Craig Wappett Partner

Craig is a banking and finance lawyer with 35 years’ specialist experience in securities law, financial product regulation, restructuring and insolvency.

He has extensive experience advising clients across a variety of industries including financial services, manufacturing, mining and resources, property development, agriculture, tourism and transport.

Craig is one of Australia's leading experts in securities law. He has written numerous publications and presented to many conferences and seminars on this and related topics. He was a member of the Australian Attorney General's Consultative Committee on Personal Property Securities Reform.

During his career Craig has practised in Sydney, Brisbane and Toronto, Canada.

Experience

General

Corporate, asset and acquisition financing

For Infrastructure Capital Group, Liberty OneSteel, the BMD Group, Beach Energy and Bengal Energy.

Intergen

Refinancing InterGen’s interest in the Callide C Power Station.

PPSA advice

Regularly advising banks, non-bank financiers, insolvency practitioners, manufacturers, suppliers and energy and resources companies regarding the Personal Property Securities Act.

Insolvency

Advising in connection with the administration of Arrium Group.

Structured asset financing

Various structured asset financings involving major items of mining equipment, railway rolling stock, ships, aircraft, receivables and inventory.

Recognition

Career & qualifications

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Laws (Hons), University of Queensland
  • Master of Laws, University of Queensland

Memberships

  • Law Council of Australia's Financial Services Law Committee
  • Queensland Law Society’s Financial Services Law Committee
  • Member of the Australian Attorney Generals Consultation Committee on Personal Property Securities Reform

International experience

  • Practised with a major law firm in Canada

 

Insights Read more insight

Now you own it, now you don’t: retention-of-title supply arrangements

A recent decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Metal Manufacturers Pty Ltd trading as TLE Electrical v WesTrac Pty Ltd [2024] NSWSC 144 (WesTrac decision) has highlighted some of the...

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Personal property securities get a makeover

After more than ten years of operation, the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) and the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) are in line for a major overhaul.

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Ambitious attempts to perfect the imperfectable

The recent Federal Court decision in Diversa Pty Ltd v Taiping Trustees Limited has highlighted some important risks faced by secured parties who don’t pay attention to the details when perfecting...

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News

External publications

  • Wappett, Essential Personal Property Securities in Australia, LexisNexis
  • Wappett, Whittaker & Edwards (eds), Personal Property Securities in Australia, LexisNexis
  • Contributor to and editor of Australian Finance Law, fifth edition, Law Book Company

Presentations

  • Regular speaker at conferences and seminars on securities law
  • Conducting numerous presentations, seminars and workshops on the PPSA for industry representative bodies and associations (including the Australian Bankers Association, the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association, the Australian Mining and Petroleum Law Association, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and the Australian Institute of Credit Management), professional education conferences (including the Federal Court Judicial Education Workshop, the Queensland Bar Association and the annual Credit Law Conference), various financiers and insolvency practitioners.