James McConvill

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Dr McConvill alleges to have published eight books, over seventy refereed journal articles, and over one hundred opinion pieces. At 28, he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Law at La Trobe University in Melbourne, a position he left six months later to devote himself to his role of Principal of The Corporate Research Group- a group that McConvill has dubbed Australia's leading think-tank on corporate governance. There was some controversey over McConvill's departure from La Trobe, with the head of La Trobe Law school, Professor Gordon Walker, citing issues with McConvill's teaching quality, and his 'unusual behaviour' at a conference in South America. This received national media attention with a fairly prominent article being published in The Australian.

McConvill gained national attention in Australia during 2005 due to agreeing to publish an article called "Rethinking the White Australia Policy" by Professor Drew Fraser, in the Deakin Law Review- which McConvill edited at the time. The article was subsequently withdrawn after the Sudanese community in Australia threatened to sue Deakin University. Media at the time reported concerns that the article was both racist and xenophobic.

In 2006, McConvill again generated debate by launching a campaign to become Head of Deakin Law School- one of Australia's least well-known law faculties. He was unsuccessful in his attempt. McConvill considered that he was well qualified for the position, however many consider that he was either too young or poorly qualified to assume the role.

In his students days, James was a committee member of the Deakin Law Students Society at Deakin University funded by Deakin University Students Association. He reports to have enjoyed loyal support from members who received membership automatically as part of their enrollment in a Law degree. Although James was elected as preseident of the Society at one point, this has been subject to much criticism as he was elected unopposed and without any significant history of involvement with the Society up until this point. Many of the members of the Society of that year were reportedly upset with this situation. Against this, McConvill alleges that his committee enjoyed great support from the Business and Law faculty on the basis that the faculty provided the club with office space and financial resources.

[edit] LINKS

McConvill has self-published various articles including 'Santa, the secular Christ of Material Abundance' and 'Pornography has its benefits'. Links to some of McConvill's articles are listed below: [[1]] [[2]]

EDUCATION & QUALIFICATIONS

2001 Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia: Law Degree with Honours (Hons), including Supreme Court Exhibition Prize).

2006 Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia: PhD in Law ("Shareholder Participation in the Corporation: A New Perspective").

James' Ph.D. was published as a monograph in March 2006 by Routledge, London.

[edit] PROFILE

James is a corporate lawyer who worked for two years (between 2002 and 2004) with the top-tier Australian firm, Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR). During his time at AAR, James worked on a series of large-scale transactions and projects, including the merger of Goldman Sachs and investment broker JB Were, a AUD$2 Billion merger of two large gaming companies, and acted for Dun & Bradstreet on an Indonesian licensing project, which involved working with foreign lawyers and dealing with foreign governments.

James left AAR for various reasons in early 2004. McConvill states that he left to complete a Ph.D. in corporate governance at Deakin Law School. While completing his Ph.D he took up the position of Principal of The Corporate Research Group, a private organisation alleging to specialise in corporate law and governance analysis from a conservative viewpoint. During this period, he also lectured in corporation law in the Law School at Deakin University, Melbourne. He has published extensively, and recently became editor of the Corporate Governance Law Review.

[edit] EXPERIENCE

February 2005 - The Corporate Research Group. Principal

· This Group is involved in industry linkage, report writing on corporate law and governance issues, media commentary on corporate law and governance issues, and organising publications and presentations. · The website for the Group is: <http://www.corporate-research.net>

Jan 2006 - Asia-Pacific Centre for American Law Director

Think-tank on comparative and inter-disciplinary analysis of corporate law and governance.

2005 Deakin University Law School, Melbourne, Australia. Lecturer in Law, full-time basis

Lectured in the subjects corporations law (including insolvency), company directors (corporate governance and directors duties), succession law, banking law and securities, and developed the course for a forthcoming LLM subject- ‘Mergers and Acquisitions’.

2002 - 2004 Allens Arthur Robinson in Melbourne, Australia. Articled Clerk and Lawyer, Full-time position.

In 2002-3, Chambers Global ranked Allens Arthur Robinson as the leading law firm in Australia and one of the top 10 law firms in the world. Allens Arthur Robinson continually ranks number one in M&A/ Corporate and Energy and Resources.

James practised in the Corporate group and the Energy and Resources group. The main areas of law that James was exposed to were corporate governance, takeovers law as well as competition law, infrastructure/public law.

Examples of significant transactions he worked on at AAR include:

· Advising gaming company Tabcorp on its $1.7 billion merger with Jupiters by way of schemes of arrangement, which also involved the concurrent sale of one of Jupiters’ business; · Advising China Gas Light on its proposed acquisition of Loy Yang A power station in Victoria, Australia. · Advising Tabcorp on its $2.5 billion takeover bid for TAB, a transaction which also involved legislative change. · Advising Rio Tinto on various competition law (particularly in relation to access arrangements) and acquisition matters during my time at AAR. · Providing legal opinion to AMP in its high-profile demerger in 2003 (on secondment at ASIC) · Providing legal opinion to JB Were and Goldman Sachs in relation to the merger of these two entities in 2003 (on secondment at ASIC). · Advising Pulse Energy on a multi-million dollar gas distribution dispute. · Advising Dun and Bradstreet on the establishment of an Indonesian business communications and ratings business (which involved working with lawyers from Indonesia and Singapore). · A range of smaller M&A and general commercial matters.