Alumni News

Congratulations to Amy Wei (Sydney Real Estate Lawyer until 2016) who has recently been promoted to Chief Counsel, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa at Levi Strauss & Co. Since leaving Ashurst, Amy has held Counsel roles at Logos Property Australia, Goodman Fielder and Sephora before joining Levi Strauss & Co as head of Legal East Asia Pacific in April 2021.

Congratulations to Stephanie Watson (London Associate until November 2021) who has recently been promoted to the role of Relationship Director, Corporate Banking at HSBC. Stephanie moves into this role from her former position as Associate Director, Transaction Management, Structured Finance.

Megan Trethowan (Melbourne Senior Associate until 2017) recently joined Australian consumer electronics company JB Hi-Fi as Senior Corporate Counsel. Megan has enjoyed a varied career since leaving Ashurst and joins JB Hi-Fi from paper and packaging solutions company Opal, where she served as Company Secretary and Senior Legal Counsel.

Last August we shared the news that former Ashurst partner and Board member María José Menéndez had published her second novel Juegos Malabares. We are now delighted to share that the novel has been translated to English. Juggling Games is available for purchase on Amazon.

Ashurst's Miriam Kleiner, Emilie Maddox and Madelene Mulholland welcomed in-house counsel alumni to a CPD lunch, learn and networking event in May. The session delved into the latest corporate governance developments, the potential impacts of the proposed Personal Property Securities reforms and the newly legislated right to disconnect, whilst also providing an opportunity for alumni to reconnect with familiar faces.

Please email alumni@ashurst.com to register your interest in future Corporate Connections events.

It was wonderful to welcome back friends and former colleagues at our very first Hong Kong Alumni reunion event on Thursday 13 June.

Sign up to our alumni programme to receive reunion invitations.

We are saddened to announce the passing of Jack Amos, a former partner in our London office and the founder of our Tax department. Jack was a brilliant and influential tax lawyer, who also advised on some of the most complex and high-profile transactions of his time. He was a valued colleague and a friend to many, who will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Former London partner John Watson remembers Jack below:

Jack Amos, who died on 4th June, was the founder of the Ashurst (then Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co) tax department. Before his arrival in the late 70s tax advice had been given perfectly competently by commercial partners, particularly by Martin Bell, but that was becoming less viable as the tax rules became more complex. Fiercely intelligent, with an Oxford scholarship and a period as a Financial Times journalist behind him, Jack was quick to make an impression both on the firm and on the tax world as a whole.

Jack’s abilities meant that he was much more than a tax lawyer. He orchestrated the advice on the breakup of the trust which controlled Reuters. Many of his clients relied on him for commercial as well as tax advice. All in all, he was an essential part of the firm’s intellectual firepower.

Jack always saw to the centre of problems and addressed them with a northern common sense which ran through his dealings with his colleagues. I remember him telling me how to handle all-night meetings:

“The thing to remember, John, is that if a deal is to be announced when the stock exchange opens no one will ever agree anything before 6 am and tax is usually last on the agenda. So, slip out of the room about midnight and have a good sleep in an armchair. If you come back about five no one will have any appetite for resisting your points.”

Pure Amos. Practical, clear, and sensible, and a very nice man too.