Throw Another Shrimp on the Barbie

Sidley Austin is opening an office in Sydney, Australia on May 1. The expansion could more be more accurately described as a lateral pickoff. Robert Meyers, currently the managing partner of the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman’s Sydney office will join the firm as partner, and bring with him a bevy of clients involved with cross-border mergers and acquisitions and structured finance transactions. “Sydney’s a financial center and we saw an opportunity to get into that market,” says Carter Phillips, managing partner of the firm’s D.C. office. Phillips says a number of other firm’s have gone down under. The firm also saw the Sydney office as an entrée into the Asian marketplace, specifically investment banks and financial institutions. It will also be used to support Sidley’s London office. Meyers will bring with him four associates. “This will definitely,” says Phillips “give us [in the D.C. office] more opportunities in getting client work from Australia, Asia and Europe.” Sydney will be Sidley’s sixteenth office.