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.

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.

For 30 years Stephen Colbran has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to engage, inspire and motivate undergraduate law students and teachers. He is well known across Australia for his passionate advocacy for online legal education, the scholarship of e- learning and teaching and as a specialist in Civil Procedure (litigation). He has spent his career overcoming challenges faced by online learners, transforming legal education for the 21st century and engaging with students in preparation for their contemporary legal careers.

Stephen has created the ReMarks e-grading system, conducted research and published findings, delivered conference papers, workshops, and training at most Australian Universities and transferred the system to educational institutions nationally and internationally. He has a passion for developing interactive visual methods of legal education, effective learning resources and providing better feedback and assessment as a driver for student learning.

His research interests include legal automation, online legal education, judicial performance evaluation, judicial branch efficiency, civil procedure, litigation, podcasting, postgraduate research and supervision networks, e-grading systems, MOOCs, iTunesU, branching animation, digital flashcards, e-learning.

In 2012, under his leadership the CQU Law degree became the first open access accredited law degree available via iTunesU and Google Education Suite. Stephen is recognised as an outstanding teacher achieving widespread recognition for his textbooks, electronic teaching resources and educational software.

Website: http://onlinelegaleducation.wordpress.com
Film: http://youtu.be/ohNFs60Ayh4

Stephen Colbran is also an expert in judicial performance evaluation and improving the efficiency of courts. He has worked on projects in Australia, Canada and Turkey and given numerous governments and courts advice on this issue. Stephen has considerable experience in business process mapping of superior courts and their interaction with the executive branch, court computer systems and judicial data, and achieving greater judicial efficiency.

Ann-Maree David is the National Executive Director of The College of Law, the largest provider of practice-focused legal education in Australasia. She has worked as a lawyer across public and corporate sectors and in private practice as a solicitor. She is also an experienced Board Director and Chair.
Ann-Maree is driven by her passion to support all Australian lawyers through mentoring & coaching and education & training. She has a particular interest in promoting greater diversity in all its forms throughout the profession

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bree Knoester is an award-winning Australian lawyer and the founder of Brave Legal. Recognised for excellence in medical negligence and complex litigation, she has received industry accolades for both her legal expertise and leadership of a high-performing boutique practice. Bree’s breadth of practice spans coronial inquests, public hospital negligence claims, birth trauma matters, and complex catastrophic injury cases. Known for strategic precision and forensic preparation, she acts in high-value, high-stakes disputes against major health services and insurers, delivering outstanding outcomes while shaping conversations about accountability and standards in healthcare.

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.

Rachel is general counsel and company secretary at Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Limited, leading a team which manages the diverse array of legal issues which arise across a media business spanning television, newspapers and radio (including digital offerings for all of them). Prior to joining Nine Entertainment Co. in 2015, Rachel was a partner at Gilbert + Tobin for many years where she specialised in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and commercial transactions. Rachel has played a central role in many strategic transactions for the Nine group, including its IPO, the acquisition of the Perth and Adelaide Nine stations, the merger with Fairfax Media, dealings with digital platforms and major sports rights deals such as the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

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, FDRP, ICL, Collaborative lawyer, academic, Judicial Officer, committee
member, volunteer, mentor.

She has run a successful family law practice, won 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 Courts’ internationally renowned
dispute resolution pathway, delivering almost 5000 conferences each year during her
time 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 family law, including from within the Court itself.
In early 2026 Anne-Marie founded Novera Solutions, Australia’s most unique
consultancy. Novera Solutions works at the intersection of legal practice and system
reform where she and her co-founder, Jennifer Crawley, help courts and legal firms
design and deliver better processes, lead change and strengthen resolution-focused
capability. She is also the principal Mediator 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.

Lara is a professional performance, leadership and mental fitness coach and former law partner. She is passionate about helping lawyers and professionals to develop their leadership and build their resilience and wellbeing so they can become high performers and meet the challenges and pressure of work and life to achieve their potential.
Lara is the co-founder and director of global coaching firm Coaching Advocates which offers, individual and team coaching, training and consulting services in the legal sector.

Lara has been coaching professionals since 2017 on a one-to-one basis as well as in groups and teams. She is also a Senior Facilitator, speaker and trainer. Lara’s focus is on supporting ambitious lawyers and professionals to build their self awareness, challenge their perceived limitations and tap into their strengths and inner resources to help achieve their results. Ultimately Lara helps professionals to become in charge their minds and therefore their results.

Lara is a certified Master Practitioner and Trainer in Neuro Linguistic Programming which is a powerful transformational tool that she incorporates into her coaching, training and facilitating to create effective and sustainable mindset development. She is also an internationally certified coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

With over 25 years of experience as a property valuer in New South Wales and Victoria, Gareth has valued more than 15,000 properties, 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 their reputation as a trusted authority in property valuation and acquisition.