On 14 November 2022, Wotton Kearney acquired Ball + Partners, a boutique health law firm based in Melbourne. Ball + Partners is recognised by Doyles as the only First Tier medical negligence and malpractice law firm in Victoria, with its partners also being the only individuals in Victoria to achieve a preeminent ranking.

As part of that move, we welcome four new partners to our growing health team – Lara Larking, John Arranga, Andrew Smith and Russell Ball.

Our existing healthcare team, including partners Chris Spain, Marie-Clare Elder and Claudine Watson-Kyme, has already created something genuinely different for the market in terms of price, service delivery and approach to claims management. With the Ball + Partners team joining Wotton Kearney, we are delighted to now offer an even broader healthcare and medical defence capability, with 11 specialist partners located across our regional practice.

About our new partners

• Russell Ball has represented medical practitioners and other health professionals in all areas of health law in all jurisdictions for 46 years. This includes disciplinary, health and performance investigations by the Medical Board of Australia and AHPRA, Medicare investigations, audits and prosecutions, Professional Services Review, WorkSafe and TAC audits, and disputes between practitioners and hospitals.
• Lara Larking has dedicated her career to servicing the health sector. For many years, at the request of the VMIA, she acted for Victorian public hospitals and their employees. She then spent seven years with Avant (and for MDAV before its merger with UMP to form Avant), representing its members in all jurisdictions. For the last decade, she has been recognised by Best Lawyers Australia for medical negligence.
• John Arranga is an experienced and respected health and legal professional with degrees in medicine, law and risk management. He has worked in medical indemnity as a lawyer, claims manager and as a senior executive within Avant for 12 years, where he headed Medical Defence Services for Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT.
• Andrew Smith has over 20 years’ experience in assisting doctors in a variety of forums, including claims for negligence, the Coroners Court, AHPRA, Medicare, Drugs & Poisons Regulation, the Fair Work Commission, disputes with training colleges, hospitals and WorkSafe. For the past four years, he has been recognised by Best Lawyers Australia for medical negligence.

This market-shaping news is another chapter in the firm’s rapid growth story over the past few years. With the new team’s arrival, Wotton Kearney will have 66 partners and over 460 staff across its nine offices in Australia and New Zealand.

We warmly welcome Lara, John, Andrew, Russell and their team to Wotton Kearney and are excited about the value our expanded team will create for our healthcare clients as we meet their immediate and future needs.