Jones Day has added five partners across five practice areas in Australia, extending an expansion strategy that has increased the firm’s Australian lawyer headcount from about 90 to 120 since mid-2024.
The new partners are Dylan McKimmie in Global Disputes in Brisbane and Leigh De Jong, Christopher Flynn, Lance Sacks and Ken Saurajen in Sydney.
De Jong joins the Financial Markets and Real Estate practices, Flynn joins the Energy practice, Sacks joins Corporate, and Saurajen joins Intellectual Property.
With the appointments, Jones Day has added 10 lateral partners in Australia during 2026 and 18 lateral partners since launching its Australian growth strategy in mid-2024.
The firm’s expansion has focused on areas including cross-border corporate transactions, energy and infrastructure, litigation and international arbitration, real estate development and investment, and intellectual property.
De Jong advises financiers, borrowers, private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds and corporate clients on real estate and corporate finance transactions. His recent work includes advising on more than $10 billion of debt facilities for a global private equity firm and multiple REIT take-private transactions exceeding $5 billion.
Flynn focuses on energy and infrastructure transactions, M&A, project development and cross-border ventures. He has worked on matters across more than 60 countries, including an $18 billion bid for an Australian integrated energy company and a $2.2 billion acquisition of LNG assets.
McKimmie’s practice covers major resource and infrastructure disputes, commercial litigation, construction disputes and international arbitration.
Sacks advises clients on M&A, private equity investments and capital raisings across technology, financial services, consumer and energy markets.
Saurajen focuses on technology, media and telecommunications transactions and major technology and infrastructure projects. His work has included Australia’s first general banking ledger migration to the cloud and a $1.2 billion project integrating Australia’s civil and military air traffic control systems.
Jones Day has approximately 2,500 lawyers across 40 offices on five continents.
KEY QUOTES:
“These five partners bring additional elite talent to a market that matters deeply to our clients around the world. Australia is a leading market for sophisticated companies in the energy and resources, technology, financial, health care and consumer products sectors.”
Chris Lovrien, Partner-in-Charge of Australia at Jones Day
