A RUNNER-UP in last year’s WA Business News Legal Elite survey, Mallesons Stephen Jaques partner John Naughton has gone one better in 2004, ranking as the top banking and finance lawyer in Perth.
For the second year running, the main competition came from former Freehills partner and Wright Legal founder, Paul Wright.
Mr Naughton has been a one-firm lawyer throughout his career, joining Mallesons (then known as Stone James) in 1978 straight from the University of WA.
Apart from a two-year stint in London, he has worked in Mallesons’ Perth office ever since.
Mr Naughton has experience in a range of corporate, project and structured financing transactions, including in relation to stamp duty.
Like many lawyers in Perth, his practice is focused increasingly on the resources and energy sector.
Recently Mr Naughton was part of a large Mallesons team acting for Epic Energy.
He was involved in the restructuring of Epic’s debt and structured financing facilities for the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline, a process that came to an abrupt end in late April when Epic’s banking syndicate engaged Ernst & Young partners Martin Madden and Brian McMaster as joint receivers and managers of the pipeline.
Mr Naughton has acted for financiers in a number of project finance transactions, both in Australia and overseas, including for Macquarie Bank on the Thunderbox gold project, Rothschild on the Rapu Rapu mining project in the Philippines, and Barclays Bank on the Abosso gold project in Ghana.
Mr Naughton acted for the Court Government in its restructuring of cross border leases in the Westrail Freight privatisation and has also acted for Foodland in its trans-Tasman financing arrangements.
