Gilbert + Tobin has boosted its Melbourne presence with the signing of one of Australia’s top infrastructure finance lawyers, Nicholas Grambas. Grambas has joined G+T from Baker & McKenzie, where he headed up the firm’s banking & finance group.
Gilbert + Tobin has been in expansion mode lately, staffing its new office in Melbourne. In the last few months, the firm has added six new partners – three of whom are based in the Melbourne office.
“What we want to do in Melbourne is build a first-tier corporate practice,” managing partner Danny Gilbert said. “That does not mean replicating all of the offerings of G+T in Sydney but it does mean attracting the absolute leaders of practice areas in which this firm specialises.”
Gilbert said that the firm had not been approaching top talent but had been fielding calls from people interested in the firm now that it has a Melbourne presence. The new office was possible because of G+T’s relationship with Telstra, he said.
“We have a growing relationship with Telstra and many of the people from Telstra we work with are Melbourne-based, so we’re currently spearheading it on the back of a cornerstone client,” Gilbert said. “I always felt that there would be the opportunity for us to do something in Melbourne at some point. I didn’t know when it might arise but the opportunity with Telstra has really crystallised our ambitions in Melbourne.”
Gilbert said Grambas will work closely with John Schrembi in Sydney and that the two of them together make a formidable banking & finance team. “We now have in the firm two of the country’s leading banking & finance partners,” he said.
Prior to joining Baker & McKenzie, Grambas had an international career spanning both the legal and investment banking sectors. He joined Baker & McKenzie from Macquarie Group, where he was an executive director and head of Macquarie Capital Funds (Middle East) based in Abu Dhabi.
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