About Michael Ilott
Michael specialises in:
- commercial and construction litigation and arbitration, primarily advising mining companies, government, financial institutions and corporates; and
- insolvency and restructuring, primarily advising banks, insolvency practitioners and corporates.
He has more than 15 years experience in the field.
Litigation, Arbitration, Inquiries & Dispute Resolution
Significant litigation matters Michael has been involved with include:
- Nautilus Minerals – successfully defended it in an international arbitration against a foreign State in respect of a deep sea mining project, where the amount in dispute exceeded $200 million.
- Seqwater – representing it in a Royal Commission into the Queensland floods. The inquiry addressed allegations that in excess of 20,000 homes and businesses were inundated following the release of flood waters from the dams.
- Private mining company – acting for it in arbitrations against Aquila Resources in respect of a greenfield iron ore project in Western Australia. Those arbitrations followed the successful defence of numerous proceedings with Aquila Resources in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court.
- SunWater – defended it in Federal Court litigation regarding allegations that the construction of a major dam in Southern Queensland did not comply with Federal environmental approvals.
- Queensland Rail – advised on its dispute with Pacific National regarding the management and control of the interstate container terminal at Acacia Ridge. The proceedings, which were determined in QR's favour, were heard in the Federal Court for 12 weeks.
- MIM – advised on its dispute with its gold mining junior joint venture partner. At one point, there were four separate actions running at the same time (in the Supreme Court and in the Land and Resources Tribunal).
- AACo – acted for it in proceedings against a feed supplement supplier.
- Major trading banks and receivers – defending them against claims made by customers.
- Listed companies and their directors – advising a number of listed entities and directors in respect of a broad range of ASIC investigations.
- Major mining companies – acting in a large number of judicial and merits reviews of government decision making.
- GVK Hancock – acted for it in the Land Court objections hearing regarding the objections to the mining lease and environment authority for the Alpha Coal Mine.
- Listed gold mining company – defended it against claims made by an EPCM contractor in respect of a substantial sustaining capex program.
- Gold Coast Light Rail – defended it against claims brought by the D&C contractor.
- Major shopping centre owners and property developers – acting in all forms of disputes including:
- land valuation disputes with local authorities.
- tenancy disputes, including basic debt recovery and insolvency of tenants through to the defence of tenant claims for misleading and deceptive conduct in lease negotiations.
- tenant claims for loss and inconvenience arising on redevelopment of centres.
- construction disputes with contractors.
- disputes with co-developers in respect of profit and loss sharing arrangements and change in control pre-emptive rights.
- in expert determinations in fixing market rentals for anchor tenants.
- in easement disputes to enforce obligations of adjoining owners to contribute to maintenance and repair costs for shared infrastructure.
Insolvency and Restructuring
Michael regularly acts for the major trading banks, including NAB, ANZ and Westpac across the full spectrum of recovery actions, from basic debt collection through to complex group restructuring.
Michael regularly advises in respect of recovery strategies and execution of recovery actions.
Some recent matters Michael has been involved with include the:
- receivership of a major car parts manufacturer.
- administration of a mining services company.
- receivership of a large property development company with several partially completed developments.
- work out of a major retailer with over 500 employees.
- receivership of a building company with over 25 separate building projects.
- recovery of farm loans from the full spectrum of farm customers (large and small).