Leading commercial law firm Russell McVeagh is further growing its partnership with key home-grown senior talents – Alex MacDuff, Bevan Peachey, Hannah Wilson and Michael Loan – being promoted to partner (subject to completing Law Society requirements).
Spanning the firm's Litigation, Banking & Finance, and Corporate Advisory practice groups, the appointments follow on from the firm's appointment of Real Estate & Construction partner, Doran Wyatt, based in Wellington earlier this year.
Board Chair Allison Arthur-Young says, "We are so pleased to celebrate these career milestones for these talented lawyers who have all returned to the firm in recent years following experiences gained overseas.
Bringing this experience to central areas of considerations for many organisations across Aotearoa, including infrastructure, renewable energy, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) areas, they are each helping organisations respond to risks and to take advantage of opportunities across a broad spectrum of areas."
Alex MacDuff, Litigation/Restructuring & Insolvency
Alex is a general commercial litigator who specialises in restructuring, insolvency and special situations. His experience includes advising corporates, financial institutions, insolvency practitioners and other stakeholders on structuring, restructurings, stressed and distressed refinancings, insolvencies and related disputes. His commercial litigation practice encompasses a broad range of corporate and company disputes.
He returned to Russell McVeagh in late 2021, and prior to this, spent a number of years working in London for Allen & Overy's Global Restructuring Group advising on high-profile cross-border and domestic matters.
Bevan Peachey, Banking and Finance
Bevan has a broad finance practice with a focus on project finance and the infrastructure and energy sectors. He brings a wealth of experience from working on innovative and complex financing and infrastructure transactions in New Zealand and international markets, including some of the largest project financings in the New Zealand market.
Bevan has worked on significant transactions for many of the firm's key clients. He advises domestic and international financial institutions, corporate borrowers, sponsors and government agencies on a wide range of strategic financing transactions and infrastructure projects. He began his career at Russell McVeagh and re-joined the firm when he returned to New Zealand after working in the United Kingdom for a number of years.
Hannah Wilson, Corporate Advisory & ESG
Hannah specialises in M&A, complex commercial contracting, joint venture and shareholder arrangements. Clients value Hannah's combined strengths in M&A and commercial transactions as she knows how to negotiate successful outcomes while understanding the need to build relationships that will last after the deal is done.
She returned to the firm in January 2022 after an extended period at global law firm Hogan Lovells, where she gained particular experience working on strategic transactions for clients in the life sciences and automotive industries.
Michael Loan, Corporate Advisory - Head of Infrastructure
Michael is the firm's Head of Infrastructure. He has extensive experience across M&A, joint ventures and corporate and project finance transactions. Michael re-joined Russell McVeagh in the Corporate Advisory team in 2022 after a 13-year stint in London, the last eight of which he spent at Macquarie's Green Investment Group. His experience includes lead roles on numerous capital formation and investment transactions across the renewable energy subsectors, including offshore and onshore wind, solar and waste-to-energy.
Michael provides strategic advice to clients and helps clients progress their projects and investment strategies in renewables and the broader infrastructure sector.