▸ Senior Associate — Restructuring & Insolvency (Sydney)

▸ Leading national firm | Complex, high-profile R&I; mandates

▸ Growth role | Strong pipeline of work The Firm

Our client is a leading Australian law firm with a highly regarded, nationally integrated Restructuring & Insolvency practice and a long track record of acting on complex, high-profile restructurings and insolvencies across the Australian market.

The practice is recognised in the leading legal directories and acts for a sophisticated client base — domestic and global financial institutions and senior lenders, insolvency practitioners and external administrators, and listed and multinational corporates and their boards. Its work covers the full lifecycle of financial distress, from early-stage, pre-insolvency restructurings through to formal appointments and the disputes that can follow.

The team is hands-on and collaborative, with strong partner and senior practitioner involvement, long-standing client relationships, and regular work alongside the firm’s banking and finance, corporate and disputes practices. It is a team that invests in the development of its senior associates, with genuine scope for progression.

Full details of the firm — including team structure, key client relationships and career pathway — can be provided confidentially to suitable candidates who wish to progress.

The Opportunity

Restructuring and insolvency activity in Australia remains elevated. Formal appointments have held near record levels, while a growing share of work is happening earlier and out of public view, through safe harbour turnaround plans, refinancings and lender-led workouts.

VIXA is working with a firm that is growing its Restructuring & Insolvency practice in Sydney on the back of a strong pipeline of work, and is seeking a Senior Associate who is ready to take on real responsibility on complex, high-profile matters and to build their profile within a national practice.

The Role The incoming Senior Associate (or SC) will work closely with senior partners across a broad restructuring and insolvency practice, with exposure to:

- Receiverships,



voluntary administrations, deeds of company arrangement and liquidations — acting for appointees, secured lenders and other stakeholders
- Informal workouts, refinancings and pre-insolvency restructurings, including complex and distressed financing arrangements
- Special situations and distressed debt, acting for financiers, funds and investors
- Distressed M&A;, including sales of businesses and assets out of formal processes
- Advice to directors and boards on their duties, safe harbour and restructuring options
- Insolvency-related disputes and court applications, as matters require

The role carries real responsibility. Senior associates in this team run matters day to day, draft and negotiate complex documentation, advise clients directly, and supervise and develop junior lawyers — with a explicit pathway for progression as their practice and profile grow.

About You

We are seeking a Senior Associate (or potentially a SC) with the following profile:

- 5-7+ years’ post-admission experience gained at a top-tier, leading national or international firm
- Substantive restructuring and insolvency experience — or a strong transactional banking and finance background and a genuine desire to move into restructuring
- A strong academic record and technically rigorous drafting, with close attention to detail
- Sound commercial judgment and the project management skills to run time-critical matters with multiple stakeholders
- The interpersonal skills to build relationships with financiers, insolvency practitioners and corporate clients, and to contribute to a collaborative team
- A commitment to continuous learning and to supporting the development of junior colleagues

Candidates at a more senior level, including Special Counsel,



are also welcome to make a confidential enquiry.

How to Express Interest

Please reach out to Scott Francis, Managing Director, at VIXA Partners to explore this opportunity on a strictly confidential basis.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0481 205 057

Web: vixa.com.au

VIXA Partners is a specialist executive legal recruitment firm focused exclusively on Partner and senior lawyer placements across Australia’s top-tier and upper mid-tier law firms. We operate across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra, and our placements span the spectrum of practice areas.

Scott Francis, Managing Director of VIXA, brings over 25 years of direct experience inside Australia’s leading law firms — as a lawyer for 20 years in top-tier and international firms, and as National Executive Talent Manager at one of Australia’s leading top-tier firms (responsible for partner recruitment nationally). He is an admitted lawyer in New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand, is recognised as a dispute resolution lawyer in Legal 500 Asia Pacific, and is an accredited Executive Leadership Coach.

This depth of first-hand experience - inside the firms, inside the roles, inside the partnerships - means VIXA provides genuinely informed advice that goes well beyond what a conventional recruiter can offer. We understand the strategic direction of leading firms, the nuances of practice areas, and what it takes to assess technical capability, cultural fit and long-term career trajectory at the senior associate level.

Our approach is consultative, relationship-driven and unhurried. We take the view that a move at senior associate level is one of the most consequential decisions in a lawyer’s career — and we treat it accordingly. Candidates are encouraged to ask every question, take their time and reach a decision that is genuinely in their best interests.

No information about you will ever be shared with any party without your express consent. Your details, your enquiry, and the existence of any conversation between us will remain strictly confidential.

📌 Senior Associate — Restructuring & Insolvency | Sydney
🏢 VIXA | Executive Legal Recruitment
📍 Sydney