About Felicity McMahon
Felicity is a Partner in our Competition, Consumer & Regulatory team. She is a trusted advisor to major corporations in sectors including banking, financial services, telecommunications, media & technology, agriculture, mining, funds and private equity.
Felicity practises in all aspects of competition law including advising clients on mergers, investigations & enforcement, ACCC market studies & inquiries and Australian Consumer Law. She has a particular interest and experience in advising on complex mergers and structuring of collaborative arrangements including joint ventures.
In 2023, Felicity was recognised as one of 24 of the Global Elite Thought Leaders (under 45) by Who's Who Legal, which is awarded to practitioners for their ' expertise and experience advising on some of the world's most significant and cutting-edge legal matters, but also their ability to innovate, inspire, and go above and beyond to deliver for their clients.'
Felicity is recognised by Doyle's Guide as a Rising Star and GCR Who's Who Legal as a leading competition lawyer . Clients commend her "great analytic skills" and ability to "grasp the commercial imperatives of her client's business and quickly grasp detailed and complex technical matters". Felicity is a Lexology Client Choice Award winner, an award recognising Felicity's excellent client care, quality of service and ability to add real value to clients' businesses above and beyond others."
Felicity delivers the mergers lectures in the University of Sydney's Postgraduate Competition Law subject.
Felicity’s experience includes advising:
Mergers, joint ventures and other collaborative arrangements
- Westpac on its sale of BT Private Portfolio Management business to Mercer (2023).
- Brookfield Asset Management and MidOcean Energy on securing conditional ACCC authorisation for the $18.7 billion proposed acquisition of Origin Energy Limited, on the basis of public benefits from accelerating Origin's transition to net zero (2023).
- NAB in relation to its strategic partnership with Plenti to launch co-branded secured automotive and electric vehicle loan products and develop renewable energy finance offerings (2023).
- Whitehaven Coal Limited in relation to its acquisition of the Daunia and Blackwater mines from BHP Group and Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd (2024).
- An Australian ADI in relation to the ANZ / Suncorp merger authorisation application and related tribunal proceedings (2023).
- Quantium in relation to the formation of a new data and AI joint venture, Quantium Telstra (2022).
- Thoma Bravo in relation to various acquisitions, including acquisition by Instructure Holdings, Inc. of Parchment Group (2023), the acquisition of UserTesting, Inc. (2022), the acquisition by Ping Identity of ForgeRock, Inc (2022), by Connectwise of Wise-Sync (2022), and by Imprivata of SecureLink (2022).
- ANZCO on its acquisition of Moregate Biotech (2022).
- Castik Capital on the conditional sale of Waterlogic to Culligan (owned by BDT Capital) (2022).
- Cross Ocean Partners on investments in Australia (2022).
- Pfizer in relation to its acquisition of ResApp Health Ltd (2022).
- HP Inc. in relation to its acquisition of Poly (formerly known as Plantronics) (2022).
- NortonLifeLock Inc. on its US$8 billion merger with Avast Plc (2021).
- Veolia on its US$15 billion acquisition of Suez (2021).
- Konecranes Plc on its merger with Cargotec Plc (aborted) (2021).
- Court Square Capital Partners on the US$1.2 billion sale of its portfolio company, Getaroom.com, to Booking.com (2021).
- Salesforce Inc, on securing unconditional clearance for its US$28 billion acquisition of Slack (2021).
- Westpac on the acquisition of MoneyBrilliant (2021).
- Westpac on its banking as a service partnerships with, among others, Afterpay and Society One (2020-21).
- Westpac on the sale of its lenders mortgage insurance business to Arch Capital and related 10 year supply agreement (2021).
- Westpac on PNG merger control aspects of its competitive auction process to sell its Pacific businesses (Westpac Fiji and Westpac Bank PNG) to Kina Securities Limited for up to A$420 million (2020).
- Healthecare on the sale of its surgical business to Pacific Equity Partners (2021)
- HG Capital on the acquisition by its portfolio company, Litera, of DocsCorp (2021).
- HG Capital on the acquisition by its portfolio company, FE Fund Info, of MessageMedia (2021).
- GI Capital Partners on the acquisition by its portfolio company, Generate Life Sciences, Inc. of Cell Care Australia (2021).
- iHeart Media on its acquisition of Triton Digital (2021).
- Logos on its acquisition of certain land at Huntingwood, NSW (2021).
- Qiagen on the proposed acquisition of Qiagen by Thermo Fisher Scientific (aborted) (2020).
- Telus on its acquisition of AFT Technologies (2020).
- KKR and Arnott's on acquisitions of Freedom Foods and Diver Foods businesses (2021).
- Australian Food and Fibre on its $500 million acquisition of ASX-listed, Auscott Limited (2021).
- Australian Food and Fibre on its $300 million acquisition of the Midkin Aggregation (2019).
- A.P. Eagers Limited in obtaining ACCC merger authorisation for AP Eagers' buy-out of Automotive Holdings Group, enabling the merger of two of the largest new car dealership groups in Australia. This was the first merger authorisation considered by the ACCC since the 2017 reforms to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (2019).
- News Limited on the sale of its 50.1% interest in Community Newspaper Group Limited to West Australian Newspapers Limited (a subsidiary of Seven West Media) (2019).
- DuPont on the US $130+ billion acquisition of DuPont by the Dow Chemical Company, and subsequent division into Corteva Agriscience, Dow and DuPont (2016-2017).
- ANZ in obtaining ACCC clearance for ANZ on the AU$2.85bn divestment of its life and consumer credit insurance business to Zurich, which formed Australia's largest retail life insurer (2017).
- News Limited in securing ACCC clearance for News' acquisition of the Australian Regional Media business from APN (2016).
- News Limited in relation to its sale of The Sunday Times and perthnow.com.au assets to Seven West Media (2016).
- Pfizer in seeking ACCC clearance for its proposed acquisition of Allergan (withdrawn).
- CPPIB and GIP in securing ACCC clearance for the public bid with Qube and Brookfield (and others) for Asciano and subsequent break-up (2016).
- CPPIB in securing ACCC clearance for CPPIB's investment in Glencore Agriculture (2016).
ACCC market studies, inquiries and other investigations
- A major media organisation – in relation to the ACCC's digital platforms inquiry, digital advertising inquiry and negotiations with digital platforms regarding a mandatory code of conduct.
- Various parties in relation to the ACCC's 5 year digital platform services inquiry.
- An Australian ADI – in relation to the ACCC's deposit rates inquiry.
- An Australian childcare provider in relation to the ACCC's childcare inquiry.
- Sydney Airport – in relation to the Productivity Commission's inquiry into the regulation of Sydney Airport.
- A major global financial services provider – in relation to the Royal Commission into financial services and subsequent referrals from the Royal Commission including an associated remediation program.
Consumer law
Felicity advises on all aspects of the Australian Consumer Law, including unfair contracts, consumer guarantees and misleading or deceptive conduct. Her experience spans a number of industries, and has included advising luxury car manufacturers and retailers, digital retailers, industrial and logistics companies, entertainment providers and suppliers of insurance.
Prior to joining Allens, Felicity worked in the London offices of Linklaters LLP and Kirkland & Ellis International LLP where, alongside a practice focused predominantly on securing worldwide merger control clearances for clients completing complex merger transactions, Felicity also advised clients on market studies and investigations, and defending firms subject to multi-jurisdictional cartel investigations. At Kirkland & Ellis, Felicity had a practice which focused predominantly on private equity clients, including Sun Capital, Bain Capital, Vista Equity Partners, GTCR, Thoma Bravo, Advent International, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, as well as corporate clients such as Tenneco Inc, Evergreen, Accenture, Infineon and Zebra Technologies. Felicity's time in the UK also involved time on secondment to the legal headquarters of a major multinational resources company.
Felicity remains qualified with a current practising certificate in England and Wales, and is also admitted in Ireland (non-practising).