Richard Johnson
|Special Counsel

Richard is a Special Counsel in Minter Ellison's Perth office and has practiced in the Restructuring and Insolvency team since 2003.

Richard regularly acts for major financial institutions and many of Australia’s leading insolvency practitioners in relation to all aspects of corporate insolvency and restructuring including receivership, voluntary administration, deed of company arrangement and liquidation.

In addition to his expertise in relation to formal corporate insolvency, Richard has significant experience in financial restructuring and using informal mechanisms to provide businesses with the opportunity to achieve a turnaround or address an unsustainable debt structure, and creditors with the opportunity to improve their position by informal means.

Richard also has considerable experience providing advice to directors in relation to turnaround management, crisis stabilisation, distressed disposals and acquisitions, stakeholder management and financial restructuring matters (including creditor negotiation, refinancing, capital injections and standstill agreements and moratoria).

Richard’s practice is primarily advisory and transactional in nature and he regularly works on business, asset and debt sales and purchases where the vendor is distressed or subject to control by an insolvency practitioner. He also negotiates, drafts and advises on many forms of commercial contract including asset, business and land sale and acquisition agreements, finance and security agreements, variation agreements, heads of agreement, assignment agreements and many other commercial agreements.

Richard is also experienced in the conduct of banking, financial and insolvency dispute resolution and regularly advises clients in relation to such matters.

Richard's clients include National Australia Bank Limited, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bank of Western Australia Ltd, Westpac Banking Corporation, ANZ, St George Bank, Deloitte, Ferrier Hodgson, KordaMentha, McGrathNicol, PPB, Pitcher Partners, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Taylor Woodings, Moore Stephens and Crowe Horwath.

Richard has published a number of refereed papers in relation to insolvency and financial restructuring issues and is a regular speaker at conferences and industry events in relation to insolvency and restructuring matters.

Richard is an active member of several professional associations and specialist committees, including the Law Society of WA, the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, Chartered Secretaries Australia and the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Australia. Richard also sits on the Law Council of Australia’s Insolvency and Reconstruction Committee (Perth branch) and has been the Unit Co-ordinator for the Insolvency Law program (LW312/512) at the University of Notre Dame Australia since June 2009. Richard was appointed as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer by the University of Notre Dame Australia on 28 June 2010.

Expertise

Professional Background

Publications & Media

Areas of expertise include:

Corporate Governance

Richard has considerable experience providing advice to directors on insolvency-related matters, devising and implementing workout plans — including insolvent trading, standstill agreements and other arrangements to support restructures and turnaround plans, breach of statutory directors' duties and personal liability for various company taxes.
Creditor Rights

Richard also acts on behalf of creditors whose interests are adversely affected by the insolvency of a customer or counterparty. He has experience in drafting terms and conditions for suppliers that maximise their rights when a customer becomes insolvent (through retention of title, PPSA compliant security mechanisms or indemnities) and advising on other forms of credit risk reduction and management.
Distressed Disposals and Acquisitions

Richard has worked on a number of asset and debt sales and purchases where the vendor is distressed or subject to control by an insolvency practitioner.
Restructuring and Insolvency

Richard regularly acts for major financial institutions in relation to all aspects of corporate insolvency and restructuring including receivership, voluntary administration, deed of company arrangement and liquidation. Richard also acts for insolvency practitioners who accept appointments as receivers and managers, administrators and liquidators.
Security Reviews and Enforcement
Regularly acts for major financial institutions on creditor rights, security validity and enforcement issues and general banking matters. This entails:
the preparation of security reviews;
the provision of advice in relation to all aspects of securities law and enforcement;
the provision of advice in relation to priority issues, tacking, security enforcement, contracts of guarantee and indemnity, the consumer credit code, lender liability, set off, rights of contribution and subrogation, contingent liabilities, bank and performance guarantees, disposal of real property and other assets, and the assessment of competing legal and equitable priority issues; and
the negotiating and drafting of a range of documents including loan agreements, securities, guarantee and indemnity documents, powers of attorney, deeds of variation, 'standstill' agreements, licence agreements, deeds of assignment, confidentiality agreements, deeds of release and settlement, trust deeds, acknowledgments of debt, option agreements, deeds of novation and set-off agreements.
Turnarounds and Workouts

Richard has significant experience in using informal mechanisms to provide businesses with the opportunity to achieve a turnaround or address an unsustainable debt structure, and creditors with the opportunity to improve their position by informal means.