Matthew Payne

Matthew has practised in Corporate and Commercial Law for about 15 years and has worked on a diverse range of matters in his fields of expertise. Matthew’s primary areas of focus are his outsourced legal counsel practice and private client practice. In his outsourced legal counsel practice, Matthew advises and acts as in-house counsel for SMEs that have a small internal legal team or no internal legal team as well as undertaking transactional work and providing commercial and strategic legal advice. In his private client practice, Matthew provides a range of services to individuals and families, including estate, wealth and business succession planning and structuring; asset protection; trusts; superannuation and general legal advice. Matthew’s clients include a range of small and medium sized companies, high net wealth individuals and families, businesses, directors and officers, trusts, professional associations and medical colleges.

Matthew’s work involves regularly advising on corporate/commercial issues; trust, business, estate, succession and wealth planning; advising on tax and revenue issues; drafting and reviewing contracts; advising directors and officers; corporate governance and compliance; employment law; administrative law; and advising and acting on the sale and purchase of businesses and properties. Matthew also undertakes trust administration and company secretarial work for a number of clients and facilitates the effective operation of trusts, superannuation funds and private companies.  In performing these roles Matthew works closely with his clients’ accountants and financial advisors.

Matthew is a Director of Disability Services Australia Limited, a Director of the Rotary Club of Sydney Cove (and a Paul Harris Fellow), a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), a member of College of Law advisory committees, a director and company secretary of a number of private companies, a member of the Appeals Panel of the New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union Judiciary and Honorary Solicitor for the Australian Rugby Business Network.

Experience

Matthew’s experience includes advising:

  • Australian owners of a private European company (which owns a hotel in eastern Europe) on the sale of their shares in the company;
  • Company boards, directors and officers on their duties, obligations and legal, contractual and commercial issues;
  • Trusts and Estate planning on acting as trustee of estates and trusts and director / company secretary of companies within private family groups;
  • Trust funds on establishing and amending trusts and self managed super funds;
  • Legal Entities on professional standards matters involving the Law Society of New South Wales; and
  • Estate planning on simple and complex estate planning and administration.

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