James Crowe
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
Biography
James Crowe is an M&A lawyer based in Melbourne.
James has over 25 years' experience at global firms in Australia and the United States and was the client relationship partner for a number of large clients including Telstra.
James has deep technology sector experience and assisted many domestic and international companies with acquisitions, investments and joint ventures in relation to strategically important technology businesses. In addition to a law degree (with honours), he holds a degree in computer science majoring in Artificial Intelligence. He is also a director or advisory board member of a number of technology companies including in the FinTech, LawTech and Data Analytics space.
He is passionate about Legal Innovation and his award-winning work in this area has received global recognition by Harvard University, the US Association of Corporate Counsel and the Financial Times.
James is recognised in multiple fields (including M&A, TMT and Regulatory) by leading legal directories including Best Lawyers, Chamber Global, PLC Which Lawyer, Asia Pacific Legal 500 and Australian Legal Business.
Professional experience
Collapse all- Bachelor of Law (Honours), Monash University
- Bachelor of Science (Computer Science), Monash University
- Australia 1993
- New York 1997
- Victoria 1993
As a recent lateral hire, the below experience was gained while James was at a previous firm
- 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
- 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 2017 'Value Champion' – global award for leadership in value-focussed management
- Janders Dean & LexisNexis Innovation Index – 2016 legal innovation award
- Financial Times Asia Pacific – 2016 innovation awards