Ashurst has refreshed its governing board with the election of two Australia-based corporate partners. Melbourne-based Kylie Lane and Sydney-based Phil Breden will take up their posts on 1 November. 

The nine-person board is led by chairman Ben Tidswell and includes global managing partner Paul Jenkins and chief financial officer Mark Herbert. 

The other partner representatives are UK-head of corporate Karen Davies, who has been elected to serve a second three-year term, real estate capital markets head David Jones, who is also based in London, and Frankfurt finance partner Tobias Krug.

Making way for Lane and Breden are restructuring partner James Marshall and corporate specialist Barbara Phair, who are both based in Sydney.

Breden joined Ashurst in 2011 from Gilbert + Tobin, where he was a partner, and specialises in M&A and corporate advisory work with a focus on energy, utilities, construction and manufacturing. He has held a number of management roles at Ashurst including global co-head of corporate and head of region – Australia. 

Lane’s practice covers M&A, equity capital markets, corporate advisory and governance. She counts energy, resources, built environment and infrastructure as her specialist sectors.

She has spent most of her legal career at Ashurst and predecessor firm Blake Dawson, save for a one-and-a-half-year spell at top New York firm Cravath Swaine & Moore when she was an associate.

Tidswell said the new appointees’ combined experience and expertise would “be invaluable to our firm in addressing opportunities and challenges during this unprecedented time for the global economy and the legal sector”.