Jones Day has hired a new corporate partner in Sydney to lead the firm’s Australian M&A practice.

Mark Crean joins the firm from Herbert Smith Freehills where he was deputy senior partner.

“Mark brings strong M&A experience to our transactional team in Australia,” says Chris Ahern, Jones Day's partner-in-charge of Australia and Japan. “He is known and respected throughout the profession for his leadership skills, commercial acumen and ability to execute on complicated cross border transactions.”

Crean was head of Freehills corporate practice for six years, and was the firm’s chairman just before its 2012 merger with Herbert Smith. He is focused on mergers and acquisitions and private equity. Recent work examples include acting for Pepper Group on its Australian Securities Exchange listing, and acting for the Macquarie Bank and Pepper Group consortium on its bid for GE’s consumer finance business.

Jones Day has been in Australia since 1998 and advises domestic and international clients in a range of industry sectors, including financial services, energy and resources, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.