Blog

Ashurst expands consulting enterprise with five-partner Huge 4 hiring spree in Australia

Image from Sydney

The quintet includes Del Maharitte’s former global leader in cyber and strategic risk, Sid Maharaj

Ashurst has expanded its advisory business with the arrival of five new partners in Australia and has spearheaded increased customer demand for its legally managed advisory services in areas such as tech and cyber risk since the unit launched last June.

New hires include Deloitte’s former global leader in cyber and strategic risk, Sid Maharaj, who will cover cyber, strategic and reputational risk in Sydney. He is accompanied in Sydney by Tony Morris, Elena Lambros and Philip Hope and in Melbourne by Melina Sehr.

Jamie Ng, a member of the Ashurst executive team and global head of Ashurst Consulting, said the new partners brought a wealth of expertise that would help advance the company’s consulting services.

Ng added, “We are in strong demand for advice in the key areas of change and risk management for businesses. Since Covid in particular, our clients have asked us for help in areas that go far beyond traditional legal services. You want a legally guided approach that also leverages other critical skills. We have put that together. “

He said “early preparatory work” was in place to expand the service through its international network.

The new consulting branch is divided into two areas: risk consulting and board consulting. All five new employees will work in their risk advisory practice.

Maharaj arrives at Deloitte after more than two decades, first in South Africa and since 2013 in Australia. He became the global leader in strategic and reputational risk in 2019 before becoming global leader in cyber and strategic risk last year.

Very, who will be involved in transformation and change management, is joining PwC after nearly four years, having previously spent almost two decades at IBM. Morris will specialize in workplace safety and wellbeing and is another Deloitte alumni with whom he served as a risk advisor for just over seven years.

Lambros is also coming from Deloitte and will cover strategy risk and project management while Hope will cover financial services business and operating model risk and join Ashurst as a partner who has advised on its risk advisory practice since the unit was launched.

The company first announced plans to start its advisory business in March last year after recruiting another former Deloitte partner, Philip Hardy, to lead its risk advisory practice. Hardy was previously head of the governance, regulation and behavioral advisory business for Deloitte in Australia.

Ashurst’s entry into advisory comes as the big four accountants step up their efforts to advise legal departments around the world on digitization. Last October, KPMG unveiled a global legal operations advisory service based on claims it has saved its internal legal clients more than $ 200 million in the past two years.

Sign up for daily email updates

Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]