Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?  

When I was a senior corporate lawyer at AGL, I arranged and hosted regular “lunch and learns” for the AGL legal team and the wider AGL business. The speed and complexity of the energy transition, and the increasing need for cross-collaboration with different areas of the AGL legal team and business, meant that a regular “lunch and learn” provided a forum to close knowledge gaps while facilitating the development of new solutions through the diversity of thinking. The in-house legal team was given the opportunity to present at these sessions, providing a forum to showcase their expertise and increasingly visible leadership within the AGL legal team and the wider AGL business. Deeper relationships were formed between the AGL legal team and the wider AGL business that led to closer collaboration in the resolution and pre-emption of issues. In addition, through the non-billable participation of the AGL panel firms, relationships between the AGL legal team and the AGL panel firms were further developed which led to greater efficiencies, more effective legal advice and other non-billable value adds that benefited both the AGL legal team and the wider AGL business.  

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?  

I have been involved in many complex transactions in the past few years ranging from complex disputes to the delivery of complex contracts and projects.  

A recent example is a dispute relating to how a complex gas contract, with a key customer, relating to a key asset of the company I worked for, operated in the context of a wider suite of project contracts. The customer relied on a conventional view widely accepted by the gas industry. By applying lateral thinking, I was able to persuade the customer and senior management within my organisation to take an unconventional view which led to a significant financial benefit to my organisation. Even though I had, at that stage, been advising on gas contracts and regulations for 20 years, I grew from the experience, partly by challenging what was an industry norm and partly by managing legal risks by non-legal means outside of the contract.  

An example of a complex project I led in recent years is the first of its kind LNG import project in Australia. The challenge included coordinating multiple workstreams involving multiple in-house and external lawyers, identifying and mitigating new domestic and international contractual and regulatory risks, managing the expectations of senior management and adapting to unexpected events including frequent changes of commercial leadership. Even though I had led teams before, I grew from the experience by learning new ways to collaborate and the importance of leadership in a non-hierarchical and dynamic setting. 

What is a cause, business related or otherwise, that you care about, and why? 

At AGL, I was an active part of the AGL Shine committee that supported the LGBTQIA+ personnel and community. At Jemena, I co-founded the Pride network and have done the same at APA.  

I care about the diversity, inclusion and belonging of the LGBTQIA+ community because I am gay. For many years, members of the LGTQIA+ community hid their sexual orientation due to actual and perceived repercussions and as a result were not able to bring their whole selves to work. It is incredibly important that everyone is able to feel supported in their workplace and safe to speak up. This not only leads to benefits for the individual but to the broader organisation, including diversity of thinking, more considered decisions and outcomes, greater retention, the attraction of talent, enhanced workplace culture and an improved social license.