Raini Zambelli

Raini Zambelli is a corporate and commercial law barrister.  She has acted for large financial institutions, governments, and government agencies, corporate entities of all size, directors, joint ventures and partnerships.  Raini specialises in complex insolvency, financial and cross-border disputes and has over 18 years' litigation experience in Australia and across multiple European jurisdictions, the Middle East, Asia, Russia and the Americas.  Before coming to the Bar, Raini practised as a solicitor in Melbourne and in London.

She holds a Masters of Law majoring in contentious insolvency and international arbitration, is a qualified and practising mediator and was dux of her year in ARITA’s Insolvency Education Program.  She is admitted to the English Bar as a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, is qualified as a mediator in the United Kingdom and in Australia, and admitted as a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrtors (MCiArb).

Raini has conducted significant litigation involving large-scale corporate collapses in the Supreme Court of Victoria and in the High Court and the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. She also has extensive experience in the financial services sector, having spent two years seconded as in-house counsel to Royal Sun Alliance and to the Royal Bank of Scotland in London.

Raini is recognised for her technical excellence and client relationship skills by the following publications:

• Chambers & Partners, as a leader in the field of Restructuring & Insolvency in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020;
• Doyles Guide, as leading Insolvency & Restructuring Junior Counsel in 2018, 2019 and 2020;
• Doyles Guide, as leading Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution Junior Counsel in 2018, 2019 and 2020; and
• The Best Lawyers in Australia 2021 for her work in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Raini is an elected member of the Victorian Bar 2019/2020 Council.  She is also a member of Victorian Bar's International Arbitration and Arts & Collections Committees and was a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee from 2015 - 2017.  Raini is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Commercial Bar Association, and a former monitor of its Insolvency Section. 

Victorian Bar Committees

• 2019/2020 Bar CouncilExecutive Committee of the Commercial Bar Association
• International Arbitration Committee
• Arts & Collections Committee
• Women Barristers' Association

Other Committees and Working Groups

• International Committee of the Australian Bar Association
• Insolvency and Reconstruction Law Committee of the Law Council of Australia
• UNCITRAL's Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation / Dispute Settlement) 72nd Session in Vienna
• Federal Court Corporations and Commercial Users' Group
• ACICA - the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration - Victorian State Committee

Professional Memberships

• CiArb - the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCiArb)
• The Law Council of AustraliaUNCCA - the UNCITRAL Coordination Committee for Australia
• INSOL International - the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Professionals
• WIRV - Women in Insolvency and Restructuring Victoria
• ARITA - the Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association