Bio

Boards and senior management require the highest levels of expert guidance and strategic legal leadership - Vijay Cugati numbers amongst those few called upon regularly to advise and is seen by both clients and peers as one of Australia's leading M&A lawyers. A nominee for 2020 Australian Dealmaker of the Year, he is repeatedly recognised in leading publications for advising Australia's largest companies on significant, strategic mergers and acquisitions, including most recently Chambers Asia-Pacific 2022, The Legal500 2022, Best Lawyers 2023: M&A and Corporate Law, Chambers Global 2022, IFLR1000 2021 and Who's Who Legal: 2022. Known for his commercial insights, with particular strengths in supporting and navigating issues at the Board and C-suite levels, Vijay's practice is renowned for its diversity, comprising complex and high-profile public takeovers and schemes of arrangement, carve-out transactions, private acquisitions and disposals (including competitive sales processes), distressed M&A, solvent reconstructions and restructurings. He offers commercially focused, pragmatic strategic guidance on our clients' most important deals and corporate governance issues. He also advises clients on ASX and Corporations Act queries, and regularly deals with regulators relevant to implementing transactions including the Takeovers Panel, ASIC, FIRB and the ASX. Vijay is a member of the Law Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Corporations Committee of the Law Council and the Corporate Governance Committee of the Property Council of Australia. He sits on our Clients & Pursuits Committee, is the Head of our US Practice Desk and was a founding member of the Allens Inclusion and Diversity Council. Vijay is a senior corporate partner who for over 20 years has advised on a variety of complex and innovative transactions across industry sectors, including during his time with Slaughter and May, 2005-2009. His direct experience on recent strategic transactions in the Australian market means that he is across current market-trends and practice.