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Joanna Green – Principal, Hive Legal

Joanna Green is a Principal of Hive Legal, a progressive corporate commercial law firm which has just celebrated its 11th birthday. She assists clients in highly regulated industries, including the health and government sectors and regularly advises key players in these sectors across a broad range of issues, including commercial, regulatory, administrative law and privacy. Joanna was thrilled to be named the 2024 Lawyers Weekly Government Partner of the Year. https://www.hivelegal.com.au/expertise/government

user iconHive Legal 04 March 2025 Profiles
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How did you start down this career path?

Assisting government clients has always been a focus for me. It is something that I had the opportunity to do right from the very start of my career when, as a junior lawyer in a Big Law firm, I got to work on major government projects in the public transport space. I also undertook secondments which provided me with a very practical and real understanding of how government works and the role it plays for our community.

What inspires you in your role/industry? Why?

I am inspired by the rewarding role that I can play by helping government departments and agencies to design and implement policies, projects and services which provide a positive impact for our community. We also help commercial clients deliver important programs for government clients.

Government has a crucial role to play, particularly in the delivery of health (including mental health) and emergency services, by assisting those in our community who are vulnerable and in need. These are services that all of us will need to call on at some stage in our lives. Creating positive impact has always been important to me, so I am motivated to assist our clients in any way I can to enhance the transparency, accountability, efficiency and delivery of those services.

What's your approach to customer service that separates you from the rest?

Working with, and in, government you soon appreciate what government clients need in terms of customer service. Projects will often need to be implemented in very tight times frames. They can also be high profile, novel and involve complex stakeholder management.

My approach includes being highly responsive, systematic, pragmatic, calm and empathetic.

How do you innovate and stay ahead of industry trends?

Hive Legal’s business model provides the perfect platform for us to innovate, stay ahead of industry trends and provide real value to our government clients.

We provide our clients with price certainty from the start of a matter through fixed fees based on value of the outputs, not time spent. This incentivises us to be efficient and effective in the way we deliver our services.

In addition, our HiveGC+ model provides ongoing access to a team of legal professionals experienced in acting for government clients or those working with government. https://www.hivelegal.com.au/hivegc

We assist our clients to identify and implement ways to innovate through our HiveThinkP design thinking framework https://www.hivelegal.com.au/hivethinkp. For us it’s not just about providing legal advice , it’s also about helping our clients to be more effective. To do that we proactively collaborate with them to assist to improve their processes, systems and ways of working. For example, this has included working with government clients to develop user friendly delegations registers and improved processes to ensure quality control and ease of updating instruments.

What is the toughest challenge you've faced in your role? How did you overcome it?

Assisting our clients with the response to the pandemic was challenging. Working in an emergency response situation where there are no precedents to follow and complex policy development is required in very tight time frames was tough. I became really conscious during this time of the importance of ensuring you have the right team with a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory frameworks and machinery of government, together with a flexible and dynamic mindset. Ensuring a systematic approach was developed and followed and being agile and resilient definitely helped too.

What are some of your goals for the next 5 years?

I look forward to continuing to work closely with our government clients to develop progressive and practical ways we can help to support them with the significant role they play to improve the lives of those in our community through policies, legislative change and projects.


About Hive Legal

https://www.hivelegal.com.au/

Hive Legal is a specialised and innovative corporate commercial law firm driven by its purpose of improving its clients’ experience. Hive Legal provides excellence in legal services and for them, it’s not just what they do, it’s also, the way they do it.

Hive Legal’s approach involves:

  • providing cost certainty through fixed pricing;
  • using HiveGC+ to ensure flexibility, scalability, and the right expertise;
  • leveraging legal expertise, knowledge of legal technology, and design thinking (HiveThinkP) to assist its clients; and
  • continuously seeking ways to enhance the client experience.

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