James Smorthwaite joined WTW in Perth in 2025 as an associate director in the M&A practice, specialising in warranty and indemnity insurance for mergers and acquisitions.
Mr Smorthwaite has experience in negotiating and advising corporate and private equity deal parties on M&A transactional risk, for processes across Australia and New Zealand. He has placed transactional risk insurance solutions for some of Australia’s largest and most complex transactions, with enterprise values ranging from $5m to greater than $3bn, and across multiple industry sectors including mining/industrial services, renewable energy, technology, and infrastructure.
Mr Smorthwaite has more than 10 years of experience working for global law firms and insurance broking firms, in both Sydney and Perth. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) from King’s College London, and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Western Australia. Mr Smorthwaite has been admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of WA.
