Chris Pearce
is a Perth-based lawyer whose practice focuses on corporate distress and
special situations. He is the founder and Managing Partner of Blackwall Legal
and has nearly 20 years’ experience acting for insolvency practitioners,
financiers, restructure proponents, directors and stakeholders in both formal
and informal restructures and distressed disputes. Chris has also lectured in
commercial and corporate practice for the Leo Cussen Institute and the
Piddington Society. In 2023, he launched matilda.law, an AI startup using
generative language models to support efficiency and innovation in legal
practice.
Chris joined
the ARITA National Board in 2025 and currently sits on ARITA’s Finance,
Governance and Risk Committee. He is a member of the Executive of the Law
Council of Australia’s Business Law Section and is the immediate past National
Chair of its Insolvency and Restructuring Committee. Chris also holds a first-class
honours degree in chemistry for research into how lawyers and scientists
communicate in commercial and litigation settings.