John Atkins

Ten years ago this month, Perth’s legal profession underwent a seismic change when the city’s two largest firms, Parker & Parker and Freehill, Hollingdale & Page, agreed to merge.

ADELAIDE corporate law firm, Johnson Winter & Slattery, has continued its national expansion, recruiting two senior Freehills partners to establish a Perth office.Mick Dulaney and Peter Smith plan to open JWS’s Perth office in late February after finishing up at Freehills.

Atkins heads CCIWA

THE ANZ’s top institutional banking executive in Australia believes Asian investors will increasingly provide the growth capital sought by local mining companies.

Texas focused oil producer Aurora Oil & Gas has appointed Perth company director John Atkins to its board and bolstered its US management team.

Minotaur Exploration has announced an agreed takeover offer for Perth-based Breakaway Resources and the establishment of two new joint ventures to fund exploration of Breakaway's tenements.

The head of WA’s peak business lobby group, James Pearson, is joining Shell Australia to head its Perth-based communications and government relations team.Mr Pearson has been the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s chief executive for the past five and a half years.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA has appointed former University of Western Australia Business School dean Tracey Horton as president of its general council.

Former Breakaway Resources chairman John Atkins has joined the board of Minotaur Exploration, following Minotaur’s takeover of Breakaway.Mr Atkins is chair of Lotterywest and a non-executive director of Aurora Oil & Gas and Australian Finance Group.

An independent committee may have taken more than a year to review the Liquor Control Act and recommended 141 changes, but industry participants are skeptical over whether it will herald any business benefits.

The reform agenda mapped out last week by the Economic Regulation Authority should become former treasurer Troy Buswell’s greatest legacy to the state.

WA financial services company AFG has grown over 20 years to become a major player in the national home loans market and aims to get bigger.

Two prominent Perth businesswomen have moved on to new government roles, with Heather Zampatti named the new chair for Lotterywest, while Libby Lyons has become a director of the national Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

It was 20 years’ ago this month that Perth’s two largest law firms surprised the business community by merging their operations. Herbert Smith Freehills hosted many of the 50-plus partners who were there at the time to mark the occasion.