Team size: four

What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

As first ever in-house counsel for Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, I worked across a range of pharmaceutical and retail businesses, a highlight of which was the early growth of the Priceline Pharmacy network. The Premier Investments takeover of Just Group in 2008 was an M&A highlight. In terms of trials, acting for Playcorp Pty in the successful Federal Court action against Bodum was a satisfying victory in and now remains a significant decision in IP law. Recently, I have had the privilege to work on major civic projects such as State Basketball Centre, design competition for NGV Contemporary and the Spirit of Tasmania terminal in Geelong.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

We know that the pandemic accelerated digital initiatives, a most welcome effect for GC’s interested in legal operations. Electronic execution amendments to the Corporations Act were made permanent last month. In the property development space, many developers converted all contracts of sale for residential real estate to digital form making regular transactions so much more efficient for all parties. Traditional workplaces, including law firms and corporate offices, witnessed that employees could be trusted to work from home and are now implementing flexible work practices, across locations, hours, and methods of work, to retain and attract good talent and contribute to employee wellbeing.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

The following technological advancements have affected our practice as an in-house legal team: document automation, universal acceptance of video conferencing for board meetings and meeting polls, phone apps for basic document production. In the last six months I have trained the workplace in DocuSign, transitioned an independent Diligent license for the GeelongPort board and included AdobeSign optionality into documents.