Leon Zwier is a corporate recovery services and litigation lawyer. He has been a partner of Arnold Bloch Leibler since 1991 and is head of the firm’s reconstruction & insolvency and litigation & dispute resolution practices.

Leon has acted as lead counsel in many of Australia’s largest and most complex reconstructions and insolvency workouts. He has advised and negotiated on behalf of major US and European enterprises with Australian interests across numerous industries in the resolution of complex cross-border reconstructions. He has acted for insolvency practitioners, lenders and companies in the ‘twilight zone’ of insolvency.

Leon has also been extensively involved in large, complicated and difficult commercial disputes. He has represented Slater & Gordon in its various legal disputes with British American Tobacco concerning the Estate of Rolah McCabe; Visy in relation to regulatory and class proceedings; and Patrick in relation to the hostile takeover by Toll. He has also successfully defended a number of high-profile Australian business leaders against allegations of ‘white-collar crimes’, including Trevor Kennedy in relation to the Offset Alpine investigation; and the late Richard Pratt in relation to criminal charges instigated by the ACCC.

Leon is regularly identified as a leading lawyer by various international guides to lawyers and legal firms, including: Asia Pacific Legal 500 (litigation and insolvency); Chambers Global (restructuring and insolvency); Euromoney's Who's Who? Legal (litigation, white-collar crime defence and insolvency); Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Litigation Lawyers, Asialaw Leading Lawyers (restructuring, insolvency & bankruptcy); IFLR 1000 (restructuring & insolvency; litigation); PLC Which Lawyer? (restructuring & insolvency); and PLC Cross-border Restructuring and Insolvency Handbook. Legal Profiles, an independent review of Australian legal firms, has described him as “the pre-eminent insolvency lawyer, achieving outstanding commercial solutions and providing strong, solid advice”. Leon was also identified as one of 13 leaders in global insolvency by leading US attorney Evan Flaschen from Bracewell & Giuliani in an article in Bankruptcy Law 360, because of his “ability to understand the more aggressive US approach and meld it with the Australian system".

Leon has unparalleled enthusiasm. His enjoyment of the practice of law is infectious, and it generates fresh thinking in colleagues and clients alike. He frequently presents to universities, professional bodies, large corporations, and members of the legal profession on aspects of litigation, and insolvency and reconstruction law. In 2007 Monash University appointed him an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Business Law and Taxation, Faculty of Business and Economics in recognition of his commitment and contribution to the Faculty.

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