Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?

I feel very honoured to work with some of Australia’s best content creators, while advising on key contents, as well as providing support to the SBS content, marketing, and sales divisions on their preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. I have also designed a number of technical supports for the in-house legal team including a digitised reporting restrictions table which summarises key legislation and protections that impact SBS’s daily news reporting. The digitisation aided in the legal team’s ability to deliver swift, accurate and high-quality advice to our clients even while working remotely or with limited access to materials.

In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?

Having started my career in-house, I have been fortunate to be introduced to a team that is dedicated to supporting each other and taking care of our own. The vessel for the growth of my potential, skill and expertise has been the care and collaborative spirit of my colleagues. One of the many beauties of working in-house is being beside your clients and developing strong relationships, I would not be the in-house counsel I am today without the patience, trust, and devotion of my clients who are dedicated to SBS’s purpose and charter. The experiences I have had in-house have been cultivated by my team who keep me curious and open-minded to new challenges and practice areas. Working in-house you are exposed to the many different risks and challenges a business can encounter. A strong legal team is one that endeavours to anticipate those risks but is agile enough to face the unexpected and give the highest quality of legal advice.

What is the biggest risk to your industry and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?

It is hard to choose one with so many colliding conflicts in the media industry – content supply pressure, cybersecurity, privacy and protecting people. However, all of those can be linked by the “risk of breaching trust”. At SBS we are audience obsessed and the foundation of their trust is built on what we publish, how they view us, how we manage our relationships. I contribute by anticipating needs and issues that may arise, building strong relationships with stakeholders, giving enabling and holistic advice, and asking the right questions.

What challenges have you overcome to get the position you are in today?

In my final year of university, I was offered a position in SBS’s in-house legal team as their Indigenous legal cadet. Before taking the role, I had contemplated pursuing other careers as the clerkship and private practice pathway didn’t feel like a good fit. The direction my career has taken since then has felt intuitive and purposeful. Every day, I work with some of Australia’s best journalists, producers and broadcasters who tell incredible stories about multicultural Australia, and our First Nations peoples and cultures. As an Aboriginal woman, advising on challenging content of deaths in custody, incarceration and removal of children can be tough but supporting my clients to tell these stories, and pursue truth telling in a legally safe way is incredibly rewarding.