Mike is a Director and shareholder of McDonald Patafta Group Pte Ltd (Singapore) and heads our Australian office based in Adelaide as well as working closely with our offices in Singapore, Belgium and Lao PDR.
He has had a career spanning over 35 years as a corporate advisor and lawyer working and advising in many corporate and business sectors worldwide.
He has fulfilled roles as an executive and in house counsel within the Bell Group and at TVW Channel 7 in Perth where he was company secretary. He then worked as corporate counsel within Delhi Petroleum and CSR Limited in Adelaide, before founding McDonald Steed McGrath Lawyers in 1988 in Australia specialising in corporate advisory, international trade and business law, overseas direct investment between Australia and the ASEAN region , energy and resources and migration law. Mike retired as a partner of the firm in 2011.
In 2008 he founded McDonald Steed McGrath Lawyers (now McDonald Patafta & Associates Lawyers) as the first Australian law firm to be established in Lao PDR with it’s office based in Vientiane and is Managing
Director of that firm.
Mike advises on project start ups, governmental relations, joint ventures, foreign investment and trade, transactional corporate/commercial matters and in facilitating strategic business alliances. He is skilled in dealing with cross
jurisdictional issues and in the negotiation of acquisitions and disposals.
He has served as a director on both private and public companies and has participated as a promoter and shareholder in new business start ups including the listing of public companies.
Mike has also served as advisor/consultant to the Government of South Australia on energy contracting matters and negotiations, the Australian Government on international trade matters and as legal advisor to the Government of Lao on its participation in hydroelectric and energy projects.
