Team size: 70

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

While the Covid-19 crisis represented the greatest ever challenge for the aviation industry, including for Qantas Airways in our 100-year history, the recovery from the hibernation of aircraft fleets across the globe has been an equal challenge. Supply chain constraints, resource (including people) scarcity, logistical challenges, and competition for business inputs have all factored heavily in airlines – including Qantas – struggling to meet the burgeoning post-Covid demand for air travel. Re-awakening a sleeping airline beast, so as to meet customer expectations for capacity and reliability, has stretched the organisation, including the legal team, like it has never been stretched before. That stretch is expected to continue – especially in the international markets – well into 2024. For the legal team, that challenge has manifested in strained contractual relationships and negotiations, regular and often heated regulatory interface – especially with the consumer advocate and anti-trust regulators – and a constant stream of employee and industrial relations hurdles.

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

For the strategic partnering and high-value-add work of my team, while technology will assist at the margins for more efficient data analysis and integration, I see little change to the fundamental role or responsibilities of my legal team.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

In-house counsel in the aviation industry need to know their business and how specifically their clients’ contribution fits into the business value chain. The aviation chain of production is impossibly complex, and the inter-dependencies across (horizontally) and within (vertically) the business of an airline require in-house counsel always to have adjacent dependencies in mind when working with or advising any part of the business: the lateral and upstream-downstream consequences of that work can be profound, and legal advice cannot be delivered in a vacuum. Collaboration, collegiality, and open-mindedness are critical success factors, in this agile, fast-paced, and highly dynamic industry.