1. What does today’s announcement involve?
Following nine months of planning, today we announce the merger of Aitken Lawyers of Sydney with Russell Kennedy of Melbourne. The proposed merger will take effect from 1 March 2019, and will create a combined 270-strong firm with offices in Australia’s largest legal services markets.
It will bring together two firms with complementary services and capabilities across a range of practice areas including corporate and commercial, litigation and dispute resolution, property and development, estate planning and family law, Commonwealth, State and local government, aged care and retirement living, workplace relations and employment, insolvency, rural services and renewable energy.
2. What are the terms of the merger?
The merger will be effective from 1 March 2019, and will see the formation of a fully integrated, multi-state law firm with an expanded client offering.
The Aitken Lawyers partners will become principals of Russell Kennedy and all employees of Aitken Lawyers will be offered employment with the combined firm on terms at least as favourable. There will be no change to our fee structure and existing commercial arrangements with clients as a result of the merger.
3. When will the merger take effect?
The combined firm will be operational from 1 March 2019.
4. What will be the name of the combined firm?
Once it’s fully operational from March next year, the firm will be named Russell Kennedy. Prior to that, the Sydney office will adopt a hybrid brand that combines both names for a transition period. We will provide details of this in due course.
5. What has prompted the merger?
The two firms have been in discussion for many months. From the time we started talking earlier this year, it was obvious that there’s a lot of common ground in terms of our respective values and cultures and how that translates to a shared commitment to doing our best for our clients and people, and for the broader community where our work has an impact.
The merger of Russell Kennedy and Aitken Lawyers is the next step in building a stronger offering for our two firms in what is an increasingly competitive industry.
6. What services will the combined firm offer?
The merger gives us a strong presence in Australia’s biggest markets, with an enhanced client offering.
We expect to move to national practice groups combining the expertise of both firms. We expect that the Aitken Lawyers practice groups will become part of the following Russell Kennedy national practice groups:
- Estate Planning – Corporate & Commercial
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Commercial – Corporate & Commercial
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Litigation – Dispute Resolution
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Property – Property & Development
- Family Law – Dispute Resolution
These will be in addition to Russell Kennedy’s other practice groups; namely, Local Government, Planning and Environment, Public Law, Litigation and Aged Care, Workplace Relations, Employment & Safety, and Victorian Workcover Authority.
7. What about Canberra?
Russell Kennedy closed its Canberra office after almost four years of operation at the end of 2017. Otherwise, the firm has continued to expand and this decision has allowed us to continue to focus on sustainable growth of our practice in our core areas of expertise, including government.
Our government team has continued to serve our Commonwealth and ACT clients from our Melbourne office, and on-the-ground in Canberra on an as-needs basis. The merger will give us the opportunity to also do that from our Sydney office.