I appeared on the Ray Hadley 2GB radio show this morning discussing insolvency law, phoenix companies, shadow directors and ASIC. Interview from 50.50 ..read more

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (‘PJC’) handed down its Report into Corporate Insolvency in Australia on 12 July. The Report contains 28 recommendations spread over 14 chapters and runs to over 350 pages. The PJC inquiry has been very thorough, with 78 written submissions (including a submission by ourselves), 5 days of public hearings and hundreds of questions on notice to those who appeared before the committee.  The inquiry has been sweeping in its scope of corporate insolvency law, covering the role and funding of insolvency practitioners, the ..read more

With the PJC’s Corporate Insolvency Report due to be released at 2pm today, I wanted to share a discussion I had recently with Matthew Hudson from SV Partners about the inquiry and what we might see from the report. Here is the video of our chat: SV Partners LinkedIn Live with Dr. Jason Harris from University of Sydney | LinkedIn. I’ll post up some thoughts on the report this afternoon after its release ..read more

I’ve spent the past few months working through the voluminous materials that have been produced as part of the current PJC inquiry into corporate insolvency law. The AIIP provided funding for me to engage a team of law students from Sydney Law School to review all of the submissions to the PJC, responses to questions on notice and transcripts of public hearings. Copies of the written materials and videos of the hearings can be found here. The PJC announced this week that the deadline for handing down its report has been extended to 12 July 2023. You can download the report I’ve prepared here ..read more

With over 70 submissions from a wide variety of stakeholders and numerous answers to questions on notice, the parliamentary joint committee[1] inquiry into corporate insolvency has generated a high level of thought leadership and ongoing debate. We are ourselves pleased to see that a number of issues we have been raising have for the first time become issues for discussion and in some cases disagreement.  We welcome the fact that these issues are now the subject of open debate.  If what we see as the three threshold concerns about the system that we have raised can be addressed ..read more

With the semester coming up next month I’ve been playing with ChatGPT to test out potential essay and exam topics to see what it comes up with. I’ve found its answers on US bankruptcy law are not bad (relevant cases, good at distinguishing differences between appeal circuits), but not a lot better than Wikipedia or a general Google search that brings up some law firm newsletters, and nowhere near the detail of any book on bankruptcy law. I also tested an earlier version of ChatGPT last year and the accuracy has improved a lot, so who knows how much better it will become. At present the public ..read more

Michael Murray and I appeared before the PJC yesterday to discuss our submission to their inquiry into Corporate Insolvency Law. You can find a recording of our evidence here (starting at 13.40) https://parlview.aph.gov.au/mediaPlayer.php?videoID=598726&operation_mode=parlview ..read more

This year I finished my PhD (after 10 years of study!) which looked at whether voluntary administration provides an optimal regime for corporate rescue in Australia. I undertook empirical analysis by tracking almost 2,500 companies that entered VA from 1993 to the end of 2018. I also surveyed and interviewed stakeholders in insolvency and restructuring. With the PJC’s corporate insolvency inquiry underway at the moment, I thought that my thesis work may be useful for the inquiry so I have posted a copy of the final thesis below. I’ve provided a link in the submission to the inquiry that Michae ..read more

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has today announced a new inquiry into corporate insolvency law. Submissions are due by the end of November 2022. The terms of reference are broad: Terms of Reference (as agreed on 28 September 2022) Inquiry into the effectiveness of Australia’s corporate insolvency laws in protecting and maximising value for the benefit of all interested parties and the economy, including: recent and emerging trends in the use of corporate insolvency and related practices in Australia, including in regard to: temporary COVID-19 pandemi ..read more

Here is a draft paper and slides for a presentation Michael Murray and I made to the Society of Corporate Law Academics (SCOLA) on 4 July 2022 at the University of the Sunshine Coast. The presentation discusses a book project that we are working on for Edward Elgar that will be published in 2023. ownload murray-harris-scola-2022Download harris-murray-scola-conference-paper Download ..read more