Freehills has recruited three of the industry’s best as part of a strategic focus on Australia’s IT and communications sectors, adding two new partners and an executive counsel to entrench its leading practice in this sector.

Freehills CEO Gavin Bell said the firm rarely made lateral hires of this nature, but it had identified IT and communications as having strong growth potential and was prepared to invest to ensure it had the leading team to offer its clients. 

‘Technology and communications are the backbone of every business,’ he said. ‘ We welcome and are excited that three leading practitioners in the field are joining the Freehills team.’

‘We see a great opportunity to grow our business and are investing heavily in the national practice to support the increasing demand from our clients. This is the case not only in stand alone IT&C projects and services, but also in supporting our leading position in mergers and acquisitions, where IT transitional services often play a key role.’

The technology and communications practice will be headed by new Partner Keith Robinson who joins the firm from Minter Ellison, where he was co-head of its technology practice.  

Keith  said he was looking forward to working with such a great team and helping Freehills make the most of the opportunity. 

‘IT&C is a critical input to all businesses,’ he said. ‘Freehills clearly recognises its importance and sees the opportunity with the resurgence of IT projects and services outsourcing in financial services, energy and resources.’  Keith was listed as highly respected practitioner in Chambers Global 2011 Technology, Media, Telecoms (TMT): Australia. 

Damien Bailey  joins Freehills as a Partner in Technology and Communications. Damien will move across from his current role as head of IT& C with Simmons & Simmons in Asia in October 2011. 

Yuban Moodley will also join the firm in October as Executive Counsel. He joins the team from UK firm CMS Cameron McKenna where he was Partner in the Technology and Sourcing group. 

Both Robinson and Bailey will be based in Sydney, while Moodley will operate from the Brisbane office. 

These new hires join an already  strong technology, media and communications practice. Lead partners include James Crowe, Sarah Kenny, Irene Zeitler, Louise Capon, Lesley Sutton, Tony Joyner and Julian Lincoln.