Morning Briefing: Senior hire for international law firm’s Brisbane office

Norton Rose Fulbright continues to boost its insurance practice in Australia with the addition of Brett Solomon in Brisbane. He joins the team from DibbsBarker where he was head of the national insurance practice. NRF recently brought two lawyers from its London office; insurance partner Mark Attard in Melbourne and senior insurance litigator Jehan-Philippe (JP) Wood in Perth.
 
DLA Piper takes team of 9 from Ashurst
Global law firm DLA Piper has hired a team of nine lawyers from Ashurst for its restructuring and litigation practice in Italy. The three partners and six lawyers take the firm’s headcount to 169 in Italy including 43 partners.
 
HSF tops South Korea M&A
Herbert Smith Freehills has been named the top international law firm for M&A in South Korea just two years after it opened its Seoul office. The latest league tables published by Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Mergermarket put HSF as the top international firm quarters 1 to 3 of 2015; the firm is fourth behind some of South Korea’s best-know domestic firms.
 
Lawyers and judge clash over Syria
Lawyers, including some former senior members of the UK judiciary, have signed a statement criticising the country’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis. The 300 lawyers say that Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge to house 20,000 refugees over the next five years is “too low, too slow and too narrow.” Among its signatories is Lord Phillips, the former president of the Supreme Court and Sir Nicholas Bratza, former European Court of Human Right president.
 
Trump falls foul of IP infringement
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump could be about to face legal action from rockers Aerosmith for using one of their songs without permission. Trump’s been using the song ‘Dream On’ at campaign rallies but The Hollywood Reporter says that lawyers for Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler have sent a cease and desist letter which states that the use of the song suggests endorsement of the campaign. Attorney Dina LaPolt noted that a warning over the use of the song had been sent previously and yet the song was still used. Steven Tyler was a recent guest of Trump at a Republican debate but LaPolt says the challenge to the use of the song is about authorisation.