Lee Pascoe
Special Counsel
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
Related services and key industries
Biography
Lee Pascoe is a commercial dispute resolution and restructuring/insolvency lawyer based in Melbourne.
She has extensive experience in private legal practice as well as advocacy experience from her period as a barrister at the Victorian Bar.
Lee has acted on many aspects of the collapse of some of Australia's largest corporations including undertaking the necessary litigation arising from those appointments in industries as diverse as financial services, retail, construction, commercial and residential property development, agribusiness and transport, travel and tourism. She has also acted for many of Australia's first-tier lenders in secured and unsecured debt recoveries.
Lee's insolvency and restructuring experience extends to all aspect of corporate insolvency, cross border insolvency and security enforcement. She has particular expertise in acting with respect to corporate groups in both insolvency appointments and advising on restructuring. She has acted for various financiers, corporate clients and insolvency professionals in Australia, Europe, the United States of America and Asia.
Lee is also an experienced litigator and undertakes litigation in all insolvency related applications and proceedings togehter with undertaking litigation in Competition and Consumer Law claims, breach of contract claims, breach of directors' duties claims and shareholder disputes. Lee has particular skill in managing complex multi party disputes with "many moving parts" and involving numerous stakeholders.
Lee also has a particular interest in fintech, cryptocurrency and digital currencies and has spoken and written expetensively on the issues associated with digital assets forming part of insolvency appointments. She is a Fellow of INSOL International, is the Virtual Assets Officer for the Insolvency Division of the IBA and is invovled in the Legal Tech & Digital Assets wing of INSOL Europe.
Professional experience
Collapse all- Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Deakin University, 1999
- ARITA Insolvency Education Program, QUT, 2008
- Certificate of European Union Law, Tulane University, 2010
- Master of Laws (International and Comparative Law), Monash University, 2011
- INSOL International, Global Insolvency Practice Program, 2011
- Master of Law/LLM, European Law and Policies, School of Law and Government, LUISS Guido Carli University (graduating class January 2023)
- High Court of Australia 2000
- Supreme Court of Victoria 2000
- ABD Group - ongoing appointment acting on behalf of the receivers and managers of the ABD Group including in relation to seeking recoveries of security and with respecct to recovery of progress payments (construction industry).
- Grocon Group - ongoing appointment acting on behalf of the administrators of the Grocon Group (in excess of 110 construction companies) in multiple applications involving adapations of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to accomodate for meetings of creditors during the periods of the Covid lockdown, seeking novel orders in relation to, amongst other things, the operation of a group treasury company and pooled committees of inspection.
- SWC Group - ongoing appointment to act on behalf of the liquidators of the SWC Group including with respect to securing pooling orders and undertaking a signficant debt recovery project for unpaid progress payments across numerous construction sites across multiple jursidictions.
- Axsesstoday Group - acting on behalf of the administrators in relation to all aspects of the adminstration of a publicly listed fintech lender including with respect to bondholders rights, sydnicated loans, entry into a deed of company arrangement and creditors' trust, employment law claims and a class action.
- SKM Group - acting on behalf of a top 4 lender in a significant sale of debt (and partial receivership) of one of Australia's largest waste disposal businesses.
- Advising the Australian directors of a child seat manufacturing group based in the UK, Germany, the US, Hong Kong and Australia on a potential restructuring.
- Advising an Australian top 4 lender on the refinace of a car park operator with in excess of 300 sites in Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.
- Timbercorp Finance Ltd (In Liq) - acting on behalf of the liquidators of Timbercorp Finance Limited, KordaMentha, in managing the prosecution of approximately 1300 simultaneous proceedings seeking recovery of AU$550 million loan book from investors of a failed managed investment scheme and defending various counterclaims raising issues of Australian Consumer Law misleading and deceptive conduct, breach of contract, breach of trust and breaches of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and ASIC Act 2001 (Cth).
- Scotchmans Hill Group - acting on behalf of the liquidators, Ferrier Hodgson, in various aspects of the winding up of the Scotchmans Hill group of companies including prosecuting numerous complicated preference claims and advising on claims associated with priority of securities, breaches of directors' duties and breaches of duty owed by third parties.
- Environinvest Group and Timbercorp Group - acting for the relevant insolvency professionals in various proceedings and applications in relation to the winding up and distribution of assets of agricultural managed investment schemes including defending claims of misleading and deceptive conduct, breaches of contract, breaches of trust, Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) claims and validity of securities claims.
- Westgem Investments Pty Ltd (RM appt)(In Liq) - acting on behalf of the receivers and managers, KordaMentha, with respect to the receivership of a special purpose vehicle established to construct a commercial centre known as 'Raine Square' in the Perth CBD including acting in litigation associated with breaches of director's duties and Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) claims made by the liquidator.
- Primebroker Securities Limited (RM Appt)(In Liq) - acting for agents of the ANZ Bank, PPB advisory, in defending the realisation of real property in a AU$350 million damages claim in a multi-party proceeding alleging misleading and deceptive conduct, wrongful appointment of insolvency professionals and invalidity of securities.
- Opes Prime Securities Limited (In Liq) - acting for the receivers and managers, Deloitte, in various pieces of litigation relating to the collapse of an Australian securities lending and stock broking firm with secured debts in excess of AU$1 billion including defending claims by creditors against funds in the insolvent estate.
- Sonray Capital Markets Limited (In Liq) - acting for the liquidators, Ferrier Hodgson, in various claims and applications, pursuant to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), against the directors and auditors of a securities provider/derivatives trader with respect to a AU$46 million deficit in client accounts.
- Silverwater Resorts - acting for the receivers and managers, KordaMentha, of an accomodation resort in defending various Supreme Court proceedings in relation to the development of a resort in Victoria with off the plan sales that were not completed including resolving 100 plus contractual claims and initiated proceedings in relation to unfinished or defective works.
- City Pacific Limited (RM Appt)(In Liq) - acting on behalf of the receivers and managers, PPB Advisory, of a residential property developer in various Supreme Court proceedings for contractual claims initiated by purchasers in relation to unfinished or defective works at the residential developments in Victoria and Queensland.
- Fellow INSOL International
- "Bankruptcy, recognition proceedings and recoveries in a cryptocurrency world," Insolvency and Restructuring International, Vol 12 No 1, March 2018
- "Fintech, blockchain, cryptocurrency, cloud: something new under the sun?" INSOL World - Third Quarter 2018
- "Identifying & Dealing with Cryptocurrency Assets in Corporate Insolvency," Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association Journal, September 2018
- "Cryptocurrency, litigation and the 'hard fork' remedy," International Bar Association Legal Practice Division, International LItigation Newsletter, October 2018
- "Cryptocurrency and insolvency: 2018 the year in review," International Restructuring Newswire, Winter Edn, January 2019
- "Digital currency exchanges, ICOs and insolvency: the story so far," Insolvency and Restructuring International, Vol 13 No 1, April 2019
- "Antecedent Transactions and Cryptocurrency: The Australian and English Perspectives," South Square Digest, April 2022 (with Peter Burgess)
- "The Restructuring of Corporate Groups. A Global Analysis of Substantive, Procedural and Synthetic Group Procedures," (Australian Chapter), INSOL International, June 2022, (with Jennifer O'Farrell)
- "The brave new world of blockchain, cyber currencies and smart contracts and their impact on insolvency law" - 24th Annual IBA Global Insolvency and Restructuring Conference, May 2018, Amsterdam (Panelist)
- "Impact of Insolvency on Cryptocurrency, Smart Contracts and Initial Coin Offerings" - 14th International Insolvency & Restructuring Symposium, October 2018, Milan (Panelist)
- "Digital Assets in insolvency: What to do?" - ARITA Forum, December 2018 , Melbourne (Presenter)
- "Dealing with Cryptocurrency Assets in Insolvency" - INSOL International Annual Regional Conference, April 2019, Singapore (Chair)
- "Virtual Assets versus Real Insolvencies" - IBA 2019, September 2019, Seoul (Chair)
- "Crypto Assets and Insolvency" - Australian and Securities Investments Commission, October 2019, Melbourne
- "Crypto Assets in Bankruptcy and as Proceeds of Crime" - Australian Financial Security Authority, November 2019, Melbourne
- "Digital Gold: Treatment of Crypto Assets in Insolvency" - INSOL Europe and INSOL International Online Seminar, April 2021 (Panellist)
- "IBA Insolvency Conference teaser" - IBA Insolvency Section, September 2021 (Moderator)
- "Insolvency Proceedings and Cryptocurrency - 'A Catch Up'," INSOL Fellows Forum, INSOL London, June 2022, London (Panellist)
Memberships and Associations
- INSOL International
- International Bar Association
- INSOL Europe
- Law Institute of Victoria
Committees/Working Groups
- IBA Insolvency Section: Officer (Virtual Assets)
- INSOL Europe: Legal Tech & Digital Assets
- English
- Italian
Insights
INSOL Tokyo 2023
Publication | July 05, 2023
Crypto in crisis: Part II: The domino effect
Blog | February 09, 2023
Bank guarantees and set-offs in liquidation
Publication | January 16, 2023