About

Alison Mitchell joined GOAL in November 2015 with over seven years PQE. Before this, she acted as general counsel with Calor Gas Ireland (2014) and prior to that as a corporate associate, gaining in-depth experience in M&A, corporate restructuring, equity fundraising, commercial contracts and corporate governance and compliance with top tier law firms, Maples & Calder and Matheson, with whom she qualified as a solicitor and she worked in the corporate finance departments of both firms. Having taken a sabbatical in 2013 to undertake charity work and travel, in particular in East and West Africa, her move to GOAL in 2015 was a role which allowed her to apply her legal expertise to numerous deserving causes in the developing world, which she describes as ‘the perfect combination of an exciting and challenging legal position with a real purpose. No day is the same and this position constantly raises challenging legal queries, has a multi-jurisdictional element and many governance and compliance matters, ensuring accountability by the organisation to its stakeholders while seeing the direct impact GOAL’s humanitarian programmes have on vulnerable communities across the world’. Since joining the organisation, Mitchell has put in place of a revised comprehensive conflict-of-interest process. This involved significant research and discussions with other legal departments in the INGO sector, overhauling our conflict-of-interest policy and the putting in place of an online COI declaration system which involves both compulsory and ad hoc declarations each year. A risk based approach was taken when revising the COI policy and creating the online system, ensuring that COIs are detected and managed correctly and in a practical manner. The main focus is on COIs identified during recruitment; procurement; and at senior management and board level. Mitchell highlights that, ‘this has been well received within the organisation and well recognised by external stakeholders, who said it was best in class. Personally, I have seen a positive impact which continues to strengthen the organisation which has been well received within the organisation and well recognised by external stakeholders, who noted recently that our COI policy and system is “best in class”’. Mitchell also performed a global governance review and risk assessment processes review in a continued compliance shake up. Mitchell highlights that she thinks ‘it is important for lawyers, junior and senior and law students, to understand the diversity of the profession and seek out jobs where legal issues are both challenging and have a significant impact. This can be as an in-house counsel but also as a director non-executive director where legal and governance skills and expertise are invaluable to an organisation, sometimes with limited budget and resources. As a company limited by guarantee, GOAL has the same company law and charity law obligations as other multinational organisations. In addition, it is a registered charity and regulated by the Charities Regulator in Ireland’.