Castle, who resigned in March this year complaining that he was handed insufficient funds to pursue action through the courts, has now confirmed he has accepted partnership at Atanaskovic Hartnell this week.

Castle’s post at on ASIC’s investigation was racked by indecision, some commentators have argued. ASIC chairman Tony D’Aloisio, a former Mallesons Stephe Jaques managing partner, told The Weekend Australia has rejected claims of insufficient resources. He said ASIC had wanted to see whether “the civil side of this can be sorted out without lengthy litigation”.

Castle, meanwhile, is understood to have wanted to pursue litigation. D’Aloisio has said Castle has moved on for career reasons.

Atanaskovic Hartnell managing partner John Atanaskovic today said of the new appointment: “While at the bar, [Castle] worked with a number of well known firms on various important cases, including successfully acting with [the firm’s] partners for News Ltd on the Superleague dispute, and for Competitive Foods (Hungry Jacks) in the precedent setting litigation with Burger King.

Castle will now focus on both commercial litigation and commercial matters, and will be work for a range of clients, including Competitive Foods.

In his role at ASIC, Castle led the Storm investigation team through its primary investigation phase, starting with the winding up of Storm in March 2009.

Castle was also one of the executives involved in planning for the implementation of ASIC's new credit jurisdiction in July this year.

Castle was a barrister at Seven Wentworth chambers until 2007, specialising in major commercial and trade practices cases, including appearing for Telstra in Seven’s C7 litigation and related Trade Practices Tribunal hearings.

He also appeared for Vodafone in the termination of direct marketing firm Mobile Innovations, and for AMP in litigation brought by GPG arising out of AMP’s takeover of GIO.

Castle was regularly briefed at the bar by both John Atanaskovic and Tony Hartnell in a range of corporate and commercial disputes. He has appeared in banking and insolvency litigation for most major Australian banks.