Session Outline

• Director Liabilities - Director duties, insolvent trading risks and personal liability exposure when companies face financial distress.
• Director Penalty Notices (DPNs) - Understanding DPNs, ATO debt recovery powers and options for managing tax debt liabilities.
• Small Business Restructuring - Eligibility, process and practical use of the Small Business Restructuring regime as a business recovery tool.

Shelley Brooks is a Director in Restructuring Services with more than 15 years’ experience in corporate and personal insolvency, business turnaround, and mortgagee advisory services. A Registered Liquidator and Chartered Accountant, she has extensive experience across receiverships, voluntary administrations, deeds of company arrangement, liquidations, bankruptcy matters, corporate restructuring, pre-lending reviews, litigation support, and investigative accountant reports. Shelley has been appointed Receiver and Manager to numerous businesses across a diverse range of industries on behalf of major banking institutions. Through effective trading, stakeholder engagement, and strategic management, these businesses were successfully sold, delivering positive outcomes for creditors and financiers. She works closely with key stakeholders, providing practical advice, detailed financial analysis, and regular reporting on trading performance and sale strategies. Her expertise extends across the agricultural sector, where she has undertaken significant work throughout Australia, providing practical and financial insights across the entire value chain. Shelley has also been engaged by major financiers to conduct investigative accountant reviews within the hospitality and agricultural industries and has worked with the Tasmanian Department of State Growth to support businesses experiencing financial distress. Shelley holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a member of ARITA, CA ANZ, the Institute of Public Accountants, and the Institute of Financial Accountants.

Chris Groves, Principal Solicitor, Dobson Mitchell Allport, practises across a wide range of commercial and related disputes, with a focus on company and partnership disputes, insolvency law, building and construction disputes, trust disputes, property disputes and recovery actions. He regularly act for and against insolvency practitioners, developers and property owners, government bodies, large and small builders, shareholders and insurers.

Chris is an accredited building adjudicator under the Security of Payment legislation in Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland and has adjudicated hundreds of construction payment disputes in this role since 2010. Chris has a reputation for strong commercial judgement and tailored problem solving and regularly appears in many of Tasmania’s courts and tribunals.