Jacqueline Woods leads the Forensic Accounting team at BRI Ferrier, providing forensic accounting, expert witness and business valuation services. Going beyond the binary, Jacqui and her team apply their forensic lens to topical issues to serve up practical insights and fresh perspectives on all things forensic accounting. Tackling issues including directors’ duties, insolvent trading, business interruption, shareholder oppression and post-acquisition disputes, they Call to Account the broader commercial and board room implications of matters that come across their desks. They’ll also interview lawyers and other relevant business professionals, tapping into their expertise to bring you the latest thinking on current trends and emerging issues.
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EPISODES
E1 - Preview
Jacqui Woods and Paul Croft, directors and partners in crime in BRI Ferrier's Forensic Accounting practice, preview their new vlog series, Called to Account. Coming soon!
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E2 - Insolvency through the lens of an unfolding crisis
In the video, Jacqui and Paul offer a fresh perspective on insolvency and a director's duty concerning insolvent trading, reflecting on insolvency in the context of an unfolding crisis. Paul also shares some relevant insights from his time investigating one aspect of the Dick Smith insolvent trading litigation.
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E3 - Anti-phoenixing legislation: impacts for directors and other stakeholders
In this podcast, Paul Croft talks to Marc Rossi, Restructuring, Insolvency and Recoveries partner at Hicksons, about what the new anti-phoenixing legislation means for directors and other stakeholders, particularly if they are to avoid falling foul of the new legislation.
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E4 - COVID-19 business interruption insurance claims
In this episode , Jacqui and Paul, Directors in BRI Ferrier’s Forensic Accounting team give an overview of the status of COVID-19 related business interruption insurance claims, highlight how issues of causation and proximity may impact damage quantification, discuss the possible ramifications of the recent UK Supreme Court judgment for Australian claimants and muse on the additional information potential claimants may need to produce to support their COVID-19 BI loss claims.
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E5 - Considerations for directors looking to rely on the Safe Harbour provisions
In this episode, Paul Croft is joined by Hannah Griffiths, Head of Restructuring and Insolvency at Gilchrist Connell, who shares some key insights about eligibility, evidentiary and other considerations pertinent to directors who may be looking on the Safe Harbour provisions. She also explains how the COVID-19 Safe Harbour provisions differ to the standard Safe Harbour provisions, and along the way, manages to smash a misplaced myth about Safe Harbour.
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E6 - Putting a value on privacy
Jacqui and Paul investigate our personally identifiable information might be valued in a litigation context. They provide some context as to the scale and cost of data breaches before presenting a framework and evaluating options for putting a value on our privacy in class actions involving data breaches, theft and/or misuse.
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E7 - Dividends and material prejudice
In this podcast, Jacqui and Paul discuss a number of critical insights emerging from the dividend case in the Dick Smith litigation, in particular, the concept of "material prejudice" included in s254T(c) of the Corporations Act and the potential hurdle it creates to paying and declaring dividends. Highly relevant to directors - particularly CFOs - is the approach adopted by the Court to assess the "reliability" of information provided to boards, as well as, the extent to which that information provides a reasonable basis for taking decisions about dividends. Usefully, the judgement also identifies a number potential mitigation actions directors might consider in circumstances where a breach under s180(1) and (2) may arise because the company has potentially been exposed to a breach of s254T(c).
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E8: Enterprise value v Equity value: explaining a commonly misunderstood business valuation concept
When shareholders or partners go their separate ways, disputes often arise over the value of commonly held assets. One of the causes of valuation disputes between the parties arises because they hold different views of what is being valued, bought or sold. In this episode, Jacqueline Woods, BRI Ferrier's valuation expert, explains the differences between "enterprise value" and equity value", a concept that is commonly misunderstood in business valuation.
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E9: Expert evidence update: learnings from recent judgements
There have been a number of cases this year that turn the spotlight on expert evidence, including issues related to inherent bias, expertise and experience and, the weighting given to, and admissibility of, expert evidence. In this podcast, Paul Croft shares his insights from the findings in two recent cases into expert evidence.
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E10: Shareholder disputes
One of the downsides of COVID-19 has been an uptick in shareholder acquisition disputes, with cash-strapped business owners seeking to exit businesses or look for ways to extract additional value by exploiting the shareholders agreement. This video looks at two of the more common causes of shareholder disputes and suggests some ways shareholders in private companies can reduce the risk and scope of costly disputes.
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E11: Shareholder disputes (Part 2): Mitigating the risk of post-acquisition surprises
Post-acquisition disputes often emerge at the time that completion accounts are prepared after an acquisition or where a buyer discovers new things about the business that weren’t disclosed during the due diligence process. Disputes may also arise over the computation of earn-out clauses and where there is an alleged breach of warranty or indemnity given in the Sale & Purchase Agreement.
This episode considers a number of the common causes of post-acquisition disputes and offers a few suggestions on how to avoid or mitigate such disputes.
