Liam Hennessy

Director at Law Firm, Gadens

I advise leading financial services clients in relation to a wide-range of risk / compliance / structuring matters, regulatory investigations and complex disputes. I am dedicated to partnering with my clients to enhance and protect their businesses in this increasingly challenging space by providing exceptional technical advice in a commercial and innovative way.

My clients mainly comprise of financial services firms, including banks, lenders, insurers and funds. My experience spans periods working in London, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. I have an LLM from Sydney University (advanced corporate governance and regulatory) and I present, commentate in the media e.g. the AFR and write regular articles / maintain a weekly blog on financial services regulatory issues. I am a member of a number of committees e.g. Queensland Law Society’s Banking & Finance Committee and sit as a director on a local charity board. I lecture financial services regulation law at a Brisbane university.

I have considerable experience with the Australian BEAR regime (and UK Senior Manager’s Regime), ASIC’s DDO / PIP regime, AFSL / ACL obligations, fund structuring, privacy / data frameworks incl. GDPR, anti-money laundering systems, whistle-blowing structures, modern slavery requirements and white collar crime prevention. More generally, I advise clients in relation to culture, governance and compliance issues such as ‘reasonable steps’ reviews, risk assessments, risk management structures, complaints handling and policy / contract reviews e.g. unfair contract terms.

I have structured and undertaken a wide range of internal investigations for financial services clients across multiple international jurisdictions and represent clients in contentious regulatory investigations and court disputes. Recent contentious matters I worked on include on several confidential ASIC investigations for financial services entities; acting for a client called before the Hayne Royal Commission; advising a global bank concerning multiple global regulatory agencies’ investigations into allegations of manipulation of UK benchmarks and related conduct; advising a large mutual bank in relation to multiple UK regulators’ investigations concerning allegations of systemic mismanagement; acting for a leading advisory firm in a class action relating to a large capital raising for a failed construction conglomerate. 

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Gadens releases Breach Manager