About

‘I rarely see the same matter twice at Tabcorp’, Julian Hoskins says. ‘It is a terrific organisation to work for and my team is fabulous, which makes my job a lot easier!’ GC to the world’s largest publicly-listed gaming company, Hoskins led the $3bn demerger of Tabcorp’s casino division from its wagering, gaming and TGS businesses. ‘This transaction was extremely complex but ran like clock-work – most of the time – over a period of approximately 18 months’. Fully supporting a company of Tabcorp’s size in a highly regulated industry can be a huge challenge, Hoskins concedes. ‘Sometimes work can become all-encompassing’. Sources particularly praise his transformation of the legal function and its interactions with the business. Heading what is now a 26-strong team, he made it a focus, upon his arrival, to ‘in-source’ a large chunk of work previously handled by external lawyers. To support this, he hired several specialist lawyers into the team, which was previously 30% of its current size. As well as significantly reducing legal spend, sources say Hoskins has increased the team’s value-add by promoting greater commercial focus. ‘I have sought to more actively partner with the businesses within Tabcorp’, he says. ‘This ensures the legal team members are regarded as “trusted advisers” who can add real value to important transactions, and not just give legal advice’.