About

Before Christian Paech joined Santos – Australia’s second largest independent oil and gas producer – he amassed a decade of experience in private practice with stints at both Ashurst in London, and Herbert Smith Freehills in Melbourne, focusing mainly on M&A deals, and corporate and commercial law. Paech joined Santos as a senior corporate lawyer supporting corporate development and new ventures before being promoted to deputy general counsel, general counsel and then general counsel and company secretary. Paech was the lead legal adviser in company’s acquisition of Tipperary Corp in the US. This was his first major deal as an in-house lawyer and managed to narrowly outbid another party competing for the asset. Such assets provided the foundation for the GLNG project in Queensland which has transformed the company into a material LNG participant.

When asked about further career highlights, Paech says, ‘being appointed general counsel at just 38. There was an open process for appointment and I managed to secure the role despite a number of strong external candidates’. As general counsel and team leader, Paech has implemented a driving focus on core competencies based on industry knowledge and expertise. He says, ‘I believe that Santos in-house lawyers are more expert in key areas such as gas sale agreements, Farmins [and] drilling contracts than what we can source externally’.