Banks, financial institutions, statutory bodies and corporates have recoveries portfolios and disputes where commercial stakes, customer sensitivity and regulatory exposure all pull in different directions. In addition, a proportion of assignments are unusually complex and demand senior, hands-on attention.
Some clients treat litigation and enforcement as a last resort, with customer care and reputational risk sitting above commercial recovery in the order of priorities. Others want a fast, assertive path to resolution.
This is a category of work where conventional legal delivery becomes inefficient: large recurring portfolios, compressed timelines, defined KPIs, reporting obligations and constant pressure to balance commercial outcomes with customer, reputational and regulatory considerations.
Volume alone is not the challenge. The challenge is running that volume with the judgement to escalate, resolve, litigate or hold on each assignment, in line with the client's strategy.
Faculti has a large team of Principals and senior lawyers who work directly on complex assignments as well as supervising portfolio outcomes on individual assignments. Assignments include: disputes and defended proceedings, imperfect security positions, priority disputes, complex corporate borrowing structures and enforcement, regulator interest and high-value or reputationally sensitive accounts.
Regular involvement in these assignments builds the depth of expertise that supports the day-to-day management of the portfolio, and produces better outcomes on the complex assignments themselves. The work has been seen before, and the people who have seen it are the ones doing it.
Faculti Lawyers delivers portfolio-based and tailored recovery, dispute resolution and enforcement services with the discipline to execute efficiently, the calibration to adjust approach on every assignment, and the senior bench to handle the assignments that demand it.
What we do
Our Resolutions, Recoveries and Disputes team acts for banks, non-bank lenders, financial institutions, statutory authorities, landlords and corporates across consumer and small business disputes, recoveries involving secured and unsecured debts, statutory recoveries and security enforcement or realisation proceedings.
It is a large national team, with a highly experienced senior team of lawyers who lead complex assignments and disputes and deliver comprehensive management across large client portfolios. Each area is run by practitioners with direct experience of the jurisdiction, the regulatory context and the client's operating strategy.
Consumer recoveries and disputes need to be managed with tight regulatory expectations, reputational considerations and consumer interaction and engagement in mind. We act for banks, non-bank lenders, credit providers and utilities on consumer and retail recoveries and disputes across the full lifecycle, from pre-legal demands and communication through to enforcement or resolution. The team brings deep experience, supported by systems designed to quickly identify assignments that require a differentiated, tailored approach or escalation based on complexity, regulatory exposure or customer hardship or vulnerability.
Small business and commercial recoveries and disputes carry higher exposure per assignment, more complex security positions and more variable recovery paths than consumer work. We act for banks, non-bank lenders and corporates on SME and commercial recoveries and disputes, including contested facility terminations, guarantor actions, security enforcement and associated personal lending. Senior lawyers lead the contested and higher-value assignments directly, with portfolio discipline across the work that runs in volume.
Secured debt recovery combines practical and focused advice, with considered outcomes. We act for banks, non-bank lenders and financial institutions on mortgage enforcement, possession proceedings, security reviews and the enforcement of personal and corporate guarantees. Our team covers the full enforcement pathway: default notices, possession, appointments, sale and post-sale shortfall recovery, with the governance and reporting disciplines institutional lenders require.
Statutory bodies carry recoveries obligations that combine public interest, scheme-specific rules and a sharp focus on accountability and audit. We advise statutory authorities and government clients on statutory recoveries across the portfolio, from early resolution through to litigated recovery and enforcement. The work is run with the reporting, auditability and process discipline that public sector clients and their oversight bodies expect.
Understanding customer intricacies is not a soft edge of the recoveries and disputes portfolio. It is a regulatory, reputational and commercial discipline in its own right. We work alongside hardship teams, complaints teams, financial counsellors and external support services to find resolutions that protect the relationships, reputations and regulatory obligations of clients. Vulnerability, family violence and financial hardship assignments are handled by experienced lawyers with the care and sensitivity the circumstances demand.
When recovery or disputes move to court, our senior litigation lawyers leverage their expertise. We act for banks, financial institutions, statutory authorities and corporates on litigated recovery, disputes and judgement enforcement and execution across all Australian jurisdictions. Litigation is a core strength of the practice.
Insolvency changes the recovery landscape quickly. Deadlines compress, priorities shift and practitioner relationships matter. We act for banks, financial institutions and insolvency practitioners on receivership and liquidation assignments, including asset realisation, voidable and uncommercial transactions, unfair preferences, unfair loans and public examinations. Senior lawyers lead these assignments directly, with direct experience of the Federal Court and state Supreme Court jurisdictions.
Some recoveries turn into substantial disputes. Contested securities, mortgage fraud, guarantor defences, PPSA rectification and banking and lending disputes all require advocacy and forensic capability. We run these assignments with the same senior lawyers who lead the complex dispute work of the firm, combining recoveries and disputes expertise with the litigation strength that contested and high-value assignments demand.
The regulatory environment around financial services conduct, privacy and where it applies, consumer credit, hardship and vulnerability, is demanding, technical and constantly shifting. The people most exposed to it are the frontline teams (collections, customer service and hardship staff) who apply it in every call, every decision and every customer interaction. Because our team operates inside that same framework every day, we are well-placed to train those teams. We deliver targeted training programs, practical guidance and ongoing operational support designed to translate regulation into workable practice.
Non-bank financial institutions, new credit providers and emerging lenders face a compliance obligation that is institutional in scale but without the institutional infrastructure of a major bank.
The governance, policies and controls required for statutory compliance have to be built, not inherited. We have acted for non-bank financial institutions on the establishment of that governance, designing and delivering suites of policies that meet regulatory obligations and are workable for the operational teams who apply them. The work combines regulatory expertise with direct experience of how recoveries, collections and customer-facing teams actually run, so the governance designed is the governance used.
Some institutional clients are looking for more than a legal panel. They are looking for a single provider who will accept responsibility for the full ecosystem of specialist services that a modern recoveries operation requires, operating under the client's policies, protocols and instructions, with one point of accountability, one governance framework and one reporting line into the bank or lender. The level of client contribution can vary, from close day-to-day direction to arm's length oversight, but the governance, the accountability and the reporting line do not.
The services span field agent and process serving, property presenting, legal services (secured and unsecured), skip tracing, community support and customer outreach services, deceased estate management, including working with other legal providers under transparent protocols.
Faculti delivers this as a managed service to a major Australian bank and to non-bank financial lenders. We accept delivery risk across the full ecosystem: specialist services run through our people where they sit within Faculti, and through collaborating providers where they do not, all under a single managed services agreement with the client.
The value is in the governance, the integration and the accountability. A central web portal connects the client's operational teams, our teams and our subcontracted providers into a single workflow, compliant with the information security and privacy requirements of a major financial institution. KPI reporting, risk management, cultural alignment and continuous improvement run across the whole of the service, not just the legal component. One relationship for the client. Full operational responsibility for us.
The capability is national. It can be specialised by state or product where a client needs it, and run on a national footing where they do not.
How we deliver
We align our approach to the client's strategy. Where customer care is the primary concern, we work collaboratively alongside hardship teams, financial counsellors and other service providers to find resolutions that protect the client relationships and meet regulatory expectations. Practitioner expertise sits at the centre of every assignment. Our lawyers know the difference between assignments that should move efficiently through the system and those that require escalation, pause or a different route entirely.
Where the instruction is to move quickly and firmly, we progress with force and efficiency. Our litigation and enforcement capability is a core strength of the practice.
Our technology platform accelerates the work around it (intake, triage, document processing, reporting and portfolio visibility) so the judgement calls happen where they matter, at speed, with every step accounted for. Portfolio management disciplines run alongside: defined KPIs, service reporting, workflow controls, quality assurance and regular performance review.
The result is delivery confidence across the full portfolio. Efficiency throughout the assignments that should move. Calibrated attention, careful restraint or escalation on the ones that should not.
Track record
Built on more than three decades of national recoveries and enforcement practice. Engineered for specialisation and institutional scale.
Faculti Lawyers grew out of Thomsons, one of Australia's emerging top-tier corporate firms, and brings that institutional pedigree into a delivery model purpose-built for large recoveries portfolios and solutions driven services.
Our close working relationship with Thomsons gives the team seamless direct access to additional specialist expertise when an assignment calls for it. Whether the point at issue is tax, property, construction, regulatory, employment, public law or a discrete point of commercial or corporate law, the specialist depth of a top-tier corporate firm enables prompt input into an assignment and sits directly alongside the team.
Our Resolutions, Recoveries and Disputes team carries a long-standing record of acting for banks, non-bank lenders, financial institutions, statutory authorities and corporates on secured and unsecured recoveries, contested disputes and complex enforcement assignments across all Australian jurisdictions.