Seasoned defamation lawyer joins Wotton + Kearney

In 2019, Leder was awarded a medal in the Order of Australia for contributing to the community, including his involvement with the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, which he chairs.

Richard Leder brings team to W + K

Leder will bring a team of six from Corrs Chambers Westgarth to the W + K Melbourne office:

Georgie Austin (partner);
Jacquie Goodwin (senior associate);
Blake Pappas (senior associate);
Simone Tagliaferro (senior associate);
Renata Romeo (associate); and
Karolyn Connelly (practice administrator).

The team’s partner, Austin, is an experienced disputes lawyer and sports lawyer who has advised on Royal Commissions and Inquiries and commercial disputes, including defamation matters. He has also served on several community and not-for-profit boards, most recently as a director of Gymnastics Victoria.

Commenting on his team’s move to W + K, Leder said: “We are delighted and excited to be joining Wotton + Kearney at a time when the firm’s growth strategy is really starting to accelerate. In particular, the opportunity to lead and grow the firm’s commercial disputes offering is one I am enormously looking forward to.”

“Wotton + Kearney has a first-class reputation for the respected and sensitive approach it adopts in the challenging area of institutional abuse claims. I know the firm will enthusiastically embrace the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne as a client to further enhance its reputation for this important legal work,” he continued. “Wotton + Kearney has a deep commitment to its clients and a strong and collaborative culture, which we are excited to become part of. Coupled with its well-established community and pro-bono work, it is a firm where I feel my team can make a valuable and lasting contribution.”

W + K’s commercial disputes offering continues to grow

W + K chief executive partner David Kearney welcomed Leder and his team to the firm, noting that the addition would contribute to the firm’s growing national commercial disputes offering.

“Our firm has built a very significant dispute resolution team across Australia and New Zealand off the back of strong support from the insurance industry. That support has led to an increasing number of relationships with corporations looking to better manage risk. A natural next step is to strengthen those relationships by building out our commercial disputes offering – particularly given the changing nature of risk transfer over the past few years,” he said.

“Under Richard’s leadership and with new partner Georgie Austin and the senior team adding to our bench strength, we look forward to providing our corporate clients with an exceptional commercial disputes offering.”

Leder and his team entered W + K after the firm made 29 promotions in Australia and New Zealand.