Matthew Kennedy

Matt’s speciality is complex commercial litigation, including multi-party and insolvency related litigation.

Matt was a commercial litigation barrister for 7 years, specialising in corporations, property, insolvency and trusts, including acting for responsible entities and investor/grower groups in large insolvencies of agricultural managed investment schemes.

Matt was most recently an Investment Manager and Head of the Melbourne office of Omni Bridgeway (formerly IMF Bentham Ltd) where he undertook due diligence and managed funded matters. Matt was involved in numerous investor class actions.

His experience has developed Matt into a strategic litigator, able to quickly understand complexities and risks in cases, whilst applying exceptional technical legal skills.

Matt also obtained a breadth of experience early in his career, as a lawyer in a major commercial law firm, Federal Court Judge’s associate, advisor to the Premier of Victoria and Chief of Staff of a Minister’s office.

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Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts, History Politics - La Trobe University

Graduate Diploma of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management - University of Melbourne

Bachelor of Laws (Honours) - La Trobe University

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Recent experience:

• Securities Class Actions:

• Continuous disclosure - managed the funding and conduct of securities class actions against Vocation, Gunns, Forge, Cimic, CBA, each involving allegations of misleading or deceptive conduct and breaches of continuous disclosure obligations

• ABC Learning - managed the conduct of an action by the liquidator for ABC Learning Centres (In Liquidation) against the banking syndicate, for the purpose of voiding the circulating security interest and certain dispositions of property

• Wilmott Forests - acted for a group of investors in plantations, challenging the liquidator’s proposed disclaimer of the investors’ leases with the insolvent landlord

• Wilmott Forests - acted for a responsible entity of a plantation managed investment scheme, successfully claiming rights to use the plantation land for the life of the scheme, against the insolvent landlord

• Rural Funds trust scheme merger - acted for members of a managed investment scheme alleging a breach of the scheme Constitution under a proposed merger of schemes

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