Our Speakers

Alistair joined KPMG Law in January 2020 to lead the firm’s Productised Legal Solutions initiatives.

He has almost a decade of experience in the legal technology space and his focus is to build upon the firm’s existing adoption of alternative solutions as well as developing both strategy and delivery of technology-focused legal services.

Prior to KPMG, Alistair built and led the consulting function at Plexus, a leading Australian legal technology SAAS business and KPMG alliance partner.

Craig is the General Counsel for Product, Technology, Network, IT, Global Services and Corporate Units at Telstra. In addition to his current role, over a 14-year career at Telstra he’s served as the General Counsel for Telstra’s consumer, small business, product, marketing and international divisions (during which time he lived and worked in Hong Kong). In his current role, Craig leads a team of around 50 lawyers who handle a variety of transactional, regulatory, M&A, competition and consumer protection issues. In addition, Craig handles the legal work in relation to Telstra’s part ownership of Foxtel, and is a Director of Telstra Energy. He is a member of Telstra’s Executive Leadership team. Craig lives in the Hills District of Sydney with his wife, Vanessa (his childhood sweetheart), his children, Jake (12), and Paige (10), Lucky the Kelpie and Cleatus the Bearded Dragon. His interests include golf, cooking and trail running.

Ria Manguray is an award-winning lawyer and qualified corporate practitioner in New South Wales. She is the Legal Counsel of Tourism Australia, the Australian Government agency responsible for attracting international visitors to Australia, for both leisure and business. The agency is active in 15 key markets globally in the UK, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Their activities include advertising, consumer research, and hosting trade events. As Legal Counsel, Ria practices in the commercial, IP, advertising, media, consumer, labour, and privacy law areas. She regularly appears as a guest speaker on topics ranging from substantive law, in-house practice, and diversity and inclusion. Ria also passionately dedicates her time to mentoring the next generation of lawyers.

Paul is responsible for the management and leadership of the LOD Australia business from both an operational and client focused perspective. Paul has played a key role in the growth of the Australian business over the past 7 years and is a member of LOD’s global executive team. Paul joined LOD in 2014 having previously worked as a lawyer in both in-house and private practice environments in London and Hong Kong, headed up an Australian based legal project management business and managed the legal divisions of two global recruitment businesses.

Katrina joined WiseTech Global in March 2020 as General Counsel, where she leads the Legal and Co Sec teams and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team. WiseTech Global is an ASX100 technology company that provides global software solutions to over 17,000 logistics organisations across 160 countries, supported through more than 50 offices worldwide. At WiseTech, Katrina and her team support the legal, regulatory and corporate governance needs of the global business.

Prior to joining WiseTech, Katrina spent almost 5 years at Uber, where she was the first in-house lawyer for Australia & New Zealand and later became Associate General Counsel & Head of Legal for Uber’s Asia Pacific operations. Before that, Katrina spent almost 12 years with the eBay & PayPal group of companies in Asia Pacific and the US where she held various leadership roles in the areas of legal services, government relations, business ethics and trust & safety.

Apart from her legal work, Katrina is also an experienced board member, having previously served as Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit & Risk Committees of ASX-listed technology companies Trade Me Group and Straker Translations. She has also served as an Advisory Board Member for the UNSW/Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation since its launch in 2018.

Katrina is listed in the Legal 500’s GC Powerlist Australia and is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s GC100. She was named one of Asia Pacific’s Most Innovative General Counsel by the UK’s Financial Times in 2019, as well as General Counsel of the Year at the 2017 Australian Law Awards and 2017 Australian Women in Law Awards.

Kate is the sole Legal Beagle (aka in-house counsel) at Who Gives A Crap. This involves advising on a very broad range of issues including global compliance with regulatory requirements, contracting, privacy, risk management, IP, marketing claims and legal management (plus anything else that gets thrown her way!) She is creating the legal function from the ground up in a rapidly changing environment.

Working in a social enterprise that donates 50% of its profits to help build toilets to those in need means that sometimes matters have to be approached a little differently. This gives her a chance to stretch her imagination (and GIF searching skills) and the opportunity to think outside of the traditional legal box.

Outside of work, Kate is kept busy spending time with her young family, running half marathons and building a large Lego empire.

Rabia is an international humanitarian lawyer, retired British Army senior officer, former war crimes and terrorism prosecutor and hostage survivor.

She has undertaken humanitarian aid work in Asia, South America, Europe and the Middle East, for which she was decorated by Queen Elizabeth II.

Having survived a hostage crisis in Iraq in 2005 Rabia sued the British Government for discrimination when both the military and government tried to cover up her involvement in the incident, which saw her leading hostage negotiations for the release of two British Special Forces illegally kidnapped and detained by Iraqi based terrorists. Rabia was held hostage for over eight hours and subjected to cruel and unusual treatment in front of her male colleagues. After their eventual rescue Rabia’s colleagues were recognised, psychologically supported and decorated for their efforts and bravery, however Rabia was gagged, ignored and ordered to never speak of the role she played on that fateful day where she almost lost her life.

As a result of her betrayal at the hands of her military superiors and the then Prime Minister of Great Britain Rabia was diagnosed with PTSD and after her recovery she held both the British Army and Government to account for their systematic discrimination of women and ethnic minorities. Her landmark case made international news and saw the floodgates open for many similar cases. It heralded profound changes in defence and public policy, attitudes and the support offered to female soldiers serving on the frontline, ethnic minorities and military personnel suffering with PTSD.

Rabia’s best selling memoir “Equal Justice: My Journey as a Woman, a Soldier and a Muslim” was published by Pan MacMillan in 2013 and work is currently underway to adapt this to a movie. She is currently writing her second book “A Beautiful Revolution”, a book about the power we all have to be the change in our lives and in the world around us.

Rabia is now a multi award winning story teller, inspirational speaker, leadership consultant, media commentator and human rights advocate. Peace and the sustainability of our planet is what drives her.

But her biggest challenge and joy is being a mother to her young triplet boys!

Grant is General Counsel of MLC Life Insurance and has been in the financial services industry for over 20 years.  He has worked in different roles across many segments of the industry including superannuation, managed funds, insurance, distribution, capital markets and structured investments.  He has led a number of legal and non-legal teams in major financial institutions and currently leads a team of 15 lawyers in MLC Life Insurance across Sydney and Melbourne.

Catriona McGregor is Group General Counsel & Company Secretary at Domain Group. Catriona is part of the Executive leadership team and is responsible for legal and regulatory compliance. Catriona is also Domain's Privacy Officer.  

Sam is the CEO and Co-founder at LawVu. Sam is a serial entrepreneur and board director. Before co-founding in-house legal software company, LawVu, Sam was a founding member of a global tech online project management company. Sam is passionate about transforming in-house legal operations and empowering legal counsel across many countries and industries with beautiful and intuitive software that will see LawVu become another successful globally NZ tech company.

Laura is a barrister and entrepreneur with a blue chip legal and business background as a top-tier corporate lawyer, company director, business adviser and in-house counsel for listed corporates. A qualified arbitrator, specialist in corporations law and complex commercial litigation, Laura was awarded Innovator of the Year by the Womens' Barristers Association in 2020 for her work in pioneering online mediation.

Rebecca brings with her a wealth of experience in particular from the courts and justice system, both as a practicing lawyer in private and social justice areas and a courts administrator. Rebecca has held roles such as Acting Executive Director, Courts and Tribunals, Department of Attorney General and Justice, Northern Territory Government and Director and Principal Registrar - Northern Territory Local Courts. With a keen interest in innovation, Rebecca joined Immediation in January 2021 as the Justice Partnerships Lead and works with courts, tribunals, private enterprise and governments to design solutions for their dispute resolution and justice delivery models.