Now in its seventh year, the Women in Law Awards recognises and rewards women who have challenged, influenced or enhanced the practise of law in Australia over the last 12 months.
Gevevieve Sexton - Finalist for Dealmaker of the Year
This award recognises outstanding performance by a female partner/principal who has acted on one or more transactions over FY2018.
Genevieve has been the finance lead on a diverse set of complex, high stakes deals, each of which have involved ground-breaking approaches and intense media scrutiny.
Matters cited in Genevieve’s nomination included:
- advising Slater & Gordon in its landmark restructure, and the resolution of two of the largest class actions filed in Australia to date
- advising US hedge funds in the complex cross-border restructure of global drilling services contractor Boart Longyear’s various debt facilities and capital structure
- advising Nufarm Limited on its global financing arrangements, including the financing of its acquisition of a US$490 million portfolio of European crop protection products, and
- advising iconic Australian retailer OrotonGroup in negotiating to refinance the group’s debt and, following the OrotonGroup being placed into voluntary administration, advising the administrators.
Reflecting on the outcomes achieved for her clients, Genevieve explained that for Nufarm, the financings facilitated its growth into new businesses, and for Boart, the success for the clients was in the financial return they received.
“For Slaters and Oroton, the significance has been more elemental - both of these high profile companies have survived major, “life threatening” disruption, and continue to exist.
“In the case of Boart, Slaters and Oroton, failure would have devastated the lives and livelihoods of a large number of people. The human significance of these outcomes is impossible to calculate but critically important.”
Christine Fleer - Finalist for Partner of the Year
This award recognises outstanding performance by a female partner within a private practice law firm over FY2018.
In FY2018, Christine advised the founders of CrownBet (now BetEasy) on a series of milestone transactions, resulting in Canadian listed company The Stars Group acquiring 80% of BetEasy and BetEasy acquiring all of William Hill Australia.
Christine also led the commercial team assembled at Arnold Bloch Leibler to advise administrators KordaMentha in the historic and complex sale of Arrium Australia as a going concern (the entire insolvency process of which was also run by Arnold Bloch Leibler).
The winners of this year’s Women in Law Awards will be announced on Thursday, 22 November.
