Gilbert + Tobin has poached ex-Freehills partner John Schembri and ex-PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Peter Feros, to bolster its finance and tax practices.

Schembri was at Freehills for 18 years and worked on financing tasks for acquisitions, projects and structured matters, among others. He said he was partly attracted to G+T, because he found that there were fewer conflicts of interest in his area of law. "I have also been interested in the way that G+T built its ground over the years. When I was at Freehills G+T lawyers would sometimes act for the other side, and I was pretty impressed with them," he said.

He hopes that his existing clients will continue to instruct him and in the meantime will expand his client base through working more with G+T's clients. Three of his associates have also moved with him and he believes Feros' tax expertise will complement his practice.

Feros has 13 years' corporate tax experience in advising listed and multinational companies, operating in technology, media, industrial product, property and others. He said he used to service G+T clients and the firm hired him through an independent recruitment process.

"Accounting firms say that lawyers are at the table very early in the deal and I saw this is an opportunity to get in early. If you can help clients with tax matters at a law firm then that adds value to your service," he said. "I took no clients or staff with me, but I think it is very exciting to fashion my own practice, in conjunction with partners and lawyers who are highly regarded by clients and other firms - it's just fantastic."