Sydney – Global law firm K&L Gates has continued its recent growth in Australia with the addition of two new partners: Stuart Broadfoot to the firm’s Tax practice and James Durnall to the Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources team. 

Broadfoot was most recently at King & Wood Mallesons, where he was a special counsel focusing on complex Australian and international corporate and finance tax advisory, transactional and dispute matters. His experience includes cross-border and international tax issues for both inbound and outbound investors, mergers and acquisitions, restructures, structured finance, and project finance and development. 

Broadfoot works across a range of sectors and clients, including large corporates; private equity; international and domestic funds; infrastructure projects; and real estate. He previously worked in the United Kingdom for Clifford Chance LLP, dealing with both UK and international taxation matters for clients across the globe. 

Durnall joins K&L Gates from Bird & Bird, where he was a partner in the Corporate & Project Finance team with a particular focus on innovative transactions in clean energy and renewables, from utility scale solar and onshore wind, to waste-to-energy, anaerobic digestion, battery storage and energy efficiency projects. He advises developers, energy and infrastructure funds, equity investors, EPC and O&M contractors, off-takers and asset managers on a broad range of corporate, commercial, project, investment and finance matters. 

Durnall has experience advising on domestic and international investment funds and capital markets. He also has in-house legal and commercial experience having worked in private equity, as well as in project finance for a French aerospace and defence conglomerate in London. 

K&L Gates’ Managing Partner, Australia, Nick Nichola said: ‘We are really pleased to welcome Stuart and James to K&L Gates. Stuart and James join practice teams that are in high demand by our clients. Taxation is an ever-evolving area of law and we believe there will be an even greater focus on taxation as governments at all levels face economic uncertainty that will place pressure on their budgets.
“James brings enormous capability around clean energy projects, which is a real focus of not only Australian governments and the private sector, but of high interest around the world. He adds to our existing renewable energy experience across both our Australian offices and our global platform.”

Chris Nikou, a co-leader of the firm’s global Corporate practice area, said: ‘Stuart brings extensive experience working on complex cross-border taxation matters with both Australian and international clients across a broad range of sectors. Both Stuart and James bring extensive international experience and will fit in seamlessly at K&L Gates.”

Broadfoot and Durnall are the seventh and eighth new lateral partners to join the firm’s Sydney office since December 2022. They join James Lonie, Natalya Hards and Naomi Philp in the Corporate practice; Lisa Lautier and Matthew Watts in the Asset Management and Investment Funds practice; and Jennifer McCosker in the Real Estate practice.

K&L Gates has hired or promoted 13 new partners in Australia since the beginning of December 2022, with the number of Australian partners rising to 75.