Profile

Overview

Allan is an experienced finance and banking lawyer.

For a number of years, Allan was Head of Legal in Australia for the major French bank Société Générale (SG). Subsequently Allan outsourced as sole legal adviser to SG’s equipment leasing division. Allan then went into private practice with one of Sydney’s oldest firms, Pigott Stinson.

Since leaving SG Allan has built up a varied finance and business law practice acting for both commercial and private clients.
Allan also advises on the resolution of corporate and business disputes in these areas, up to the pre-litigation (court) stage.

Areas of expertise

Finance & Banking

Allan has been engaged on numerous loan transactions for either the lender or the borrower. Often those transactions included the giving or taking of security, such as a mortgage over land, a lease of business equipment or a charge over a company.

Allan’s clients have included banks, finance companies, investors, private lenders and SMEs. In the banking sphere Allan advised an Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution with regard to the internal authorisations and directors’ resolutions required for a capital restructure.

A major focus of Allan’s expertise is in the area of asset-based-finance, equipment leasing and other kinds of secured transactions: These have:

been for both private and public entities,
Involved either a principal funder or wholesale borrower,
involved IT hardware, software and service contracts, as well as mining equipment, office goods and motor vehicles, and
been implemented by limited recourse loans, principal & agent agreements, master rental programs, sales of receivables/factoring transactions, and other funding techniques.

Allan’s overall finance and banking expertise includes perfecting security under the Personal Property Securities Act (“PPSA”). He has also had experience advising on international trade transactions, and on short term money market instruments and foreign exchange products commonly found in the bank dealing room environment..

Commercial and Business Law

Allan’s commercial and business service offerings include acting on the sale and purchase of companies, shares and businesses, drawing up contracts for shareholder, joint venture and supply agreements, advising on related aspects of trust law.

Allan has also acted for a wide variety of registered clubs and other Not-For Profit entities on their commercial contracts and constitutional matters. Allan has advised on the Registered Clubs Act and on transfers of poker or gaming machine entitlements (‘PMEs’).

Corporate Dispute Resolution

Allan has conducted negotiations and settlements of shareholder and inter-corporate disagreements and disputes. Allan has also advised clients in more formal mediation conferences involving not just the disputing parties but impartial mediators. Allan’s dispute resolutions skills extend over the entirety of the pre-litigation stage up to the commencement of court proceedings.

Key Achievements

Select examples of Allan’s finance experience include:

Limited recourse loan facilities for various wholesale borrowers and various unlisted financiers, and in which financing sector SG Equipment Finance became a market leader
Large scale asset financing programs for various items of business equipment for computer vendors
Multi-million US dollar secured loan facility for mining equipment supplied to overseas mines
Cross-border wholesale funding lines to New Zealand-based financiers
Motor vehicle master operating lease facility between Australia and New Zealand

Recognition

Allan was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com) and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of New South Wales in 1978 and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) in 1986. Allan became a Fellow of the Securities Institute of Australia in 1989.

In 1996 Allan was awarded the annual prize from the Australasian Banking Law Association for his research paper on the investment powers of superannuation fund trustees.