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Overview

Understanding your business needs

We understand that when a business is in financial difficulty or fails for whatever reason, many complex and critical decisions need to be made by directors, financiers, professional advisors, creditors and equity investors. In many instances those decisions need to be made extremely quickly. The ramifications of those decisions can be very significant and impact on everyone involved in the business from the employees to the creditors, the bankers and the shareholders.

Freehills’ expertise covers the areas of:

This wide-ranging experience ensures clients receive prompt, relevant legal advice from lawyers who understand the commercial environment in which their clients operate and the commercial ramifications of their advice.

We regularly act for insolvency practitioners, the major Australian and foreign banks, national and multinational companies, creditors and foreign law firms advising on turnaround and insolvency related issues.

Our goal is to provide top quality, practical and commercially realistic legal advice to equip clients to deal with commercial pressures effectively.

At the forefront

Our team is at the forefront of changes in the legal framework in which our clients operate. Our work has involved representing clients in high-profile test cases including seeking judicial clarification from the High Court as to the status of shareholders’ rights in comparison to general unsecured creditors. We regularly create innovative and commercial solutions to meet our clients’ business needs. Freehills was one of the first firms to use the creditors’ trust concept to add value by enabling the sale of a corporate shell. We have also obtained court orders that have enabled our clients’ commercial requirements to be better met.

We received the award for ‘Best Insolvency Practice’ at the 2005 Australian Law Awards, and PLC Which Lawyer, an international legal directory, recently ranked the team as ‘leading’ in the Australian market—the highest ranking possible. In addition, international legal directory Asia Pacific Legal 500 reports that the team ‘is praised by clients for its timely and quality advice’.