Judges

Jenna Adamson is a CEO, director and former commercial property partner, leading one of Australasia’s most diverse private family offices. She oversees a multi-sector portfolio spanning property and infrastructure, venture capital, technology and philanthropy, delivering purpose-driven outcomes across Australia and New Zealand.

With a background in top-tier legal practice, including as former Partner & AI Lead at a leading New Zealand law firm, Jenna brings deep expertise in complex developments and technology-enabled transformation. As Director of Southern Infrastructure, she is progressing critical projects such as the Queenstown Cable Car and Southern Lakes Hospital, mobilising private capital and innovative delivery models to accelerate infrastructure where it is most needed.

Recognised for her strategic clarity and forward-thinking leadership, Jenna combines governance rigour with commercial acumen to enable resilient, future-focused industries and long-term community value.

Vice-President, General Counsel and Ethics & Compliance Officer (Capgemini Australia, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong) | GC Powerlist 2022/3 | In-house Leader 2022 | GC of the Year finalist | Equality advocate | Parent | Laughs a lot

Linda Baxter is the Director, Continuing Professional Development and part of the senior management team at Leo Cussen Centre for Law. Having previously been in private practice followed by a regulatory investigative role, Linda also writes materials and trains legal practitioners in Ethics & Professional Conduct.

Claire is a senior lawyer and professional coach, based on the east coast of Australia. Claire has over 30 years of experience gained through senior management appointments with some of the world’s largest companies and at top-tier law firms. As well as practising law, Claire is an internationally qualified executive coach (PCC) and in 2018 she founded a global professional coaching practice in which she coaches private and corporate clients, specialising in senior lawyers and executives, to empower them to move their career and leadership dreams into active, actionable, pursuits. Outside of her executive life, Claire is a non-executive director of multiple ASX-listed companies and is an Industry Professional Fellow with the University of Technology Sydney, School of Law.

Claire has been recognised as one of Australia’s best lawyers and female executives, including having been awarded the “Excellence Award for Women in Law”, “General Counsel of the Year”, “Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia & New Zealand”, “Mentor of the Year” and was featured in SmartCompany's International Women's Day Showcase.

Dr John Boersig was appointed to Legal Aid ACT as the Chief Executive Officer in 2013, where he aims to promote access to justice in the ACT. Prior to this, he led a distinguished career in the fields of law, education and community service. Dr Boersig commenced in legal aid practice in 1983 with the Aboriginal Legal Service, eventually joining the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department in 2004 as Assistant Secretary of the Indigenous Law & Justice Branch. He has experience as a senior lecturer and director of the University of Newcastle Legal Centre where he ran the clinical and professional program for the Faculty of Law. He was later awarded the Public Service Medal in 2008, and completed his PhD from the University of Sydney focusing on Indigenous-based sentencing reform.

Joseph Catanzariti AM is a Vice President of the Fair Work Commission, the national workplace relations tribunal.

Prior to his appointment to the Fair Work Commission, Joseph was a senior Partner of Clayton Utz and Practice Leader of the Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety Practice Group. Joseph was a trusted adviser to many of Australia’s leading companies and government departments. Joseph was also a highly experienced Commercial Litigator.

Joseph is a Visiting Professorial Fellow of the School of Law and the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Work and Organisational Studies, School of Business at Sydney University.

Joseph is the Chair of the College of Law.

Joseph is also co-author of Workplace Bullying published by LexisNexis.

He has previously held the positions of President of the Law Council of Australia, President of the NSW Law Society, Chair of the Workplace Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales (2000 - 2013), and Secretary of the Industrial Relations Society of Australia (1997-2011).

Joseph was awarded Life Time Recognition, Industrial Relations Society of Australia / Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association 2011, and the Industrial Relations Society of New South Wales in 2015.

Joseph is a fellow of the Academy of Law.

On 26 January 2016 Joseph was made a Member of the Order of Australia.

Currently Group General Counsel & Company Secretary at CSIRO/AARNet Telco joint venture, REINet (Research & Education Industry Network), Teresa is an experienced corporate lawyer, Board member and governance professional with extensive experience in both private practice and in-house roles across highly regulated sectors.

Teresa commenced her career working at one of Australia’s premier law firms, before going in-house where she has held the roles of Supervising Counsel / Divisional General Counsel at Telstra Corporation Limited, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary at ASX-listed Elixinol Global Limited, and as General Counsel & Company Secretary at the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). As a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a Graduate of the AICD, Teresa is recognised for her expertise as a trusted advisor, delivering practical, strategic, and results-oriented legal counsel.

Ann-Maree David is an Executive Director of The College of Law, the largest provider of practice-focused legal education in Australasia. She has worked in the legal profession for over 30 years, in public and corporate sector roles and in private practice as a solicitor.

Ann-Maree has held a career-long passion for developing and delivering education and training programs to enable all involved in the delivery of legal services to thrive both personally and professionally.

In addition to leading the College of Law’s Queensland campus, Ann-Maree is Immediate Past President of Australian Women Lawyers and a Director of the Australian Gender Equality Council. She also chairs the Queensland Law Society’s Equity & Diversity Committee.

Ali joined LexisNexis in 2017 as Head of Legal for the Pacific Region. Ali and her team work with LexisNexis’ Australian and New Zealand businesses providing advice across issues from intellectual property and digital media through to privacy and competition laws.

Ali has held senior legal roles across a variety of industries internationally, including higher education, renewable energy and leisure. Ali’s focus is on working closely with the business to address both the opportunities and the challenges presented by rapid advances in technology, changing customer needs and the evolving nature of legal practice across the region and the world.

Rachael is a Professor of Law in the Bond University Faculty of Law, and Co-Director of the Bond Centre for Dispute Resolution and of Bond’s Centre for Professional Legal Education. Her areas of teaching and research expertise include dispute resolution, family law and domestic violence, lawyer and law student well-being and legal education. Rachael has published widely in the areas of wellness for law and dispute resolution. She completed a PhD on mediation ethics in 2011, and is the author of Australian Dispute Resolution (2022) and co-author with Laurence Boulle of Mediation in Australia (2018). Rachael founded the Australian Wellness Network for Law and co-founded the ADR Research Network. She has been involved with Women’s Legal Service, Brisbane since 1993 and is now an Ambassador for the Service. In 2013 Rachael was named Queensland Woman Lawyer of the Year and in 2020 she was elected to be a life-long Honorary Academic Bencher of the Inner Temple in London.

I am a purpose driven Chief Legal Officer with multidisciplinary legal expertise across several different industries and sectors.
I am currently General Counsel and Head of Property at Sydney Fish Market. Previously, I have held senior in-house legal positions at Lendlease Corporation and Commonwealth Bank.

I have a passion for pursuing excellence in the delivery of in-house legal services.

As a Member of the Law Society’s In-house Corporate Lawyers Committee, I have spoken at numerous events and conferences on topics of interest to in-house lawyers. I am also an Executive Committee member of the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia.

Geraldine Johns-Putra is an experienced corporate lawyer and expert in enterprise governance, purpose, business & human rights and modern slavery. She runs her own practice in Melbourne focussing on enterprises seeking purpose, and actors in the impact economy. She is legal advisor to not-for-profits making an impact in this space, including B Lab Australia & NZ and Impact Investing Australia. Her purpose is to use the law to build more purposeful enterprises & ecosystems for a happier world.

She has over 20 years' experience practising law in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong and China. She has worked with large global and Australian law firms and was a partner of a top-tier Australian law firm for several years. She sits on the Council of Monash University.

Shevonne Joyce (she/her) is a Versatilist who thinks sideways and builds forwards. She's built a trusted brand and a successful career on this philosophy, and has been named a top business thinker by Smartcompany, alongside Naomi Simpson and Mark Ritson.

She’s the CEO and Principal Consultant of electro: consulting; a social enterprise she accidentally started out of demand for her services. electro: specialises in projects and change; specifically we help organisations turn good ideas into change that sticks.

At the heart of everything electro: does is its social impact. We believe the future belongs to organisations that are as emotionally intelligent as they are technologically fluent. We hire marginalised consultants with unconventional backgrounds; not as a compliance exercise, but because diverse intelligence is our competitive edge! We are leading the way and role modelling radical flexibility and socio-conscious business in real time.

Read more and enquire to work with electro: here - www.electroconsulting.au

Shevonne snapshot:

⚡Working with global, national and local brands.

⚡Two decades of experience in human resources, consulting, leadership development, building iconic brands (from the inside out) and innovative business models.

⚡Selected as a judge for the Telstra Business Awards and Women in Law Awards.

⚡Passionate, a driver, creative but also analytical, and an astute problem solver.

⚡Experience in professional services, law, energy, SAAS, manufacturing, not for profit, and has run her own businesses.

⚡Proudly Autistic (with ADHD) and living with a neurological disorder.

Steve Lancken has been a full time mediator since 1999. During that time, Steve has conducted over 2,000 mediations. Steve has worked in Queensland mediating Native Title issues and in Liberia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Nepal and Northern America. Steve has conducted mediations for Australia’s largest and most successful organisations such as ASIC, ACCC, QANTAS, GPT, AGSM, Mission Australia, the Salvation Army, Australian Treasury, Australian Government Solicitors and Department of Defence. Steve also works with Australia’s largest banks and insurers.

Steve enjoys the opportunity to do the most interesting and challenging work and contribute to social justice, teach, educate and contribute to his profession.

Andrew is a strategy and media expert working with business, legal and professional services leaders to solve communications challenges. A former business journalist with The Australian he is an award winning media & communications consultant and advisor, with over 25 years experience.

Both in-house and through his consultancy Crackle Communications, Andrew has advised CEOs and leadership teams across law, professional services, finance, mining, development, litigation, retail and technology. His experience ranges from crisis management and industrial relations, to media coaching and corporate transformations.

Andrew also teaches public communications at UTS and UNSW, holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, a Master of Politics and Public Policy from Macquarie University, a Graduate Diploma of Journalism & Communications from UTS and a BA from the University of Sydney.

www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-mckenzie-47582413/

John works closely with the partnership at Mills Oakley to deliver outstanding legal expertise and client service. He has been CEO for over 20 years and, in that time, has developed a reputation as one of Australia’s most progressive law firm CEOs.

Anne-Marie has ticked all the “lawyer” boxes – Accredited Specialist, Mediator, Arbitrator, Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, Independent Children’s Lawyer, Collaborative lawyer, academic, Judicial Officer, committee member, volunteer, mentor.

She has run a successful legal practice, won multiple awards and given countless technical, practical and motivational presentations to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

She is the architect of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s internationally renowned dispute resolution pathway, delivering almost 20,000 conferences during her 5½ years at the Courts. She is a member of the Attorney General’s Family Law Council and, in a career spanning almost 30 years, she has been unrelenting and unapologetic in her work to challenge the adversarial approach to wills and estates practice and to family law, including from within the Court itself.

In early 2026 Anne-Marie founded Novera Solutions working at the intersection of legal practice and system reform to help courts and legal firms lead change and strengthen resolution-focused capability. She is also the principal mediator and trainer at Anne-Marie Rice Mediations where she makes good on her motto – “conflict can be resolved without combat”.

Troy Swan is the Group General Counsel and Board Member of the $1.3 billion office products company Winc. Winc was formed following the acquisition and merger of Staples, OfficeMax and Corporate Express in Australia and New Zealand by leading US based private equity firm Platinum Equity.

He has been publicly recognised as one of Australia's leading corporate lawyers and was previously an Australian Lawyer of the Year and an Australian General Counsel of the Year triple finalist. He was also the Association of Corporate Counsel Global Member of the Year, from over 43,000 lawyers worldwide, with this being the first time this honour was ever awarded to a lawyer outside America.

He became only the second Australian lawyer to win the International Value Champions Award in San Francisco and was also named the Association of Corporate Counsel Winner for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility.

Known for his business judgement, he is highly active within the legal and business community, being named a Judge at the Australian Law Awards, New Zealand Law Awards, Corporate Counsel Awards, Partner of the Year Awards and the 30 Under 30 Law Awards.

He is a long standing Member of the Law Society Corporate Lawyers Committee, is a regular commentator and speaker on legal and business affairs and leads an award winning legal team based in Sydney, Australia.

Adrian Tembel is an economics and honours law graduate of the University of Adelaide. He began practising corporate and technology law in 1993 at his law firm Thomson Geer. He became a Partner of that firm in 1997 and its Chief Executive Partner in 2009. He is also a part-time Commissioner of the South Australian Productivity Commission and a Director of the Hackett Foundation.

Steven is a 19-year lawyer, having spent 10 years in-house at Hewlett-Packard working across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific, with several years as Vice President, South Pacific General Counsel and Group Secretary. Before that, he worked for Norton Rose and Baker McKenzie in London, Sydney and Cologne.

In 2017, Steven founded and is CEO of a consulting and solutions company, Gen2Law, specialising in helping legal departments, law firms and law companies innovate and transform to the next generation of legal and ops services through technology and process modernisation.

Steven speaks and writes frequently on the future of legal services, contributing to
publications by the AFR, Association of Corporate Counsel and “Remaking Law Firms” by George Beaton, published by the American Bar Association. He is a Committee Member for the Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession (FLIP) initiative of the Law Society of New South Wales and holds advisory board positions for the International Association of Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) and several technology start-ups.

With over 25 years of experience as a property valuer in New South Wales and Victoria, Gareth has valued more than 15,000 properties throughout his career, encompassing a diverse range of asset types. From residential home units and industrial development sites to luxury harbour-front dwellings, working farms, and commercial properties, Gareth brings an unmatched breadth of expertise to every valuation.

A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, where he earned a Bachelor of Land Economics in 1999, he is recognised as a Certified Practising Valuer and an Associate of the Australian Property Institute and is regularly called upon to provide expert evidence in a range of litigation matters. These qualifications underpin his commitment to the highest professional standards.

In addition to valuation, Gareth is a licensed Buyer's Agent with a proven track record of purchasing high-performing properties in every state and territory across Australia over the past decade. This dual expertise provides unique insights into property markets nationwide, blending analytical precision with strategic investment acumen.

Having collaborated extensively with lawyers, accountants, mortgage professionals, financial planners, and property developers, Gareth specialises in complex litigation matters. His experience includes being cross-examined as an expert witness and consulting with finance and accounting professionals on challenging taxation cases. This combination of technical expertise and strategic problem-solving has solidified his reputation as a trusted authority in property valuation and acquisition.