Wotton + Kearney has expanded into its seventh city across Australia and New Zealand, with Financial Lines Partner Nick Lux to lead a team in a newly-opened Adelaide office and recruit new insurance lawyers.

Mr Lux will spend his time between Melbourne and the new operation at 89 Pirie Street in Adelaide, his home town.

Local Special Counsels Matthew Elson (General Liability) and Lani Carter (Financial Lines and Property & Energy), will join him. Ms Carter has joined from Sparke Helmore.

Chief Executive Partner David Kearney says they will provide valuable on-the-ground support for local insureds across all major product lines, and are to be shortly joined by other insurance lawyers as the law firm actively recruits.

“Our expansion into Adelaide will meet our increasing local client demand,” Mr Kearney said.

In January, former DLA lawyers Peter Leman, Caroline Laband and Misha Henaghan joined the New Zealand office, which now has 14 partners and over 80 staff. Wellington-based Joseph Fitzgerald was promoted to Partner in the Cyber, Privacy and Data Security team.

Wotton + Kearney now has more than 330 insurance lawyers, including 58 partners, across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Wellington and Auckland, and a presence in London and Singapore.