Jonathan is a corporate lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience who specialises in unregulated mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets transactions.
Jonathan principally acts for financial sponsors and their investee companies and multinational and domestic corporations, with a particular emphasis advising on cross border M&A transactions involving US bidders or targets. Jonathan’s transaction experience ranges from multi-billion-dollar pubic market transactions to mid-market acquisitions and divestments.
In addition to his transactional practice, Jonathan has been a driving force in the establishment of JWS’ Board and Governance Group and advises listed and unlisted corporate clients on company and securities law issues and corporate governance matters.
Jonathan’s experience spans a range of industry sectors including engineering, fin-tech, construction and infrastructure, manufacturing, agribusiness and professional services. His professional background includes roles as an equity analyst and as a lawyer with Australia’s corporate regulator, ASIC.
Jonathan has been consistently recognised by his peers as a specialist in his area, being listed as a leading lawyer in Best Lawyers for each of M&A (2015-2024), ECM (2015-2024), Private Equity (2023- 2024) and Corporate (2015-2024).
Advised the sellers of Fyfe, an integrated engineering, environment, planning and survey firm, on the sale of a majority interest to Mercury Capital (2024).
Advised the sellers of DAOU Vineyards, LLC, a premium US wine producer, on the Australian aspects of its US$1 billion sale to Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) (2023).
Advised Forever Green Enteprises 2 LLC, on its strategic investment in Display Sweet Pty Ltd, a developer of interactive showroom and presentation experience technology for the property sector (2023).
Advised Fiera Comox Partners, a Canadian private equity fund, on investment in Grove Juice Pty Ltd (2023).
Advised CurveBeam AI Limited, a developer of AI powered bone analysis software and manufacturer of cone beam CT machines, on pre-IPO convertible note issuances (2022) and IPO and ASX listing (2023).
Advised SonderMind Inc, a provider of personalised and platform mental health solutions, on the acquisition of the Australian and US business and assets of Total Brain Limited (ASX: TTB) (2022).
Advised StraxCorp Pty Ltd, a developer of AI powered bone analysis software, on the acquisition by reverse merger of CurveBeam LLC, the leading manufacturer of cone beam CT machines (2022).
Advised New Hope Limited (ASX: NHC) on corporate aspects of bid for BHP coal assets (2022) and advising on strategic investment in unlisted coal company (2022).
Advised PF Group Holdings Pty Ltd, the holding company of Panthera Finance, one of Australia’s largest debt collection businesses, in connection with investment and exit of Champ Private Equity (2017 and 2022) and investment by Brookfield Asset Management (2022).
Advised multinational social media management platform provider, on entity establishment and corporate governance matters (2024).
Advised leading global developer of autonomous driving technology on entity establishment and compliance matters (2024).
Advised British American Tobacco on corporate governance matters (2024).
Advised CurveBeam AI Limited (ASX: CVB) on acquisition of UK and German assets (2023), international distribution arrangements and Russian sanctions compliance (2023), securities law / insider trading compliance program (2023) and other governance matters.
Advised Baralaba Coal, an unlisted coal producer, on corporate structuring matters involving major shareholder AMCI (2023).
Advised ARM (Ashton Raggatt McDougal), a leading Melbourne headquartered architectural firm, in relation to ACCC investigation and restructure of ownership interests (2022).
Advised Panthera Finance, a debt collection and finance business highly regulated by national and state law, in connection with a comprehensive regulatory compliance mapping and compliance program (2022) and various significant regulatory matters (2022/2023).
Advised Peabody Energy, a multinational thermal and metallurgical coal producer, in relation to incorporated joint venture and state coal royalty matters (2022).
Advised BMD Group, a large unlisted construction group, on structuring of joint venture bid to construct NSW toll road assets (2022).
Advising on contractual and legal frameworks for supply of electric vehicles and separate ACT tender process (2022), distribution arrangements in Pacific and governance arrangements (2022-2023).
As the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) notes in its recently released Not-for-Profit Governance Principles (Third Edition) (Principles), there are approximately 600,000 not-for...
Our quarterly update covers recent developments in the governance space, including the Closing Loopholes No.2 amendments to the Fair Work Act, amendments to the foreign bribery laws, the release of...
Our quarterly update covers recent developments in the governance space.