Professions

Professional services company Deloitte has recorded a 15 per cent rise in national revenue for the 2018 financial year, including improved activity in Western Australia after four tough years.

Engineering and resources sector executive Simon High has taken a new role as Western Australia area director at international insurance broker Gallagher.

Perth-based Strategic Human Resources has agreed to a merger of equals with Brisbane employment company Livingstones.

Belmont-based Industrial Recruitment Partners, Mills Resources and LNG Recruitment are among a panel of companies selected as preferred suppliers for recruitment services by the WA Local Government Association.

Law firm Squire Patton Boggs is sharpening its Asian engagement strategy, with former Lavan partner Tony Chong appointed to head its Asia desk in June.

Accounting firm RSM and Bunbury-based consultancy IPS have won the lion’s share of work under a new round of state government contracts to deliver the Business Local support program across regional Western Australia.

Oil prices fell on Friday, but Brent crude marked its sixth straight week of gains, boosted by plummeting Venezuelan production, strong global demand and looming US sanctions on Iran.

Former Rising Stars award winner Harrier Human Capital has continued its rapid national expansion, winning a $15 million recruitment contract with AGL Energy.

More women than men are being appointed to the boards of Australia's top 200 companies for the first time on record.

Barrister John Vaughan has been appointed a judge of the WA Supreme Court, filling the vacancy left by the resignation of Justice Peter Martino.

The state government has recruited Canberra-based Caroline Spencer to be the state’s next auditor general, three years after she was appointed to review the performance of incumbent Colin Murphy.

SPECIAL REPORT: There has been a flurry of high-profile moves by senior lawyers in Perth as the sector readies for a pick-up from several quiet years.

SPECIAL REPORT: Technology and a greater emphasis on strategic advice are how one local accounting franchise hopes to brace for changes in the professional services sector.

The funeral industry in WA is increasingly dominated by a handful of big players, including two listed companies that hold more than 50 per cent of the market after buying some of the state’s oldest operators.

John Poulsen, who has been a prominent fixture in Perth’s legal scene for many years, is planning to retire from his current role and seek chief executive opportunities.

SPECIAL REPORT: Western Australian businesses participated in nearly 200 corporate finance transactions in the September quarter collectively worth $4.8 billion, research by Business News has found.

Litigation funder IMF Bentham has committed $30 million towards two new investment vehicles, which will have a combined pool of $150 million.

The Insurance Commission of Western Australia increased spending on the Bell Group litigation to $9.6 million last financial year, while also revealing in its annual report it has applied to the Supreme Court for a single trial to cover all related matters.

It was 20 years’ ago this month that Perth’s two largest law firms surprised the business community by merging their operations. Herbert Smith Freehills hosted many of the 50-plus partners who were there at the time to mark the occasion.

The founders of four Western Australian businesses, in industries ranging from mining software and horticulture to construction and industrial equipment, have been selected as finalists in the 2017 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year awards.

The Supreme Court has ordered privately owned mining company Global Advanced Metals to open its books to a minority shareholder, despite the shareholder being a competitor, a litigation adversary in the US, and having a chief executive who was found to have carelessly handled confidential information supplied earlier this year.

PSC Insurance Group has bought National Franchise Insurance Brokers in a deal worth up to $1.2 million, two months after the Subiaco-based firm was placed into administration.

RCR Tomlinson has lost the latest round in a long-running legal action against a former executive who was dismissed in 2009, and will pay nearly $300,000 in retirement benefits after the company's appeal failed.

West Perth law firm HHG Legal Group has bolstered its leadership team by recruiting Lavan executive chairman Greg Gaunt, who expects the move will rejuvenate his career.

Law firm Gilbert + Tobin was so pleased with the fit-out when it moved into its new Sydney offices last year, it decided to borrow heavily from those plans when it shifted to new premises in Perth.

As the big accounting firms in Australia move to build up their legal practices, law firm Clayton Utz is pushing back, setting up its own forensics and technology services practice.

PeopleSense started as a three-person operation servicing the local market, but has grown into a large organisational consultancy firm with 100-plus staff and a national presence. 

The boss of beleaguered law firm Slater & Gordon has quit and the board will be cleaned out under a shake-up that passes almost full ownership of the company to its lenders.

Alison Kitchen will become the first woman in Australia to chair a big four professional services firm when she takes on the role at KPMG Australia later this year.

Communications consultancy Cannings Purple has recruited former Deloitte chairman Keith Jones to succeed Norman Moore when he steps down as chair next month.

The founder of Perth-based lobbying firm GRA Everingham has been named the next chief executive of Marketforce, succeeding John Driscoll, who has announced his retirement today.

Professional services firm Deloitte has posted a 15 per cent increase in revenue for the 12 months to May, as strong performance in its east coast operations offset challenging conditions in Western Australia.