Minter Ellison is pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Stewart, who joins the firm today in Perth as a partner and head of the Dispute Resolution practice in Western Australia.

Mr Stewart is regarded as one of Western Australia's leading commercial litigators, with a track record of notable casework over more than 30 years particularly in large mining, resources and energy, and infrastructure sector disputes for global and national resources and oil & gas companies.

His dispute resolution experience includes running large and significant ICC and ICSID arbitrations in Australia and across the Asia Pacific for international and Asian-based clients.

Minter Ellison's Managing Partner Western Australia, Adam Handley, said Mr Stewart's appointment marks another significant milestone in the firm's strategy of delivering top tier, internationally-focused, pan-Asian legal services to clients operating in Western Australia and Asia.

"Since opening our doors in Perth in 2011, we've focused on getting the right talent and mix of capabilities in this office to deliver on our vision to be our clients' best partner.

"Earlier this year, Will Harrison joined us (from DLA Hong Kong) to spearhead the growth of our regional insurance offering. We promoted property and major projects specialist Lee Rossetto to the partnership, and competition specialist Matt Knox's brought his experience in heavily regulated industries to complement our existing practice strengths in Perth," Mr Handley said.

Mr Stewart will lead the Perth Disputes Resolution team, which includes two partners – insolvency and restructuring specialist Leith Ayres, and disputes partner Mike Hales.

Throughout Australia and Asia, Minter Ellison boasts a strong dispute resolution team of 200-plus professionals, including more than 50 partners, who handle large, complex commercial litigation, domestic and international arbitrations, class actions, investigations by regulators, and other government inquiries.

"We're delighted to welcome a partner of Kevin's calibre to our national Dispute Resolution team and to lead the practice in Perth," Ross Freeman, head of Minter Ellison's Dispute Resolution Division, said. "His broad sector experience and expertise across resources and infrastructure is particularly valuable at this time in Western Australia, with significant structural change in the local economy driven by the end of the mining boom.

"His international disputes work also provides an exciting growth opportunity for the team in Perth, given that market's proximity to Asia's arbitration centres."

Mr Stewart is a former partner of Lavan Legal – where he held the position of Senior Partner, Commercial Litigation – and before that was the founder and the principal of a leading boutique disputes firm, Maxim Litigation Consultants.

He holds a B.Juris and LL.B. from the University of Western Australia.