Our People

Tim Colcutt

Senior Associate

+61 3 8600 6074
tcolcutt@aitken.com.au
Tim Colcutt

Areas of Law: Insolvency, Litigation
Qualifications: Graduate Bachelor of Laws I Bachelor of Commerce

Tim is an experienced litigator and a trusted advisor to his clients. He works closely with directors and shareholders, business owners, family groups, and insolvency practitioners and has developed a keen understanding of not only the myriad of legal issues they face but also how his legal expertise can be integrated with other aspects of the client’s broader commercial and strategic objectives to ensure optimal outcomes for the client.

He is often called upon to work closely with his clients and their advisors to advise on potential risks and solve problems to prevent litigation or to put his client in the strongest possible position if litigation does arise.

He is well-placed to provide his clients with proactive and practical legal advice to assist them in navigating the legal landscape from his experience in dealing with a wide range of litigation and other contentious legal matters.

Experience

• Drafting and advising on shareholders' agreements and company constitutions, advising on asset protection and security agreements, and enforcing clients’ rights under those agreements.
• Defending and commencing winding up proceedings on the grounds of oppression and insolvency.
• Advising on and negotiating the separation of directors’ and shareholders’ interests within companies and groups of companies, including the buy-out of shares.
• Applying to the Supreme and Federal Court for the appointment of liquidators, administrators and receivers and managers in various circumstances.
• Advising and representing insolvency practitioners and directors concerning preference payment claims, unreasonable director-related transactions, insolvent trading claims and deregistering and reinstating companies.
• Acting for executors, trustees, beneficiaries and claimants concerning a range of contentious estate matters, including Will disputes, revocation of probate, testator family maintenance claims, trustee and executor removal and seeking directions from the Supreme Court in relation to discrete issues concerning the administration of estates and the conduct of the executors and administrators of estates.
• Negotiating complex payment plans with the Australian Taxation Office on behalf of directors, companies and business owners, often at the same time as defending winding up and debt recovery actions commenced by the ATO against those clients in the Supreme Court and Federal Court of Australia.
• Commencing and defending freezing order applications and injunction applications, restraint of trade claims, breach of contract and debt recovery claims, caveat removal applications and mortgage recovery actions.
• Acting for the directors and shareholders of a large, well-established family group of companies involved in the transport, pastoralist and mining industries worth more than $300 million, defending winding up proceedings commenced on the grounds of oppressive conduct and insolvency.
• Acting for a senior executive and shareholder of a large nationally recognised transport and tourism company subjected to oppressive conduct. The client’s position could be leveraged to separate the parties’ interests and negotiate for the client’s shares to be bought out despite the highly acrimonious relationship between the parties.
• Representing a large national transport and equipment hire company primarily involved in transport, mining and logistics to defend substantial preference payment claims.
• Advising and representing a company in the hospitality industry concerning enforcing its rights under a security deed. A strategy was put in place that involved the appointment of a receiver to maximise the value of the assets that could be recovered. The timing and order of the steps taken to recover the assets were critical to ensuring a favourable outcome for the client.
• Successfully applying to the Supreme Court of Victoria for liquidators appointed to a group of companies to also be appointed as receivers and managers of the assets of a group of trusts for the liquidators to sell those assets urgently.
• Representing a property development company with the sale of properties to facilitate the repayment of loans within tight timeframes imposed by the lender. This matter required that a carefully considered strategy be put in place and executed in a timely manner that involved challenging and removing many caveats that had been lodged on the title of the properties, arguably without a proper basis, to allow the properties to be sold and the loans repaid before the lender exercised its right to possession and sale of the properties.
• Acting for an executor and beneficiary of an estate in which they were a director and shareholder of a family group of companies with substantial business interests in Victoria. The group of companies and businesses were put at risk from claims made against the estate and the threat of winding up proceedings being commenced on the grounds of oppressive conduct. The claims were settled, which ensured that the group of companies could be preserved, the business continued operating, and the director avoided any liability associated with the matter.
• Acting for the claimant in a testator family maintenance claim with respect to an estate valued more than $20 million, which involved lengthy, contentious and acrimonious legal proceedings. The matter was settled shortly before trial, with a favourable outcome for the client.