What the team is known for
Hamilton Locke fields a versatile practice, acting on a broad spectrum of formal and informal restructuring issues. Represents a range of clients including appointees, corporate borrowers and creditors. Advises on receiverships, administrations, liquidations and workouts, with noted experience in advising individual directors on liability and contentious issues. Key clients include Deloitte, FTI Consulting and PwC.
Strengths
One client describes Hamilton Locke as "a boutique domestic firm with high-calibre individuals that's on a great trajectory," adding: "I like their commerciality and pragmatism; they take a stance and don't sit on the fence."
Another client reports: "Unlike lawyers who only focus on legal documentation, Hamilton Locke also provide pragmatic solutions to their clients. They first understand your intention and the outcome that you want to achieve, then think things through with you to find the best solution. Their capacity for providing solutions that fit the client's need is unique."
Work highlights
Hamilton Locke advised Macquarie Bank concerning its exposure in connection with assets leased to Virgin Australia prior to the airline going into administration.
Notable practitioners
Nick Edwards maintains a broad restructuring and insolvency practice from the Sydney office, tackling both contentious and non-contentious mandates for creditors, debtors, insolvency practitioners and individual executives and handling issues arising from sectors as diverse as those of fashion, resources and the media. He is the recipient of extensive and positive feedback from clients, who characterise him as a
"pragmatic and very responsive lawyer" who
"can understand what the client needs and provide a tailor-made solution" and
"doesn't take long to get towards an outcome." Zina Edwards is based in Sydney and brings to her principally restructuring-focused practice extensive international experience in advising an impressive variety of financial services providers and non-bank lenders on restructurings, turnarounds and portfolio sales. She is described by one client as a
"highly commercial lawyer who approaches problems with a view to finding solutions" and by another as a practitioner who is
"very well connected and respected in her field and delivers fantastic and unique outcomes."