With the most significant overhaul of M&A regulation in nearly 50 years, Treasury Laws Amendment (Mergers and Acquisitions Reform) Bill 2024 is set to take effect in Australia in 2025. Understand the procedural changes in merger control, substantive law modifications, and the ACCC’s revised approach while anticipating developments in 2025/2026. Plus, explore financial due diligence, and the integration of IP assets into acquisitions under the new regulatory framework.

Presenters

Amanda Comelli, Partner, Brown Wright Stein
Amanda Comelli is a Law Society of NSW Accredited Specialist in Business Law and currently sits on the Law Society's Specialist Accreditation Advisory Committee for Business Law. With more than 10 years' experience as a business lawyer, Amanda provides commercial and corporate law, tax law and estate planning advice to businesses and business owners. Amanda likes to keep her practice broad, to provide her clients with well-rounded and practical legal advice. Amanda has acted for a range of clients including both private and public companies, accountants, financial planners, retailers, business owners, manufacturers, individuals (including high net worth individuals) and not-for-profit organisations. She is also a founder of the Women in Tax Discussion Group, which is hosted monthly by Brown Wright Stein, as a forum for female tax professionals to meet and discuss recent key changes in tax law in a relaxed and supportive environment. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys travel, fitness, and spending time with her family. She has also represented Australia in several international karate tournaments!


Dr Martyn Taylor, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Dr Martyn Taylor is a corporate and commercial Partner in the Sydney office of global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. He has some 30 years’ experience in competition law. He sits on the board and also heads the telecommunications and media group, and the Australian competition and trade group. He is described as “smart, efficient, friendly”. Martyn’s practice covers transactional, contentious and advisory. He is a well-known TMT, infrastructure, energy, competition and regulatory lawyer. Martyn is recommended by the key legal directories and has been named as one of the ‘top 10’ TMT legal advisors in Asia. Martyn has won numerous prizes and awards, including recently for the $15 billion merger of Vodafone with TPG Telecom (M&A deal of the year 2021). He has attended Harvard University and Oxford University. He has published well over 100 publications, including the award-nominated book 'International Competition Law'. Qualifications: PhD(Law), CME(Harvard), LLM(Law), MFin(Corporate Finance), LLB(Hons), BA(Economics)(Hons), BSc, GAICD.


Dietrich Marquardt, Special Counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright
FINAL - WEB253N02 Dietrich is a competition and regulatory lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright in Sydney. He also regularly acts for clients in the telecommunications, media and technology space, having acted for clients on a number of advisory and transactional matters, including in relation to M&A/JVs, infrastructure rollouts, satellite and tower deals, market entry, and access spectrum, whilst also advising upon strategies to mitigate risks associated with such matters, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Dietrich is recognized as an expert in his field, having been awarded winner of the Competition, Trade & Regulation category in the 2020 Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 awards, whilst being a finalist in the Media & Telecommunications category. He is currently undertaking is Masters of Law at Melbourne University. FINAL - 253N18 Dietrich Marquardt is a competition/antitrust and regulatory lawyer based in Sydney. He acts for Australian and international corporate clients on all aspects of competition law, including in relation to transactional, contentious and advisory work. He is highly commercial in his approach and has great rapport with clients. Dietrich regularly advises on the regulatory and competition aspects of highly complex, multi-jurisdictional matters, and consistently delivers outcomes that exceed clients' expectations, resulting in achievement of significant strategic and commercial objectives. Dietrich has been recognised as being one of the "Ones to Watch" in the Competition Law space, in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 edition of Best Lawyers in Australia.


Nicole Murdoch, Principal, EAGLEGATE Lawyers
Nicole is the Principal of EAGLEGATE Lawyers and a recommended Lawyer in the 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2018 listing of Leading Queensland Intellectual Property Lawyers - Doyles Guide. As a qualified Lawyer, Electrical Engineer and Trade Marks Attorney, Nicole's qualifications and practical experience allow her to fully comprehend the nexus of the law, technology and business to provide advice to her clients - which is both commercially sensible and technically practical. Nicole's legal experience includes Intellectual Property litigation including, trade mark, patent, copyright and domain name disputes and associated misleading and deceptive conduct, confidential information and passing off disputes. She also acts in Information Theft cases to prepare clients for data breaches, assists upon a breach, gives advice in respect of mandatory data breach notifications and prosecutes insider threats.


Vinod Parasuraman, Partner, Head of Transaction Services, Pitcher Partners
With an impressive career spanning almost 17 years, Vinod (Vin) is a well rounded corporate finance expert specialising in financial due diligence (including vendor due diligence), carve outs, SPA assistance, data room assistance, transaction support, and Investigating Accountants Reports for IPO. With a broad range of experience, he is equipped to assist a diverse client base with advisory knowledge ranging from private equity, ASX listed companies, private companies, family-owned businesses, and offices. He is well versed in advising on both buy and sell side transactions and assists clients with achieving strategic goals by providing insightful and valued recommendations. Having worked across a wide range of sectors, he is able to use his knowledge to analyse financial and commercial data, identifying and explaining complex issues clearly to clients, and helping them to make informed decisions in high pressure environments. Vin takes time to invest in his client relationships, committed to the best result by providing personalised and considered advice. He understands that acquisitions and divestments are complicated and fast paced, and Vin drives the best outcomes for his clients by focusing on key deal issues and taking a no-surprises approach to the to the transaction with clear communication and constant collaboration. Vin built his skills across many years within a ‘Big 4’ Deals/Transaction Services team managing clients and leading engagements in Australia and internationally. He has also honed his expertise as part of the senior management team in a listed entity operating in the personal transport sector. Vin has a hands-on and methodical approach to advisory, and a passion for connecting the dots between data and commercial drivers. He prides himself on being proactive and guiding clients on their growth journey with a goal to becoming their trusted advisor. Vin joined Pitcher Partners Sydney Corporate Finance team as a Client Director in 2022 and was admitted to the partnership in 2024.