Whittaker has pursued his professional career principally in Australia, with international legal experience in the United States and Germany. His work has focused on banking and finance, secured transactions, structured finance, securitisation, acquisition finance, debt capital markets, asset finance and leasing.
Whittaker completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours at the University of Melbourne in 1984. His academic training in the humanities and law preceded a career in banking and finance law and later supported his teaching and law-reform work at Melbourne Law School and internationally.
Whittaker began his legal career in 1984 with the firm then known as Blake & Riggall, later associated with Blake Dawson Waldron and Ashurst. He worked as a lawyer and senior associate until 1990, becoming a partner in 1990 and continuing as a partner through 2015. During this period he undertook international secondments as a foreign attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York from September 1987 to early 1989 and with Boden Oppenhoff & Schneider in Cologne in 1989. At Ashurst he developed a banking and finance practice covering acquisition and leveraged finance, debt capital markets, securitisation, asset finance and leasing, general banking and structured finance, and headed the firm’s personal property securities practice. From 2015 to 2018 he served as an Ashurst senior consultant. From 2018 he has worked as a self-employed consultant, including as a senior consultant to the Kozolchyk National Law Center, and has held a senior-fellow role at Melbourne Law School. Whittaker was closely involved in the introduction of Australia’s Personal Property Securities Act 2009, advised financial institutions and businesses on the Act and the Personal Property Securities Register, and in 2014 was appointed by the Australian Attorney-General to review the operation of the Act and related legislation. His final report, delivered in 2015 and tabled in the Commonwealth Parliament in March 2015, made 394 recommendations. He has also contributed to international secured-transactions law reform through UNCITRAL Working Group VI, including participation in the drafting of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions and its Guide to Enactment.
Played a significant role in the development and implementation of Australia’s personal property securities regime, including advising on the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 and the Personal Property Securities Register.
Conducted the Australian Government’s statutory review of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 and delivered the 2015 review report containing 394 recommendations for legislative and administrative reform.
Participated in the drafting of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions, adopted in 2016, and its accompanying Guide to Enactment, published in 2017.
(Article examining whether bare possession can support att...)
2011(Edited by Craig Wappett, Bruce Whittaker and Steve Edward...)
2010(Statutory review conducted for the Australian Attorney-Ge...)
2015Whittaker has participated in professional and international law-reform organizations concerned with banking, finance and secured transactions. He served as a director of the Banking and Financial Services Law Association and was its president from 2017 to 2019. Since 2016 he has served as the Australian Government’s delegate to UNCITRAL Working Group VI on secured-transactions law reform, becoming chair of the working group in 2017.
Whittaker’s professional connections include Melbourne Law School, Ashurst and its predecessor firms, the Banking and Financial Services Law Association, UNCITRAL Working Group VI and the Kozolchyk National Law Center. His international work has involved cooperation with legal experts and institutions engaged in secured-transactions reform in multiple jurisdictions.
