MinterEllison has appointed two new partners from non-legal backgrounds as part of the firm’s continued investment in its consulting offerings. In a disruptive move, MinterEllison has also announced the launch of MinterEllison Infrastructure Consulting.

Non-legal focus

The two appointees are Donna Worthington, risk & regulatory, and Kay Salvair Smith, who will lead the new Infrastructure Consulting team. The two additions take the firms consulting Partner total to eight. “The appointment of Kay and Donna follows closely upon the appointment from 1 March of Brendan Welsh, Debbie McLaughlin, Stephen Craike, Kim Gordon and Simon Lewis as partners in our technology consulting practice, ITNewcom,” said Andrew Cunningham, managing partner, consulting solutions and innovation.  He said, “Our firm was the nation’s first to provide complete end-to-end specialist technology consulting and legal services through our acquisition of ITNewcom in 2017, and it's exciting to see momentum continue with our non-legal offerings extended with the launch of Infrastructure Consulting and bolstering of our risk & regulatory team.” Mr Cunnningham explained, “We remain focused on growing our non-legal consulting work, and we are getting the people we need to broaden our range of services. We are thinking beyond the law and will continue to offer our clients new multi-disciplinary and industry-facing solutions to help them efficiently reach strategic goals, grasp business opportunities, and create commercial value for their stakeholders.”

Diversity of thought

The firm's latest non-legal adjacent offering, MinterEllison Infrastructure Consulting will provide combined service offerings on matters throughout the infrastructure project lifecycle, including in relation to technical, commercial, financial, legal and transaction/project management. “Our clients have asked for integrated commercial, technical, financial and legal advice on complex infrastructure and development projects,” said Virginia Briggs, MinterEllison's managing partner, infrastructure construction and property, adding “MinterEllison Infrastructure Consulting services integrates with legal to provide a truly 'best for client' service.” Ms Salvair Smith said, “With continued government and private sector investment in complex infrastructure projects, we're seeing a rise in the number projects needing external support and integrated strategic services.” She explained they have “a number of infrastructure project engagements” to deliver and they can “use these projects to demonstrate that diversity of thought (legal and non-legal) and technical background really does produce the best solutions for clients.”