About

Katherine Grace joined Stockland in 2014 as general counsel and company secretary. Prior to her current role she was the general counsel and company secretary of Westfield Retail Trust. In 2014, Grace was a key member of the negotiation team responsible for implementing the US$29bn Westfield Group restructure with Westfield Retail Trust. She has previously held positions in legal private practice, where she acted for a variety of corporations and financial institutions in relation to landmark developments across Australia and overseas, and at Multiplex, Pacific Capital Partners and Valad Property Group.

Navigating the impact of the global financial crisis as the general counsel and company secretary at Valad Property Group, which faced significant headwinds, was a challenging but excellent learning experience. Since joining Stockland, Grace has set about reshaping the existing legal and governance function over the past four years which she says has been ‘an excellent opportunity to drive cultural change, deliver on the organisation’s purpose and transform the perception of the in house function’. Grace has implemented a strong focus on becoming a proactive team that partners collaboratively with its internal clients to manage legal and regulatory risk at Stockland.

She has implemented a wide variety of initiatives including the commencement of a graduate program, detailed roadmaps and toolboxes on key legal and regulatory areas, the development of internal precedents and training. Grace identifies that, ‘as an in-house legal team, we add value by going beyond just giving legal advice to partnering with the business to help solve business problems. We bring our professional lens and expertise on managing our legal risk to look for opportunities and overcome business challenges’.