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Partner of the Year spotlight: Elizabeth Avery
As the nominations for Partner of the Year gets underway, Lawyers Weekly spoke with past winner of the Competition, Trade and Regulation category, Elizabeth Avery, on her success as a leader in her practice.
Tony Zhang
The Partner of the Year Awards is regarded as one of the legal profession’s most prestigious accolades. Ms Avery took out the 2019 Partner of the Year award for Competition, Trade and Regulation, which recognises a partner (or partner equivalent) who has demonstrated skill in advising on competition, trade and regulatory law matters.
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It includes competition, trade and regulation partners who deal with both major corporations and government regulators.
In achieving the award of Partner of the Year, Ms Avery said that any excellence achieved has definitely been a team effort.
“Our competition & regulatory group at G+T is a market-leading group and we strive to deliver excellence to our clients everyday,” she said.
Since achieving the Partner of the Year award Ms Avery has been recognised as a practice leader and one of the best lawyers in competition, trade and regulation in Australia, a significant milestone in her career.
Ms Avery started out as an associate to the Honourable Ronald Sackville in the Federal Court of Australia before becoming an associate at American firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. She was admitted to the bar of New York, which allowed her to practice in the US. She joined Gilbert +Tobin in 2007 and was made partner in 2010.
Joining a strong competition and regulation team, Ms Avery also works closely with 2018 Partner of the Year Gina Cass-Gottlieb, a competition veteran.
Most recently Ms Avery was able to secure a major merger of GrainCorp Limited on the circa $322 million sale of its Australian Bulk Liquid Terminals business to ANZ Terminals Pty Ltd, which the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved along with the acquisition of Australian Carlton & United Breweries by a US brewing company, Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In achieving excellence through the POTY award, Ms Avery said that “providing excellent advice and achieving meaningful outcomes for our clients [are what get] us out of bed.”
“The strong collaborative culture that we have fostered in our team is strengthened every time we achieve a great result, and is what makes us wake up and want to do it all again.”
Ms Avery said that receiving the award was great recognition for the team who delivers excellence to their clients everyday.
Looking ahead in competition and regulation
Competition and regulation remains a very busy sector for many lawyers as the ACCC keeps an ever close eye on every merger move made in Australia.
In 2019, new record penalties were imposed and new first-time victories in a variety of cases marked the year for the ACCC.
Ms Avery said that over the past year, the team had been extremely busy, both with “cutting-edge litigation raising really interesting public policy questions, and a broad range of mergers, including a significant number of global mergers.”
Ms Avery said that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is a very active regulator that loves to punch above its weight in global antitrust thinking.
“This is reflected in an in-depth digital platforms inquiry, which has been described as groundbreaking in the breadth of its recommendations, spanning proposed changes to our antitrust laws, consumer protection laws and privacy laws, in recognition of the broad implications of digital platforms,” she said.
With the ACCC commencing a number of investigations and proceedings in light of its work undertaken in the inquiry, Ms Avery said it is a very busy time for competition lawyers advising in relation to the digital economy.
“Consistent with its priority to be a ‘proactive’ regulator, the ACCC has been scrutinising transactions closely with ACCC merger reviews tending to take longer and be very time-consuming,” she said.
Furthermore, with the emergence of COVID-19, there has been an increase in challenge for competition lawyers as they juggle a changing business climate.
Ms Avery said that to a large extent, it has been “BAU, but working from home.”
“We have been very busy. It is a challenge continuing to foster a collaborative culture when we are all in isolation, but we have been using videoconferencing a lot,” she said.
“Every Friday afternoon, we have team drinks with a different theme on the VC, each of us at our own desks. It actually has resulted in some great camaraderie between us as we share experiences from the home front.”
Looking ahead to the competition in the future, Ms Avery said that competition law is such a great area of practice because it is always changing and throws up a huge range of challenges.
“In the past year, competition issues relating to digital platforms and financial services have been a significant focus,” she said.
“Expect that will continue to be the case.”
The state of competition and regulation will also become very interesting in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Ms Avery said to expect significant issues will arise due to the significant impact of COVID-19 on the economy, with a “much greater focus on acquisitions of distressed assets to avoid those assets exiting the market.”
Nominations for the Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year in Completion, Trade and Regulation category is open.
Nominate NOW and take the first step to being recognised as one of Australia’s top legal professionals. Don’t miss your chance to win this coveted award. For more information on the awards program, click here, or to start your submission today, click here.
