James Crowe
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
Related services and key industries
Biography
James Crowe is a M&A lawyer based in Melbourne with over 30 years’ experience at global firms in Australia and the US. He has acted for global and domestic corporates in relation to strategic transactions in the Technology, Retail and Infrastructure sectors.
James is admitted in Australia and New York and regularly advises clients in relation to multi-jurisdictions acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures including Accenture’s global acquisition of Partners In Performance, which involved 31 jurisdictions across 6 continents.
James has deep tech sector experience and has advised domestic and international technology companies, VC/PE firms and founders in relation to acquisitions, strategic and financial investments, capital raisings and liquidity events (trade sales and IPOs). In addition to a law degree with honours, James holds a degree in computer science majoring in Artificial Intelligence.
James is recognised by major legal guides in multiple areas including M&A, Technology and Regulatory. He is passionate about Legal Innovation and his work in this area has been recognised by Harvard University, the US Association of Corporate Counsel and the Financial Times.
James is a member of the founding team at Skalata Ventures - Australia’s first fully-integrated seed investment program - and is a director, advisory board member and/or investor in relation to a number of early stage companies.
Professional experience
Collapse all- Bachelor of Law (Honours), Monash University
- Bachelor of Science (Computer Science), Monash University
- Australia 1993
- New York 1997
- Victoria 1993
- Coles - on its acquisition of automated milk processing plants in Victoria and NSW from Saputo for $105m including obtaining ACCC clearance, implementing land sale and lease back and negotiating strategic milk tolling and transitional arrangements
- Accenture - on its acquisition of Partner-in-Performance’s operations in 31 jurisdictions across 6 continents and numerous other multi-jurisdictional acquisitions across APAC, including providing regulatory, competition and foreign investment advice and obtaining relevant approvals
- Intelledox (Australian software company) – on its successful sale to Accel KKR (the tech arm of US PE firm KKR) for $105m
- Silicon Quantum Computing Pty Ltd - on the establishment of Australia's first quantum computing company, with $100m co-investment by CBA, Telstra, government agencies and academic institutions
- Telstra - on Telstra's acquisitions of Silicon Valley-based Ooyala for $320m, 15% of Ten Network (via Foxtel) and numerous other strategic and bolt-on acquisitions in the payments, data analytics, e-security e-health, media and network/IT services sectors
- Advised on the establishment $150m InfaTech joint venture between Macquarie Capital and LSE-listed, Spectris plc
- Unlockd - on the proposed $200m IPO of leading mobile adtech business, Unlockd, and related shareholder arrangements and capital raisings
- HNA Group - on the proposed $400m acquisition of the refrigerated logistics business of ASX-listed AHG Limited
- Murray Goulburn - on its proposed $553m takeover of Warrnambool Cheese & Butter and $500m capital restructure and IPO
- Advised numerous venture capital investments by Acorn Capital, Telstra Ventures and others including in Nimble (payments), enepath and OneVue (financial services), iBuy and Redbubble (ecommerce), Amaysim (telco)
- Advised on numerous technology deals for international technology companies, including Space Systems Loral (US$620m satellite sale to NBN), Illumina (global leader in genomics), Wolfson Microsystems (consumer microelectronics) and Recommind (enterprise search technology)
- Acted on the sale of AXA APH's Taiwanese life insurance business to AEGON
- Charles Schwab Corporation - acted for America's largest brokerage house in relation to the establishment of an on-line brokerage in join venture with several large Japanese financial institutions
- Acted for BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and others in relation to their $5 billion bid for Queenland Rail's below-the-rail infrastructure
Singapore Power - in relation to its $8.5 billion consortium bid for Alinta
As a lateral hire, some of the above experience was gained while James was at a previous firm
- Recognised as an Acritas 'Star Lawyer' following an 18-month global survey of 4,000 general counsel and industry leaders
- Harvard University – innovation case study ('Client-Centered Innovation at HSF') included in Harvard course materials
- Association of Corporate Counsel 'Value Champion' – global award for leadership in value-focussed management
- Janders Dean & LexisNexis Innovation Index – legal innovation award
- Financial Times Asia Pacific – innovation awards
- Recognised in multiple fields (including M&A, TMT and Regulatory) by leading legal directories including Best Lawyers, Chambers Global, PLC Which Lawyer, Asia Pacific Legal 500 and Australian Legal Business
- Best Lawyers – Telecommunications Lawyer of the Year
- Member of the founding team at Skalata Ventures – Australia’s first fully-integrated seed investment program.