Scott Guthrie

Scott Guthrie draws on his more than 25 years’ of expertise to advise clients in the finance, insolvency and property industries.

A significant part of Scott’s practice involves acting for various stakeholders in the unsecured and secured insolvency market.

Scott regularly advises and acts for receivers, liquidators, administrators and bankruptcy trustees in identifying, preserving and recovering assets for secured and unsecured creditors. Scott also represents directors and company officers, particularly in response to investigations and enforcement action by ASIC and other corporate regulators.

Scott is also regularly engaged to represent a number of major banking institutions to recover secured and unsecured funds, and acts for them and other non-bank financiers in all manner of disputes, including those concerning the priority of securities, mortgage fraud, cheque conversion claims and professional negligence claims (against auditors and valuers).

Scott also has a particular expertise in property litigation and associated disputes, including joint venture disputes, contractual disputes and fraud claims on the Queensland Government’s Fidelity Fund.

Scott is currently the Chairperson, Queensland for the Turnaround Management Association of Australia.

Scott Guthrie’s recent experience includes:

• Acting for the liquidators of a high-profile corporate collapse and associated proceedings to recover unfair preferences, obtain court approval for litigation funding and act in contested proceedings concerning proofs of debt and the application of rights of set-off under the Corporations Act (2001) (Cth).
• Acting for the former CFO of a listed public company in civil penalty proceedings by ASIC, as well as proceedings by the company liquidators in relation to alleged uncommercial transactions involving an overseas secured creditor.
• Acting for the liquidators of a listed entity in relation to priority disputes with PPSA creditors, providing advice as to vesting of interests under the PPSA, undertaking public examinations and acting in relation to a variety of proceedings, including uncommercial transaction proceedings and breach of director’s duties claims.
• Acting for bankruptcy trustees in proceedings to set aside transactions in breach of section 120 and 121 of the Bankruptcy Act (1966) (Cth).
• Acting in proceedings against auditors following an alleged failure to detect systemic fraud concerning a multi-million dollar debt factoring facility provided by an Australian bank.