Mallesons Stephen Jaques has announced the transfer of Perth Dispute Resolution partner, Brahma Dharmananda to its Melbourne centre.

Brahma, a partner of the firm for some 11 years, has been in recent years Partner in Charge of the Perth office and a member of the firm’s Board of Partners. Brahma successfully combined these management roles with a very busy Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Reconstruction practice.

Brahma has acted on a number of major insolvency matters, most recently for BHP Billiton on a range of complex litigious matters, including actions brought by the Gina Reinhart entities against Rose Porteous. He has also acted for the National Australia Bank on several contentious matters and provided general ongoing advice to the Bank. For many years he has assisted Foodland on its contentious business and last year was part of the team acting for Epic on the sale of the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline. With constitutional law experience, he has most recently had success acting for the friends of the court in the so-called “one vote, one value” litigation that went to the High Court.

Brahma’s move to Melbourne will boost the on-ground capability of the Dispute Resolution team, which in recent times, has experienced increased demand on its services.

“Brahma is one of Mallesons’ top partners. His move to Melbourne will allow the team to better pursue a number of initiatives including capturing a greater share of strategic disputes work from key clients and expand the firm’s east coast relationships with national clients,” said Chief Executive Partner, Robert Milliner.

Mallesons’ expanding reach throughout Australia and Asia Pacific enables movement of partners and lawyers between centres with a level of flexibility and ease that is the hallmark of the firm.

“This move by Brahma will provide further support to the Melbourne centre in the area of Dispute Resolution, focusing particularly on the M&A and Financial Services areas,” said Robert.

Mallesons’ Perth practice recently has been strengthened with newly-appointed Dispute Resolution partner Michael Lundberg and Construction partner Jim Delkousis, who transferred to Perth from Melbourne. During a transitional period Brahma, with the support of the Perth team, will continue to work on a number of Perth-based matters.