I have con­sis­tent­ly been ranked by inde­pen­dent pub­li­ca­tions as one of the lead­ing lawyers in New South Wales in the areas of com­mer­cial lit­i­ga­tion and insolvency. 

My prac­tice also involves under­tak­ing com­mer­cial, bank­ing, and finance work for var­i­ous finan­cial insti­tu­tions. I am a deter­mined indi­vid­ual and I aim to achieve the best com­mer­cial results for my clients.

Exper­tise

  • Bank­ing & Finance
  • Com­mer­cial
  • Com­mer­cial Finance
  • Insol­ven­cy
  • Lit­i­ga­tion
  • Pub­lic exam­i­na­tion with­out Counsel

Sec­tors

  • Finan­cial Services
  • Pri­vate Clients & Fam­i­ly Businesses
  • Ser­vices Pro­fes­sion­al & Non-professional

Expe­ri­ence

I have prac­ticed as a Com­mer­cial Lit­i­ga­tion Lawyer for over 30 years with a par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on com­mer­cial dis­putes and insol­ven­cy mat­ters. I have act­ed in hun­dreds of pub­lic exam­i­na­tions, with­out Coun­sel, for liq­uida­tors, receivers and bank­rupt­cy trustees.

I was one of the first lawyers appoint­ed to the State and Nation­al Com­mit­tees of Insol­ven­cy Prac­ti­tion­ers Asso­ci­a­tion of Aus­tralia (now known as ARI­TA) and my cas­es are reg­u­lar­ly report­ed in var­i­ous legal pub­li­ca­tions. I served on the Cor­po­ra­tions List Com­mit­tee of the Supreme Court of NSW for a num­ber of years. My judg­ments are reg­u­lar­ly report­ed in the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia. I recent­ly act­ed suc­cess­ful­ly for par­ties in the High Court of Aus­tralia. I have suc­cess­ful­ly been involved in many high-pro­file cas­es and cas­es that set legal precedents.

I have been involved in giv­ing advice in thou­sands of insol­ven­cy admin­is­tra­tion and con­duct­ed lit­i­ga­tion in most states of Aus­tralia. Many of my cas­es are insol­ven­cy admin­is­tra­tions such as Alan Bond and more recent­ly the miss­ing woman case of Melis­sa Cad­dick which have been high pro­file and involved com­plex legal issues. I have act­ed for many lawyers and accoun­tants in part­ner­ship and share­hold­er dis­putes. I have also suc­cess­ful­ly act­ed on behalf of var­i­ous pro­fes­sion­als includ­ing accoun­tants, lawyers and sports per­sons in dis­ci­pli­nary proceedings.

Roles, mem­ber­ships and education

  • Bach­e­lor of Com­merce (major in Accountancy)
  • Bach­e­lor of Laws (Uni­ver­si­ty of NSW)
  • Cur­rent mem­ber of ARI­TA and the Turn­around Man­age­ment Association

Direct Contact

Speak with Legal Secretary

Publications

Valid­i­ty, void­abil­i­ty and unen­force­abil­i­ty in con­tract law

If you have entered into a con­tract, you or the oth­er par­ty have draft­ed with­out legal assis­tance, you should con­sid­er some…

Nav­i­gat­ing Pri­or­i­ty Dis­putes under the PPSR: Path­ways and con­sid­er­a­tions for Secured Parties

The Per­son­al Prop­er­ty Secu­ri­ties Reg­is­ter (PPSR) serves as a vital frame­work for estab­lish­ing and pro­tect­ing inter­ests in per­son­al prop­er­ty in Aus­tralia…

5 claus­es to look out for in your fran­chise agree­ment – they might be unfair

Changes to the unfair con­tract terms régime are in effect, and enter­ing into any fran­chise agree­ment con­tain­ing an unfair con­tact…

In the News

$4m win for fraud­ster Melis­sa Caddick’s victims

The vic­tims of fraud­ster Melis­sa Cad­dick will be paid more than $4m after the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia approved the…

Michael Hayter is quot­ed in the Michael Pryde bank­rupt­cy hear­ing arti­cle pub­lished in The Dai­ly Tele­graph, 8 August 2024

Sim­ply The Bets boss Michael Pryde was grilled in bank­rupt­cy hear­ing over ​‘pri­ori­tised’ pay­ments. The bank­rupt fraud­ster behind one of Sydney’s…

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Michael Hayter for being recog­nised in Doyles Guide

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Michael Hayter for being recog­nised in Doyles Guide 2024 as a Rec­om­mend­ed Lead­ing Insol­ven­cy & Restruc­tur­ing Lawyer – New South…

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