DLA Piper welcomes James Nicholls as new lateral partner

Global law firm DLA Piper has boosted its Perth team by appointing mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and ECM corporate specialist James Nicholls as a new lateral partner.

Nicholls is a member of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and co-founded the UWA Law School's Mergers & Acquisitions course and the Corporate Control Forum.

He joins DLA Piper from Allen & Overy, where he served as special counsel specialising in M&A and corporate law, ECM transactions, and head office regulatory advice. He also helped domestic and foreign companies implement inorganic value solutions, predominantly in the energy and resources sector.

Nicholls had been involved in many “market firsts” throughout his career, including:

• First equity raising funded acquisition via a pre-packed DOCA (Pilbara Minerals' acquisition of Altura's lithium project);
• First offer of an ASX listed debt CVR (Oil Search’s proposed acquisition of InterOil);
• First reverse takeover under the new ASX listing rules (Intrepid's acquisition of AIC Resources);
• First public company takeover via DOCA (Seven Group's acquisition of Nexus Energy);
• Expansion of the Takeovers Panel's anti-coercion doctrine (Atlas Iron; 2018); Alto Metals; 2020); and
• Delineation of the “policy of certainty” under section 629 of the Corporations Act (NGM Resources; 2010).

Grant Koch, the head of corporate in Australia at DLA Piper, said Nicholls provides additional on-the-ground capability for the firm's Perth corporate practice while further strengthening its public market capability nationally.

“We are delighted to have James join the Australian Corporate Group. James is a first-class lawyer with an exceptional track record, both in the energy and natural resources sector and, more broadly, having worked on a number of the leading M&A transactions in Australia over the last few years.  DLA Piper continues to win an increasing number of mandates for major public markets transaction in Australia,” Koch said.

DLA Piper global co-chair of energy and natural resources Alex Jones added: “DLA Piper is continuing to invest globally in the energy & natural resources sector. James Nichols complements our strong sector offering in the Perth office. It is an exciting time in the sector, with strong commodity prices driving the domestic local mining industry and energy transition delivering new work-streams.”