Judges

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.

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.

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/

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.

Tony Dormer is a senior adviser of a multi-discipline professional services firm that he established over 40 years ago and that merged in September 2017 to form Tricor Services (Australia) Pty Ltd www.tricorglobal.com The firm provides in-bound and out-bound business advisory, management consulting, tax and compliance, outsourced payroll and CFO services, bookkeeping, corporate secretarial services and financial investment services.

Tony’s personal specialist skills and extensive experience are around taxation services, mergers and acquisitions, business valuations, corporate restructuring, as well as business planning and business development issues generally. His entrepreneurial style and ability to 'think outside the square', has enabled Tricor to provide clients with a level and style of service that is unique among business advisory and accountancy practices.

From 2007 to 2019 he was a Board Member and/or Councilor with the NSW Business Chamber. He was elected President in February 2014 and held the position of Deputy President as well as Chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee, Chair of the Business Environment and Economics Committee within the NSW Business Chamber. He now serves as a Past President.

He was also the former Chairman of Kreston Australia and New Zealand and was previously one of eight Directors on the international board of Kreston International, a position he held for seven years. Kreston is one of the largest networks of independent accounting business advisory firms in the world.

He also serves as a non-executive director on Profit and Not for Profit Boards.

Tony is a Fellow with Chartered Accountants (FCA), Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD) and Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) with the Taxation Institute of Australia.

Prior to developing his practice, he had extensive experience at General Manager level with several leading private organizations. This commercial experience is a major ingredient in his philosophy and the range of services offered by him.

He also co-authored a book on leadership titled “Born to Lead?” with Charisse Grey

Tony is available for selective Director appointments.

Maxine Evers is an Associate Professor in the Law Faculty at UTS. She is currently the Director of Professional Programs. In this role, she is responsible for the management of the Practical Legal Training program, the Graduate Diploma in Migration Law and Practice and the UTS Law Faculty’s professional education and training.

Maxine has a deep commitment to legal and professional education. Her previous roles have included Associate Dean (Education), Director of Students and University Ombudsman. Maxine was in suburban practice prior to entering academia.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Hine is the General Counsel and Company Secretary for Dentons in Australia, where she is responsible for the management of legal risk and compliance issues, as well as company secretarial services for the practice. Sarah has 11 years’ specialised practice in risk management, combined with generalist in-house and company secretarial experience. After completing her BA in New Zealand, Sarah spent her early career working in a variety of roles across IT and telecommunications companies in New Zealand, England and Australia. After completing her law degree in Sydney in 2003, Sarah started out as a graduate at Allens, ultimately becoming a Senior Associate and moving into Allens’ Office of General Counsel. Sarah joined Dentons in 2017 and has assisted the practice through a period of rapid expansion. Sarah’s areas of speciality include ethics, professional obligations, conflicts of interest, practice management and risk management. She is also highly valued for her communication, leadership and project management skills, and her practical legal advice.

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.

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.

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 (with old school and 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.
Rachel is also a director and company secretary of Giant Steps, a charity which runs schools and post-school programs for people with autism in Sydney and Melbourne and the Chair of the City Recital Hall.

Matthew Littlejohn is the Director, Integrity & Investigations at the Department of Justice & Community Safety, Victoria State Government. Previously, Matthew led the Public Law & Litigation Team within the Office of the General Counsel, and before coming to Melbourne was a barrister in the Northern Territory. Matthew’s career includes significant experience in civil litigation, class actions, public law, and government practice.

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/

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).

Katrin O’Sullivan has over twenty years’ experience in the development and humanitarian sectors and is currently the General Counsel for The Fred Hollows Foundation. The Foundation currently operates blindness prevention programs in over 25 countries employing 400 staff and has annual revenue of over $100 million. Katrin advises The Foundation on its global operations, including ground-breaking initiatives such as international social impact investment and development impact bond projects.

Katrin holds an LL.B (Hons) from the University of Sydney, an LL.M from the University College London and has undertaken further post graduate studies at Harvard Business School. She has previously worked for the German Foreign Offices, with postings to Berlin and Geneva, and as a diplomat at the UN, with postings to Geneva, New York, Dubai, Afghanistan and Indonesia. At the UN, she established and led the legal department for the Middle East, Africa, Asia and acted as the Director for the office in Indonesia post-tsunami, where she was responsible for coordinating international disaster relief projects.

Katrin was awarded “Not for Profit Lawyer of the Year” in 2023 by the Association of Corporate of Corporate Counsel as well as by LawyersWeekly in 2019 and was named in “The Most Powerful Women in Australia” list in 2015 and is part of the ACNC consultation panel.

Stephen Page is a legal practice director of Page Provan, Brisbane. He specialises as a family and fertility lawyer, and has advised in over 2,000 surrogacy journeys for clients throughout Australia and in 39 other countries. Stephen was admitted in 1987 as a solicitor. He has been an accredited family law specialist since 1996.
Stephen is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reprodiction Attorneys.
He serves on a number of committees, including as an international representative of the ART Committee of the American Bar Association, on the advisory committee of the Australian Law Reform Commission's surrogacy review, and as Secretary of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand.
He has received a number of awards, including inaugural Pride in Law Award (2020) and Queensland Law Society President's Medal (2023).

Group General Manager of Legal, Sustainability & Corporate Governance at Cotton On, a $2B global retailer with 8 brands operating in 1500 stores across 22 countries with 20,000 employees. Manage a team of 37 globally across Sustainability (social and environment), Legal, Risk and Ethics. Australian legal practitioner with 18 years experience in-house and private practice covering various areas of law across many jurisdictions.

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

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.

Melinda is a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of experience in intellectual property (IP) and commercial law. Currently serving as a Legal Partner at Deloitte, Melinda leads the global intangibles/IP, data, and technology offering, providing strategic legal solutions across diverse sectors, including technology, financial services, FMCG and government.​
Previously, Melinda was a Partner at DLA Piper, where she held senior leadership positions, including Global Co-Chair of Intellectual Property & Technology (IPT) and Managing Partner of the Australian business. Over the course of her career, she has worked with leading brands and multinational companies to protect, maximise, and commercialise their IP assets, developing a reputation for delivering innovative solutions to complex challenges. As Managing Partner of DLA Piper Australia, she was instrumental in restructuring the firm, stabilising the business, and returning it to profitability, while also expanding the IPT practice into new international markets.
In addition to her business acumen, Melinda is a strong advocate for mental health and well-being within the professional services sector and across corporate Australia.

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.

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).