Greg Clayton

Background

Greg Clayton's formative education took place in Canberra at the Australian National University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours. He went on to postgraduate legal study in Melbourne, and in 1983 he was admitted to the bar in Victoria, the start of a legal career based in the state.

The Australian National University was established in 1946 by the Australian Government as a national research university in Canberra. Its founding purpose distinguished it from the older state universities, and its location in the national capital made it a centre of national policy and scholarship.

Education

Clayton's first university studies were at the Australian National University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours. The university was founded in 1946 as a national research institution, a purpose that set it apart from the state universities established in the nineteenth century.

He later obtained a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne, the oldest university in Victoria, founded in 1853. Melbourne's law school has long served the legal profession of the state, and postgraduate study there placed him in the center of Victorian legal education.

Clayton also holds a Graduate Diploma of Business Administration from Swinburne University. Swinburne grew out of technical education in Melbourne, and the business qualification complemented his legal training.

Career

After his admission to practise in Victoria in 1983, Clayton became a partner of Phillips Fox, a full-service Australian law firm. Phillips Fox traced its origins to a Melbourne practice founded as P.D. Phillips in 1864, and it grew into one of the larger firms in Australia and New Zealand. In 2006 it announced an alliance with the global firm DLA Piper and prepared to rebrand as DLA Phillips Fox. The Australian business of DLA Piper absorbed the firm in 2011, bringing Clayton's partnership there to an end.

He later worked as a consultant in the Melbourne office of Cornwalls, where his practice centres on banking and finance. Cornwalls traces its history to 1891, when Frank Cornwall and Harry Sugden established the firm, and it now has offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Within banking and finance, his main focus has been preparing standard documents for receivables financing facilities, acting for originators in securitisation programs, and acting for financiers under subordinated note issues. He has also represented domestic and international banks, other lenders, borrowers, sponsors and trustees over a career that his firm profile describes as spanning more than forty years.

Cornwalls' banking and finance practice has been a finalist for Banking & Finance Team of the Year at the Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards in 2023, 2024 and 2026. Clayton has said that legal practice has changed radically, while working closely with long-standing clients to develop new products has remained a constant for him.

Membership

Clayton is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria, the professional body for lawyers in Victoria, Australia. He is also a member of The Law Society of England and Wales, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, reflecting his admission to practise in that jurisdiction. His memberships further include the Australian Finance Industry Association, an industry body serving the finance sector.

• Law Institute of Victoria , Australia

• The Law Society (England and Wales) , United Kingdom

• Australian Finance Industry Association , Australia

References

• Gregory Clayton, Consultant, Cornwalls Cornwalls firm profile of Clayton as a Melbourne consultant practising in banking and finance, listing his qualifications, memberships, jurisdictions of admission and professional recognition.