Australian firm Moulis Legal has appointed Zarmina Nasir as its new chief executive officer, replacing Suzanne Moulis who is stepping down from the role but will remain at the firm as a board director.

Nasir brings with her more than 20 years of leadership and governance experience to the highly regarded Australian practice, most recently in director and advisory roles, including as a senior adviser to Communication Link and as gender norms director at Investing in Women, a programme set up by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She will be tasked with advancing Moulis Legal’s service delivery and helping navigate regulatory change and other global challenges.

Daniel Moulis, founder and partner director of Moulis Legal, said: “We are delighted to welcome such a highly accomplished and distinguished leader to Moulis Legal. Our clients, our people and the firm as whole will benefit greatly from Ms Nasir’s understanding of global issues and regulatory landscapes, as well as her partnership management, policy and strategy development experience.”

Moulis Legal has offices in Canberra, Brisbane, and Melbourne and is best known for its trade law expertise but also advises in the fields of public and administrative law, competition and consumer law, dispute resolution, intellectual property, technology law and general commercial law.

Nasir spent just over four years as a senior adviser at Communication Link and two-and-a-half years at Investing in Women. Before that she was a director in the Department for Social Services, overseeing place based engagement, a director at Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) and a senior consultant at GHD overseeing community engagement and stakeholder management.

She said: “It’s a privilege to join this progressive national and international legal practice, which has such broad reach and cross-border impact. I hope to expand on the firm’s successes and usher Moulis Legal into its next business evolution.”

Suzanne Moulis had been CEO since 2015, helping diversify and scale the business. She said she was stepping away to create opportunity for new blood to continue Moulis Legal’s story into the future. In addition to staying on as a director, she has also taken on a new role as chief operating officer at GoSource, a digital transformation consultancy. Prior to joining Moulis Legal, she also worked at GHD and previously had administration and business development roles at Deloitte and legacy firms Blake Dawson and Freehills.

Elsewhere in Australia, litigation funder Omni Bridgeway’s Asia-Pacific co-managing director Oliver Gaynor this week quit the firm to join Sydney-based disputes boutique William Roberts Lawyers, returning to practice after a decade in various senior litigation funding roles.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s Sydney office also this month added a senior projects and construction team from Clyde & Co, including Glen Warwick, who returns to NRF for a third time.

Meanwhile, a Clyde & Co spokesperson has confirmed that 10 non-partner fee earners had left the firm in Australia following a review. Lawyers Weekly also reported that Norton Rose Fulbright had confirmed that it had made a “small number” of redundancies across the country.