About

Janelle Cain acts as the current general counsel of EBOS Group, the largest healthcare distributor in Australia and New Zealand, and is in charge of a legal team that is guided by a culture to ‘know the business and know the risk’. With three lawyers and an executive assistant, Cain explains how the nature of legal support to the group has changed, having previously relied on external counsel there has been a ‘steady expansion’ of in-house legal support which has had the dual benefits of saving costs for the business and providing legal resources “on tap” to internal clients. Owing to the nature of the healthcare industry’s stringent regulation, the EBOS Group’s legal team is predominantly focused on ensuring the regulatory requirements are fulfilled on behalf of the Group’s many different businesses. Ensuring these are all guided through their own specific risks, Cain states this is impossible to do effectively ‘without understanding the business first’, evincing not only immense legal expertise but business knowledge too. Challenging circumstances consistently envelope EBOS Group’s key pharmaceutical wholesaler Symbion due to the heavy regulation it is subject to – however by ‘engaging constructively’ with new developments in the market with the business people affected they are able to be fully informed of all risk. Due to the wide coverage of business operations in the EBOS Group, the team also work on M&A transactions, distribution arrangements and the promotion of their products. A team that is well-staffed with outstanding legal professionals, legal counsel Dianne Seneviratne was highlighted as having a ‘safe pair of hands’ in her handling of EBOS Group’s legal matters. ‘A key skill of being an in-house counsel is being able to deliver concise advice to senior management’ is another mantra the team work by, making sure all legal and other relevant advice is dispensed with the law and the client in mind.