Hogan Lovells is launching in Australia with a husband and wife team who will work 2,000 miles apart on opposite sides of the country.

Nicky Lester has been recruited as a partner to set up an office in Sydney on the east coast, while her husband Tim, who was once HogLove's Tokyo head, will do the same in Perth. The pair currently work in the two different cities for Allens, Linklaters' alliance partner, so they should be used to Skype and a five hour flight between them. Though having the weight of HogLove's desire to crack the Australian market on their shoulders isn't going to make date night easier.


 How it might look 
 

Hogan Lovells' two-person launch looks like very small beer compared to the huge entrances favoured by UK firms Herbert Smith, which merged with Freehills, and Ashurst, which merged with Blake Dawson. But Hogan Lovells CEO Steve Immelt said that hiring just "two partners at the top of their game" would count in the firm's favour by allowing it to "focus precisely on practice areas that matter" without "acquiring a disproportionately large presence". Although until the Lesters poach some staff, their disproportionately small presence presumably means that the entire Australian operation will shut down whenever they go on holiday.

Immelt predicted that the Asian market would grow at "two or three times the pace of the developed world" over the next few years. He said that Hogan Lovells was "now in an even stronger position" to take advantage, and to really stress-test a long-distance relationship.
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