DibbsBarker announces that highly regarded corporate and commercial practitioner, Juanita Rayson, has joined the firm as a partner. Juanita brings over 20 years of experience in the Brisbane market. She joins DibbsBarker from Corrs Chambers Westgarth, where she spent over 10 years including a brief stint as General Counsel of BrisConnections. Prior to that, she was an Investigator with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for 10 years.
Juanita has been involved in some of the largest deals in the market, including Suncorp’s $7.9 billion acquisition of Promina Group, Macarthur Coal’s $4.9 billion takeover by Peabody Energy, and AMCOR’s demerger and ASX listing of its Australasian packaging distribution business, Orora.
Juanita also has strong credentials in the Life Sciences & Healthcare industry, a key focus for DibbsBarker. She advised the vendors in the sale of Queensland Fertility Group to the entity that is now Virtus Health, then she acted for doctors and management on the Virtus Health initial public offering to raise $350 million. She has also advised other listed companies in the sector including ImpediMed and Alchemia.
Alan McArthur, DibbsBarker Managing Partner, said, “We have been looking to expand our commercial capabilities in Brisbane for a number of years, but we have been unwilling to compromise on quality. Juanita is the perfect fit. She has excelled on major transactions and she also brings a wide range of commercial expertise, including corporate governance knowledge, gained from her time with a major firm, as well as in a General Counsel role and with ASIC.
Another important factor in adding Juanita to our team is her alignment with our firm strategy. We are squarely focused on offering our clients deep expertise in key industries like Life Sciences & Healthcare. That sector is buoyant at the moment due to government investment and incentives, greater access to funding and the ever-expanding market. We will be announcing further DibbsBarker expansion in the area later in the year.” Alan adds.
Commenting on her appointment, Juanita said: “I am very excited to be joining DibbsBarker. The firm has a clear strategy and it is successfully executing on it. I see my opportunity to help build the DibbsBarker commercial team in Brisbane as both appealing and relatively unique. I am looking forward to the challenge.”
Juanita’s breadth of knowledge and experience includes acting for a range of listed and unlisted clients on transactions including mergers & acquisitions, restructuring through demerger, capital raisings and associated due diligence investigations. She is also experienced in corporate governance issues such as compliance with the Corporations Act and the ASX Listing Rules, director’s duties advice, shareholder meetings and employee incentive plans.
Juanita will be based in DibbsBarker’s Brisbane office.
