Iain Irvine

Iain Irvine is a partner with extensive experience in commercial law, providing advice across franchising, licensing, distribution, and intellectual property matters. He has supported both vendors and purchasers in share and business asset transactions, handling deals with purchase prices ranging from around $100,000 to $100 million. Beyond transactional work, Iain offers commercial guidance to clients operating in various industry sectors. His expertise encompasses the establishment of companies, trusts, and other business structures, including the preparation of shareholder documentation. He advises on business succession and estate planning, corporate governance matters such as company procedures and directors’ duties, and the drafting and negotiation of a wide range of commercial contracts. These include services agreements, manufacturing and distribution agreements, shareholders’ agreements, terms and conditions of supply, asset leases, sponsorship agreements, and guarantees. Iain also provides advice on competition and consumer law issues, including misleading and deceptive conduct, anti-competitive behaviour, statutory warranties and guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law, as well as personal property securities law. Recognised in the franchise legal market, Iain regularly works with clients on both Australian and international franchising, licensing, and distribution matters. He has assisted numerous Australian franchisors in establishing and operating their franchise systems, including advising on dispute resolution with franchisees. Additionally, he advises clients on acquisitions of competing brands. Iain’s international experience includes having worked in the United States, where he advised well-established US brands on licensing arrangements into jurisdictions across the European Union, Asia, and the Middle East. He continues to support foreign legal teams with franchising and distribution matters within Australia. His expertise extends to intellectual property rights and commercialisation, as well as IT and online legal issues such as privacy, social media, trademarks, domain names, and web-related contracts. Iain’s comprehensive approach ensures clients receive clear, practical advice tailored to their commercial objectives.