asia-Pacific region, and as Australian banks and corporates continue to expand globally there is growing demand for legal advice that can seamlessly support that growth around the world. Our global network puts us in the perfect position to be able to do just that.”  He also said that the Australian division would focus on high-value work for big local clients and foreign investors

David Morley joined Allen & Overy as a trainee in 1980, qualifying as a solicitor in 1982 in the Banking department. He spent a year on secondment at a US investment bank and became a partner in 1988. In 1998 he became the global head of the Banking practice. In May 2003 he was elected to the position of worldwide Managing Partner.

The hires come after a difficult year for Allen & Overy. After facing a major profits dip in 2009 due to the recession the UK firm made drastic cutbacks including slicing 9% of its entire global workforce.

The new A&O partners are:

Sydney

Jason Denisenko, Angela Flannery, Grant Fuzi, Sonia Goumenis, Jason Huinink, Barry Irwin, Aaron Kenavan, Grant Koch, Michael Parshall, Karolina Popic, Michael Reede, Chris Robertson, Andrew Stals and David Wilkie.

Perth

Meredith Campion, Geoff Simpson and Peter Wilkes.