MinterEllison

James Beaton is a commercial litigator with extensive corporate insolvency and reconstruction experience and expertise in anti-money laundering and anti-bribery compliance and enforcement.

James practices extensively in the financial services sector but also has rich telecommunications experience, having acted for Optus for more than 10 years.

As a litigator, he regularly acts in complex contractual disputes, funds management and trust disputes, fraud actions and regulatory investigations (particularly by ASIC). He has conducted many matters in the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

In his corporate insolvency and reconstruction practice, James acts for leading financial institutions and insolvency practitioners in contentious recovery matters, formal appointments and informal corporate turnarounds. James' strong insolvency and reconstruction expertise is independently recognised by Asia Pacific Legal 500.

James' practice also embraces contentious compliance and risk issues associated with anti-money laundering and anti-bribery compliance and enforcement. James led the firm's anti-money laundering practice in response to Australia's introduction of a new anti-money laundering regime in 2006. He is also the Australian counsel for TRACE, a non-profit membership association that pools resources to provide practical and cost-effective anti-bribery compliance solutions for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries.

Some long-standing clients include ANZ, Westpac, NAB, Challenger and Optus.

Education

LLB, BCom