Current practice
John is a partner in the Banking & Finance group, with a primary focus on financing of major projects, corporate restructuring and mezzanine and structured finance.
John has, for many years, been a key member of APLMA’s documentation committee and a strong advocate for the syndicated loan market in Australia. Notably, in this role, John negotiated through the Commonwealth Treasury last year a new syndicated loan exemption from interest withholding tax.
Experience
Since joining the firm, John has played a major role in some significant financing transactions, including a large number of high-profile privatisations and infrastructure projects, most recently in the renewable energy, transportation, telecommunications and media and gaming industries. Many of those projects relied upon complex cross border financings, which has become one of John’s specialties.
Similarly, John has been very active in supporting the turnaround and restructuring market in Australia, having worked on major corporate restructures in the United States and Europe during the past decade. John has also been involved in many of the recent significant administrations and informal workouts in Australia, as well as in developing innovative usages of mezzanine debt. In this regard, he chairs a New South Wales committee of the Turnaround Management Association of Australia.
John has represented borrower groups and lending institutions and advised on transactions on behalf of:
- Publishing and Broadcasting Limited
- Consolidated Press Holdings
- Hoyts
- Crown
- Telstra
- Rothschild
- Australia and New Zealand Bank
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- Fairfax Group
- Lend Lease
- Department of Defence, and
- Vodafone.
Professional background
John has a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours). In addition, he has had a number of articles published in both the
Australian Law Journal and the
Journal of Banking & Finance Law.
Prior to joining the firm, John was an associate to Justice Morling of the Federal Court of Australia and of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. In this context, John represented the government on a number of mining and major construction projects and acted for government ministers and departments before Senate committees and inquiries.
John also brings to our legal practice a background of experience in the high technology industry through his three years of postgraduate research in laser physics and its application to many new and developing technologies. Accordingly, John is an active proponent of the firm’s renewable energy and clean technology practice.
