Lucas Wilk Partner

Lucas is a leading commercial litigation lawyer known for managing large, complex commercial disputes for leading Australian listed companies, multinationals and foreign corporations with a focus on energy and resources and major projects.

He has acted in high-profile oil and gas, iron ore, royalty, project infrastructure, rail access and joint venture disputes.

Lucas also has an exceptional reputation in acting in business restructuring and insolvency matters and is well regarded for simplifying complex financial matters. Lucas’ work includes strategic pre-advice, mediation, litigation and arbitration. Clients value his discerning approach, technical ability, commerciality and tenacity in difficult and protracted matters.

Lucas is known for his client-centric strategic approach and dynamism. 

Experience

Disputes – litigation and arbitration

Oil and gas majors

Advised on various disputes including operator v venturer, operator v contractor and disputes with operators of contiguous acreages.

Wheatstone project

Represented a significant engineering company in a successful high-value arbitration concerning ancillary vessels used in the installation of topsides on the off-shore platform that is part of the Wheatstone LNG project.

Western Metropolitan Regional Council

Represented the WMRC in the successful trial and defence of an appeal concerning the Shenton Park Waste to Energy project operated by DiCOM AWT.

US based royalty holder

Represented a US based royalty holder in court proceedings concerning the right to additional royalties on LNG cargo sales and return of coal seam gas assets located in Queensland.

Co-operative Bulk Handling

Represented CBH in railway infrastructure access arbitration.

Significant gas buyer and aggregator

Represented the buyer in a gas price arbitration under Western Australia’s largest long-term domestic gas supply agreement.

Iron ore miners

Advised on disputes with private iron ore royalty stream holders, including on issues of royalty and land access with native title holders under ILUAs for mining operations in Western Australia and South Australia.

Horizon Power

Successfully represented the client in an important decision concerning issues of whether a power purchase agreement contained an exclusive code which limited remedies available for breach and the whether certain loss was consequential loss. HP was successful in recovering its actual costs of sourcing electricity from a third party during a power outage that was initially claimed to be subject to force majeure.

Nickel project

Represented project operator in dispute with AGL concerning operation of a remotely located power station and related power purchase agreement.

Restructuring

Queensland Investment Corporation

Representation in the restructure of Virgin Australia, involving a $200m debt and equity investment by QIC in the $3.5bn restructure of the airline by Bain Capital.

EDF Energy

Represented EDF, the largest creditor of ASX listed uranium miner Paladin Energy in its restructure by way of debt for equity swap and related proceedings.

Jacobs Group Australia

Defended claims by liquidator of an ASX listed company.

Iron Ore miner

Advising and negotiating with voluntary administrators for contractor placed into voluntary administration before completing works on RTIO’s site in the Pilbara.

Various insolvency practitioners

Represented insolvency practitioners in all aspects of their appointments to various insolvent entities.

Recognition

Career & qualifications

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)

Memberships and Associations

  • Member of the International Bar Association, Insol International, ARITA, TMA and the Rules Council of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.

Insights Read more insight

Launching our 2023 Insolvency & Restructuring Case Summaries publication

We are delighted to share with you the next edition of our Insolvency & Restructuring Case Summaries. With over 45 case summaries highlighting the key takeaways and the practical implications for...

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