About

Telstra’s 200-strong legal team headed by Carmel Mulhern has supported some of the biggest strategic transactions in the Australian telecommunications and media sector. These have included the business’ $9bn AUD nbnTM network joint venture in 2008 and its $11bn AUD renegotiation in 2011, as well as the launch of Telstra Digital. A distinguishing feature of the team is its “all roles flex” policy, which promotes a culture of workplace flexibility, with approximately one-third of the team working part-time or job sharing. ‘This means, for example, that we can accommodate a lawyer whose husband moves to Malaysia – she can continue to work for us remotely’, Mulhern says. ‘It also means that people who may not otherwise apply for roles because of their personal circumstances, may now do so in the comfort that flexibility will generally be available’. Mulhern’s approach on focusing on developing specialist legal and business skills, as well as broad collaboration between various teams within the company has contributed even further to the personal development of individual lawyers. Craig Emery, general counsel covering Telstra’s retail, small business, product, marketing and media legal teams, is another standout lawyer from the team, having impressed with his work on handling Telstra’s growing content portfolio, as well as its relationship with Foxtel. Sue Laver, general counsel of Telstra’s dispute resolution, HR, risk and compliance team also receives praise, in particular, for her contributions to best practice in her team by means of driving change management, learning and development, communications and HR strategy.