Corporate partners Mark Pistilli and Danny Simmons are joining PwC’s expansive Australian legal arm after leaving Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance in February to set up their own boutique practice, Pistilli Simmons. The pair’s former law firm, Chang Pistilli & Simmons, was taken over by Clifford Chance in 2011, with Mr Pistilli going on to later serve as the firm’s Australia managing partner. Two Pistilli Simmons lawyers – partner Joni Henry and consultant Jane Ann Grey – will be accompanying them to PwC.

Building up strength

Founded by former King & Wood Mallesons managing partners Tony O’Malley and Tim Blue in 2014, PwC Legal has never feigned any modesty with regards to its ambitions in Australia. With its latest recruits bringing the venture’s partner headcount to 18, PwC Legal is chasing a total headcount of 25 partners and 100 lawyers by the end of the current financial year, with annual revenue hoped to hit A$100m before 2020.

Rise of accounting firms

Mr Pistilli commented: ‘Our sense at the beginning of this year was that all the English firms in the Australian legal market are getting smaller. It seemed to us that the model wasn’t going to sustain itself going forward.’ The landscape of the Australian legal market will change dramatically over the next five years, he warned, and accounting firms are emerging as the dominant players. One clinching factor for the Pistilli Simmons team was the impressive list of clients on offer at a major accounting firm like PwC: ‘They act for more companies – in one capacity or another – than any law firm on the market, so it offered us the chance to sell a package of legal, accountancy advisory and corporate advisory,’ said Mr Pistilli.

Sources: The Lawyer; Legal Week; International Law; Australian Financial Review