About

Tina Davey joined AIA Australia (AIAA) as senior legal counsel in April 2016. She provides strategic legal support to AIAA’s group insurance channel and shared services teams, and is also the lead lawyer on AIAA’s acquisition of CommInsure. In the words of a nominator, ‘Davey is a highly versatile lawyer and works across a wide range of practice areas including M&A, insurance, superannuation, financial services, contract, employment, privacy and IT’. Prior to joining AIAA, Davey gained valuable transactional experience working as legal counsel at National Australia Bank. Her extensive experience has been acknowledged by her being noted as an expert in-house banking and finance lawyer. She commenced her career at Ashurst and was appointed as senior associate after just 3.5 years’ post-admission experience. The nominator adds that Davey is ‘regularly recognised by key stakeholders in the business for the quality of her work, sound judgement, and for being responsive, calm, approachable and easy to work with’. She quickly established herself as a key contact for important stakeholders at the company (including members of the executive committee and other senior leaders) and instils trust and confidence through her strong legal, communication and relationship skills. The nominator continues: ‘She is always willing to help the business with any queries, has an advanced ability to think innovatively, strategically and commercially, is solutions focused and openly embraces technical, new and challenging work. She is also a positive role model for more junior lawyers and is committed to making a difference. She encourages and influences junior lawyers at AIAA by providing positive and constructive feedback and guidance and ensuring that their professional skills continue to develop’. One of Davey’s key achievements include acting as lead lawyer on AIAA’s acquisition of Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s life insurance business in Australia (CommInsure) which (subject to regulatory approval) is due to complete in 2019, and also involves entry into a 20-year strategic bancassurance partnership. This included taking a key role in negotiating transaction documents, engaging with regulators to obtain approvals and assisting with integration activities. She has provided critical legal support to enable AIAA to achieve above-target financial results and the number one position in the Australian group insurance market, including supporting the successful renewal and retention of its top group insurance clients and successful tenders for two major new clients (HESTA and the Mercer Superannuation Trust). Davey supported the launch and expansion of shared value initiatives and market-leading product innovations, such as AIA’s Vitality program and innovative income protection product designs. AIA Vitality is a health and wellness program that rewards customers for making healthy lifestyle changes. Davey has been fundamental in facilitating the expansion of AIA Vitality into new distribution channels, including to one of Australia’s largest industry superannuation funds. Davey highlights changes that she believes will be part of the in-house legal market in the near future. She says that, ‘I think those of us in the financial services industry are already well accustomed to constant scrutiny and regulatory reform, but there has been a noticeable increase in activity following the Royal Commission and preceding reviews and inquiries which I expect will continue. The nature of the work in-house lawyers are doing is shifting – it is not necessarily a strict legal interpretation that is required; there is much more focus on whether we are doing “the right thing in the right way” and considering community expectations, rather than whether we can legally do something. The in-house team will be key stakeholder in championing to rebuild community trust and respect for the industry. I also hope to see an increase in the number of female general counsels’. Davey also identifies that she has benefitted from a fantastic support system within AIA. She says that, ‘my legal and business peers have played a crucial role in my career progression so far. Support can take many forms, but in my mind the following are fundamental. As business partners your commercial stakeholders need to be advocates for you and proactively seek you out or put your name forward as someone who has a valuable point of view to contribute to a discussion. Business partners also play a key role in providing feedback, ensuring that lawyers are delivering legal support in a way that works for the business’. An aspiring general counsel ‘should be someone who will push you out of your comfort zone and encourage you to throw your hat in the ring when opportunities arise and recognise and reward your efforts. You need your people leader to be someone who takes a real interest in your career development and genuinely delights in seeing you succeed and advocating for your development and promotion’. Touted as a rising star in particular for her expertise and understanding of the evolution of the general counsel role, Davey highlights that general counsel must be ‘“more than just a lawyer” – needing to demonstrate sound business acumen and judgment, have an innate understanding of the broader company strategy (and the legal team’s role in that strategy) and bring a cross-functional perspective to their work, [and] also need to be great leaders who are able to empower their team to support them to deliver on the company strategy and to build the profile of, and promote, the legal team, both internally and externally’.