Matthew Peckham

Matthew practices nationally in commercial, regulatory and public law matters, including in statutory investigations and inquiries. He is the lead author of Civil Penalties in Australia (2025, LexisNexis) – the first comprehensive Australian textbook on civil penalty proceedings.

Matthew is an accomplished litigator and trial advocate, with nearly 20 years’ experience of complex strategic litigation. He works closely with his instructors, and is regularly briefed either unled, with Senior Counsel, or as leader to more junior counsel. Matthew previously held senior roles at Maddocks Lawyers and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and worked at the Financial Services Authority in London.

Matthew’s areas of expertise are:

• Complex corporate and commercial litigation: including corporate governance and shareholder disputes, commercial trusts, managed investment schemes, partnerships, corporate insolvency, schemes of arrangement, and complex fraud and wrongdoing. Matthew is a former member of the Law Council of Australia’s Corporations Law Committee.
• Regulatory and public law (especially civil penalty proceedings): including proceedings for contraventions of corporate, commercial, energy, consumer and other legislation. Matthew has appeared for regulators and defendants in over 15 civil penalty proceedings – many high profile, complex or novel – and has conducted numerous compulsory or public examinations. Matthew also appears in judicial review, merits review and disciplinary proceedings.
• Energy and infrastructure law: including matters raising complex regulatory, engineering, logistical, economic, and consumer law issues. Matthew is the Deputy Chair of the Commercial Bar Association’s Energy & Infrastructure Section, and the co-author of the National Energy Regulation Handbook (2017, Energy Consumers Australia).
• Financial services law and regulation: including financial products, financial services, financial markets and financial advice, superannuation, personal insurance, managed investment schemes, and associated fraud and misconduct.
• Competition and consumer law: including competition law, economic regulation, and breaches of consumer legislation.

For more details of Matthew's experience, click the link to download his CV.

This includes a listing of significant or indicative cases, including civil penalty matters brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Energy Regulator, the Australian Taxation Office, the Essential Services Commission, EnergySafe Victoria, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, and the Minister for the Environment, and hearings in the Australian Competition Tribunal.

Liability limited by a scheme approved under the Professional Standards Legislation