With a judging panel including academics, business executives, entrepreneurs and innovators, the Corporate Counsel Awards is peer-reviewed recognition of your capabilities in corporate law and passion for driving the industry forward.
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
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.
Nicole is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of CAR Group. In addition to managing the legal function across CAR Group, Nicole is responsible for governance, risk and sustainability.
Nicole has over 20 years of legal experience, having commenced her career working across a number of legal areas at one of Australia’s premier law firms. For the past 15 years Nicole has worked in-house, advising leading online companies. Nicole has extensive experience in acquisitions, disputes and intellectual property and a strong focus on corporate responsibility.
Nicole holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts from Monash University and a Certificate in Corporate Governance from INSEAD.
Prior to this appointment Dr Boersig worked as an Assistant Secretary in the Federal Attorney-General’s Department, responsible for a number of areas including Indigenous law and justice and human rights. Before joining the Attorney-General’s Department John practiced law in NSW, as a lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service and in private practice. He established the University of Newcastle Legal Centre and was Director of the Professional program in 1994. He was a part-time Presiding member of the Guardianship Tribunal for many years.
John has a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney, and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Canberra. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Fay has paved a path as a lawyer passionate about wellbeing and inclusion drawing on over 20 years of experience as an employment lawyer. Fay is a partner and Chair of Diversity Equity Inclusion and Wellbeing at one of Australia’s leading domestic law firms Hall&Wilcox. As a strategic advisor to top-tier employers, she has shaped policies that foster safe, inclusive and respectful workplaces. She's a sought-after as a trainer for leaders and boards; a speaker at industry conferences; and is a trusted voice for media on all matters touching the workplace. Capturing her life’s work, her book, "Broken to Safe" offers empowers leaders to tackle toxic workplace cultures and burnout to create safe and inclusive workplaces.
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 in the Bond University Faculty of Law. She is Co-Director of the Bond Dispute Resolution Centre and 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 (particularly foundations of law and transition in, through and out of law school). Rachael is an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow, the winner of a National Teaching Citation and an Australian Teaching Excellence Award, and she is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She founded the Australian Wellness Network for Law and co-founded the ADR Research Network. Rachael has been on the Women’s Legal Service Management Committee in Brisbane since 1993 and held the role of President from 2004 to 2020. She is now an Ambassador for the Service. In 2013 Rachael was named Queensland Woman Lawyer of the Year.
Elisabeth (Lis) Flett is a multi-award-winning in-house lawyer with more than 15 years’ experience across a diverse range of industries including energy retail, not-for-profit, port operations and logistics, agribusiness, construction, infrastructure, facilities management and real estate. She currently leads the legal team at Aurora Energy based in Hobart, Tasmania.
During her time as General Counsel and Company Secretary at Cancer Council NSW (2021-2024), Lis was named Not-for-Profit Lawyer of the Year and received the Excellence Award at the 2024 Lawyers Weekly Corporate Counsel Awards. She was also awarded General Counsel of the Year by the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia in 2023, with her team recognised as finalists across multiple award categories, including by the Law Society of NSW.
Lis has developed strong capability in legal service delivery, corporate governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance. She is known for her practical, strategic legal advice that helps businesses navigate complexity and achieve meaningful, commercial outcomes. Having advised regulated, private, ASX-listed, and not-for-profit boards and executive teams, Lis brings insight into the realities of leadership in complex, high-stakes environments.
She is also committed to contributing beyond her day job by volunteering on not-for-profit boards and committees, mentoring emerging legal leaders, and sharing her experience to spark conversations about leadership, inclusion, and navigating career challenges.
Outside of work, Lis is enjoying renovating her old house and exploring new walks around Tassie with her husband and three young children.
Cassandra is the CEO for a private family office in Saudi Arabia, and prior to this worked as a sports and corporate risk lawyer for over 14 years.
Glenn is a passionate and driven corporate and transactional lawyer, specialising in mergers and acquisitions and complex commercial arrangements.
Glenn advises both Australian and international clients on a range of corporate and commercial matters, including corporate transactions, advisory work, joint ventures, capital raisings, shareholder arrangements, corporate structuring and reorganisations, as well as directors’ duties.
He is an experienced negotiator and provides our clients with accurate, succinct and practical solutions to challenging and technical issues.In addition, Glenn has been recognised as a Leading Corporate/M&A Lawyer (Small & Mid-Market Matters – NSW) in Doyles Guide 2018 and has also been listed in Best Lawyers over the past four years for Equity Capital Markets Law and M&A Law. Glenn has also received recognition as one of Australia’s leading lawyers in private equity (IFLR 2012, ALB 2009, ALB 2007).
Phillip is a Director at CKG, and a veteran legal search and recruitment consultant, where he leads an expert team which provides bespoke legal search, talent management and market intel to top ASX Listed, Fortune 500 and large privately held corporate partners. Phillip diligently promotes ‘diversity and inclusion’ as a cornerstone principle whilst partnering clients to identify, secure and manage talent across a broad variety of sectors and regions.
As a member of the LGBTIQ community he believes differences are what make us stronger as a community and profession. Phillip has been involved with various charitable organisations over the years, most notably The Bobby Goldsmith Foundation.
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.
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.
Mellissa Larkin is the Founder and Managing Director of award-winning boutique law firm Peripheral Blue. Since 2016, she's been making waves in the legal industry in Australia advocating for a client-centred model of practice and championing the flexible workplace. Her views on the culture of overwork in law, lawyers' mental health, and women in business have been featured in multiple industry and business publications.
Prior to founding Peripheral Blue, Mellissa worked in dedicated Project and Construction Teams in international and top-tier firms in Ireland and across the Disputes and Corporate Teams of a national firm in Australia. She also worked in house for blue-chip companies.
In 2016, Mellissa Larkin walked away from the career she had spent two decades building over two continents, to found Peripheral Blue with the aim of disrupting the legal and professional services industries by giving clients access to top tier, responsive legal and advisory services in a flexible and affordable way.
Mellissa was named as the Innovator of the Year in the Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year Awards in 2022 and as the South Australian Winner in the Small Business category of the 2020 Telstra Business Women's Awards. Her firm, Peripheral Blue was a finalist in the Telstra Business Awards 2019.
Mellissa holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from Flinders University and a Master in Laws from Trinity College, Dublin.
Melissa is the Executive Director & Experience Designer of Hive Legal, a progressive law firm which, over the last 11 years, has inspired change in the legal ecosystem by introducing value pricing, legal design thinking and truly flexible work practices. She is an innovation specialist committed to assisting the legal ecosystem to think differently about the delivery of legal services. Her work has been recognised at the Australian Law Awards with her winning Business Development Professional of the Year (2017) and Innovator of the Year (2020).
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 has been the CEO of Mills Oakley for 21 years, and in that time has developed a reputation as one of Australia’s most progressive law firm CEOs. John works closely with the partnership at Mills Oakley to deliver outstanding legal expertise and client service.
Paul is a Partner in our Employment & Safety team in Melbourne.
Paul is an Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations. He has a strong focus on resolving high risk disputes in the workplace for employers. This frequently involves employee misconduct, union disputation, governance and workplace culture, industrial action, vulnerable stakeholders, media interest and reputational risk.
Paul’s solutions extend across a range of industries such as education, technology, logistics, health, aged care, faith-based, bio-medical and labour hire and cover legal issues arising at all phases of the employment relationship (pre-employment, during employment and post-employment).
Paul played a critical role in State and Federal judicial and court administration for a 10-year period while working at the Supreme Court of Victoria and Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, where he worked with two Chief Justices. Paul also held an executive position at the Family Court of Australia where he was responsible for overall delivery of registry services to the judiciary and self-represented litigants as well as the management and supervision of 60 registry staff.
He is the co-author with Dentons' partner Toby Blyth on a textbook on privacy and surveillance in the workplace (published by Wolters Kluwer).
Sue-Ella specialises in helping lawyers and law firms create more rewarding practices through purposeful business strategy and positive client engagement.
Sue-Ella established her award-winning consultancy Prodonovich Advisory in 2005.
Her In-House roles have included Director of Marketing, Arthur Anderson; Director of Marketing & Business Development, Baker McKenzie; and Partner, Crowe Horwath.
Sue-Ella is a member of the teaching faulty of The College of Law, The Law Society of NSW, The Law Institute of Victoria, and FMRC. In 2011 she was inducted into the APSMA Hall Of Fame for services to the Australasian Professional Services Industry and in 2019 she was made a Fellow of the College of Law Firm Management. Her qualifications include an MBA, Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) (Law & Marketing) – VC List, the AICD Course for Company Directors, and the Net Promoter® Client Loyalty Program™.
www.prodonovich.com
Scott is a General Counsel with extensive experience advising listed entities in regulated environments . Scott’s pragmatic approach ensures the organisations he acts for maintain good standing with regulators, their peers and the broader community, while being able to confidently deliver the experiences expected by consumers. Scott has led teams of varying sizes and particularly enjoys helping junior lawyers develop their skills and understanding of complex commercial environments.
Damian is one of the founders of the innovative Australian firm, Marque Lawyers where he heads up the Dispute Resolution team.
Damian has almost 30 years’ experience as a commercial litigator with specialist expertise in the areas of international arbitration and cross border dispute resolution. He has run international arbitrations in London, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
He is recognised as one of Australia’s leading lawyers in the field of Dispute Resolution by Legal 500, Best Lawyers and the Chambers Global and Asia Pacific Guides. In 2018 he was named the Arbitration Lawyer of the year by Best Lawyers. He is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW.
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.
The Croesus Holdings Group comprises six companies, which provide services in Project Management; Corporate Legal Compliance; Management Training & Education; Environmental GRC; ADR (mediation, arbitration & adjudication); and Litigation Funding.
Previously, Garry was Managing Director of an international Investment Bank with offices in Sydney, Vancouver, New York, London, Dublin, Hong Kong and Singapore. Those activities involved him in international capital raising; public listings; distressed company “turn-arounds”; workplace & employment relations; drafting & management of contracts; project management; governance & risk assessment; corporate strategic planning; supply chain logistics & human rights; corporate legal compliance; environmental sustainability; and optimising management outcomes.
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.
