When asked what attracted him to Corrs, Jolley said the firm offered a team-focused and entrepreneurial approach to practice building. “Corrs offers me a great platform to grow my M&A practice and develop and promote a team, but in a way that is not so prone to the legal and commercial conflicts that some firms have, especially with large banking practices,” he said.
Other factors that influenced Jolley’s decision were in his dealings with Corrs M&A partner Teresa Handicott both in matters and on the Takeovers Panel. “Corrs was acting for the other side on a number of M&A deals that I worked on in the last two years, including Promina’s A$7.87bn merger with Suncorp Metway. I found Teresa and other members of the Corrs team to be very commercial and professional in their work. I guess those encounters also made me want to make the move,” he said.
Jolley says Corrs differs to
Freehills in that it has a stronger focus on industry sectors, including projects and infrastructure, financial services, energy and resources, as well as traditional M&A work.
Jolley will be reunited with former
Freehills partner Andrew Messenger, who also moved to Corrs in 2007 with James North, to develop its new telecommunication and IT practice.
Jolley has acted on many complex and hostile transactions, such as Rinker on the A$17.5bn hostile takeover by CEMEX and Fairfax Media on the A$9bn merger with Rural Press.
“There is a big task ahead of me to build up a new team and practice - that is part of the challenge that I am looking forward to,” he said.
Corrs says it expects to announce further appointments in the coming weeks.