The professional association for in-house lawyers, ACLA staged the 11th consecutive year of the event at Sydney’s Sheraton on the Park.

The ACLA Australian Corporate Lawyer of the Year award went to Will Irving, group general counsel for Telstra since January 2005.

“[Irving] has shown he will fight for the company’s interests, proactively look for solutions not problems and, when needed, fearlessly provide principled advice to ensure we meet our legal obligations,” Solomon Trujillo, chief executive officer of Telstra, said.

“In my experience, [Irving] leads by example and his leadership skills include embracing change.”

In the government sphere, the award for Lawyer of the Year was presented to George Kriz, chief lawyer for the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, praised for regularly providing high level legal advice to his Minister, Secretary, and the executive of his department.

According to ACLA, Kriz has developed the procurement, assurance and legal group of his department into a team that provides highly professional legal advice services, as well as excellent risk, contract and litigation management services to his clients.

The prize for ACLA Team of the Year went to St. John of God Health Care Inc. (SJGHC). As Australia’s third largest private hospital operator and the largest Catholic not for profit private health care group, SJGHC owns and operates 11 hospitals.

“They’re really sensible lawyers,” Tony Joyner, partner of Freehills in Perth, said of the team. “There’s no ego, no posturing, no messing around.”

Bronwyn Magdulski of Country Energy is the ACLA Australian In-house Lawyer, Young Achiever of the Year.