Squire Patton Boggs has expanded its Sydney office with the hiring of a team of employment lawyers from Australian firm McCabe Curwood.

The team is led by partner Nicola Martin, who will be joined by director Erin Kidd and associate Elisa Blakers. They will provide strategic advice across a range of employment and labour matters, with Martin bringing with her a particular focus on discrimination, bullying and harassment issues.

Caroline Noblet, Squire's global co-chair for labour and employment, said: “Nicola’s passion for delivering effective solutions to clients is matched by her technical abilities and both make her a good fit for our integrated global employment practice.”

Martin arrives after almost two-and-a-half years at McCabe Curwood, where she was group leader for its employment practice. Prior to that she spent almost 13 years at Norton Rose Fulbright following spells at Brodies and McGrigors, where she started her career as a trainee back in 2000.

Kidd was at McCabes for almost three years prior to its merger with Curwoods in 2018. She stepped up to special counsel after the merger, working alongside Martin in its employment practice. Prior to that she spent almost nine years at Australian firm Holding Redlich. 

Blakers joined McCabes as a law graduate in 2017, becoming an associate earlier this year prior to the team’s departure to Squire Patton Boggs.

Campbell Davidson, the firm’s Australian managing partner, said: “We are very pleased to have Nicola and her team join us at a time when employment-related issues are front and centre for most businesses and organisations.”

Squire launched in Australia in 2011 when it took on 80 lawyers from the Minter Ellison's Perth office. It opened in Sydney and Darwin the following year. In December, it hired energy partners Natalie Lonergan and Tatiana Gotvig from Norton Rose Fulbright in Sydney.

The US firm has been strengthening its international ranks in recent months. Last month, it hired Singapore-based Clifford Chance (CC) partner Kate Sherrard along with a senior associate as it continues to invest in its recently launched commodities and shipping practice.

In November, the firm expanded its Riyadh office with the arrival of Islamic finance specialist Ahmed Butt from Simmons & Simmons, following a number of Middle Eastern hires earlier in the year. Most notably that included absorbing Winston & Strawn’s Dubai office after the Chicago-based firm exited the UAE.

Squire also expanded in Europe in October with the arrival of three senior hires in France and Belgium – Sabrina Aïnouz and Jérôme Lehucher joined from DWF in Paris, and Michelle Glassman Bock joined from Wilmer Hale Cutler Pickering and Dorr in Brussels.