Media Release: Clayton Utz named Australia Firm of the Year at IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards 2021

Sydney 25 March 2021: Legal industry title IFLR1000 has awarded Clayton Utz Most Innovative Law Firm of the Year - Australia at its annual Asia-Pacific Awards, announced today. Two transactions on which Clayton Utz had key advisory roles were also recognised.

The successful restructure and sale of Virgin Australia Limited - on which Clayton Utz advised the Administrators - won Restructuring Deal of the Year. This was a complex and challenging transaction, which lead partner Tim Sackar has described as involving "a level of innovation not seen before in Australia" with the structuring of the sale and its completion entirely unique and creating "significant judicial precedent for future control transactions.

A Clayton Utz team led by partner Andrew Jinks advised on the transaction awarded Structured Finance and Securitisation Deal of the Year - a $140 million securitisation for reverse mortgage originator and seller, Heartland and structured by Macquarie Bank. The first Australian reverse mortgage RMBS for several years, it involved an offshore investor and several iterations to arrive at the optimum structure.

Clayton Utz Chief Executive Partner Bruce Cooper said the recognition highlighted the firm's reputation for regularly advising on smart transactions that broke new ground.

Smart innovation starts with doing something familiar in a different, better way. That's always been our approach and it’s a driver that underpins our approach to matters with which our clients entrust us - of which these two awarded transactions are notable examples.

IFLR's Asia-Pacific Awards celebrate the region's most innovative cross-border deals, teams and firms, and are based on IFLR's own industry research and analysis.