2021 ACC Australia Corporate Lawyer Award Winners

KATRINA JOHNSON

GENERAL COUNSEL,

WISE TECH GLOBAL

Since joining WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) in March 2020, Katrina has worked to build and scale global, centralised and high-performing legal and corporate governance teams. She has helped to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the business by introducing operational excellence initiatives to optimise workflows and eliminate unnecessary work, by driving various organisational change management programs, and prioritising training and development. She has partnered with the Board to establish various programs of work to enhance corporate governance and reporting and is a key adviser to the CEO and Senior Management. Katrina is also passionate about fostering diversity and inclusion and is global co-executive sponsor of WiseTech’s Diversity & Inclusion program.  

NATHAN LANTHOIS

CHIEF LEGAL AND COMMERCIAL OFFICER,

TRANSDEV AUSTRALASIA

Nathan Lanthois (Chief Legal and Commercial Officer of Transdev Australasia) leads the provision of all legal and commercial advice throughout Transdev’s public transport operations. Transdev operates public transport networks throughout Australia and New Zealand and has approximately 5,600 employees, 137 million customers per annum with $863 million revenue in 2020. 

Nathan is an Executive Director of all Transdev entities, Company Secretary, responsible for risk management, insurance, procurement, and a member of Transdev’s Executive Team. Nathan has over 20 years’ experience in transport and major infrastructure projects throughout Australia and internationally. Nathan has been the lead legal and commercial adviser on major projects with a combined value of $42 billion+ (within the transportation, infrastructure, construction, aviation and Defence sectors). 

Nathan is accountable for the provision of all legal advice and commercial outcomes, contract management, corporate compliance (Australasian ethics and compliance representative), procurement activities, risk management (qualitative and quantitative risk analysis) and Transdev’s insurance portfolio. Nathan is highly regarded in the transportation industry due to his legal knowledge and ability to achieve positive legal and commercial outcomes. 

ANNA COLLESS

LEGAL & BUSINESS AFFAIRS MANAGER,

GLOBAL CREATURES

Anna Colless is a media and entertainment lawyer with experience across a diverse range of industries and practice areas. She currently specialises in the international development and exploitation of theatre and live events, most recently including 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical' (Broadway; North American Tour; Australia; West End), 'King Kong' (Broadway), 'Strictly Ballroom The Musical' (West End), and 'Muriel’s Wedding The Musical' (Australia). 

Anna is also a committee member of Hearts for Arts Law (a fundraising arm of the Arts Law Centre of Australia) and a contributor to the Entertainment Law Update podcast. For these and other contributions to the community, including her pro bono work, she won the Sports & Entertainment category of the Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards 2021. 

Anna is admitted to the practice of law in both New South Wales and New York. 

Since joining Global Creatures, Anna has proved instrumental in advising the company on its highly specific, cross-jurisdictional legal and commercial arrangements. She has also developed innovative analytical tools, rights management systems and information packets that have significantly enhanced the agile capabilities of the legal and business affairs team. 

VERITY WHITE,

LEGAL COUNSEL,

TELSTRA

Verity is an experienced commercial lawyer with a passion for simplifying legal information and expertise in re-designing contracts for automation, readability, and usability. 

Her work simplifying contracts has saved thousands of headaches for businesses and lawyers. In 2020, Verity led her law firm Checklist Legal to be the first Australian law firm to receive the WriteMark plain language certification and in 2021 was the first law firm to present at Melbourne Design Week. 

Verity is also an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne where she is teaching Contract Design for Automation. 

MICHAEL GUILDAY

GENERAL COUNSEL,

SYDNEY FISH MARKET

Michael is General Counsel at Sydney Fish Market.  In this capacity, Michael is responsible for providing legal support for significant transactions and supporting strategy for the business, including by providing legal advice and working collaboratively across the organisation.   

Prior to his current role, Michael held senior in-house legal positions with Lendlease Corporation, Cbus Super Fund, Commonwealth Bank and Goodman Group, where he has been responsible for leadership within high performing legal functions and providing high quality legal advice to operational businesses and Boards.

BELLA GRIEGER

LEGAL COUNSEL, 

CPL - CHOICE, PASSION, LIFE

Bella is a senior lawyer within the Not-for-profit sector, specialising in advising on corporate governance, risk management, property transactions and procurement. Bella works with her internal stakeholders to achieve their commercial goals and ensure they feel supported along the journey. She is passionate about human rights, particularly on issues of inclusion, respect for others and equality for all.  

Other than being a lawyer, Bella is very active in her local community and enjoys her monthly camping trips with her children around Queensland. 

NADIA MANSOUR

CHIEF LEGAL COUNSEL,

HBF HEALTH

Nadia is an experienced senior leader with more than 20 years’ experience. She has worked as a management consultant and lawyer and leads an award winning legal team. She has also been recognised as a leading West Australian lawyer. Nadia is an experienced governance, regulatory and risk professional, and trusted general counsel. She has acted for prominent organisations across the country and globe and has led and managed various acquisitions, major projects, technology, and procurement transactions. In her time at HBF she has provided advice on the launch of HBF Dental, HBF’s transformation program and the acquisition of CUA Health.  

MARINA YASTREBOFF

LEGAL COUNSEL,

UNIVERSITY OF NSW

Marina is in-house counsel at the University of New South Wales, an active member of the ACC Australia (NSW committee, Probono and LTIC special interest groups) and founding President of the Australian Society for Computers + Law (AUSCL) a network of over 2,000 professionals across disciplines. 

AUSCL is a registered charity with a mission to achieve UN SDGs 16, 17 at the intersection of law, policy and technology for the benefit of humanity. AUSCL has made multiple submissions to government enquiries, run over 50 open access webinars since July 2020 with 10,000+ registrations, on topics as broad as AI, ethics, COVID passports and Rules as Code.  AUSCL’s Rules as Code (RaC) Accelerator has attracted participants and experts from across the globe eager to translate laws and policy into computer code. AUSCL is keen to ensure that technology and policy develops in a sustainable way, respectful of human rights, and the Rule of Law. 

AUSCL Patron, Hon Michael Kirby congratulated Marina on her “high motivation, dedicated work and brilliant success in bringing this valuable initiative to fruition”. 

ADITI KOGEKAR

DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL,

iCARE

Aditi is a Deputy General Counsel at Insurance and Care NSW (icare). icare is a public financial corporation that delivers insurance and care services to the people and businesses of NSW. icare’s assets under management are equivalent to an ASX20 company, making it one of the largest insurance and care providers in Australia.  

Aditi leads the icare Legal team’s Strategy, People and Risk group, focussing on major regulatory actions, investigations, and reform. Over a year in which icare has been the subject of intense political and media scrutiny, Aditi led icare’s response to an independent ‘root and branch’ review conducted by the Hon. Robert McDougall SC (formerly a Justice of the NSW Supreme Court), numerous orders for papers issued by NSW Parliament and various other sensitive reviews and investigations. Aditi now leads icare’s contribution to landmark legislative reform in the NSW workers compensation system, engaging with key stakeholders across NSW Government.  

Aditi has a calm, empathetic and solutions-focussed approach, allowing her to balance the demands of competing external stakeholders with the improvement of outcomes for icare’s customers, in a high-stakes, high pressure environment.  

Prior to joining icare in 2016, Aditi was a Senior Associate in Litigation at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. 

ENERO GROUP LIMITED

The Enero Group legal team is just two, Cathy Hoyle, General Counsel and Stacey Rose-Ackroyd, Graduate Lawyer. 

Enero, the largest ASX listed marketing services group headquartered in Australia has offices across 13 cities, seven countries, 600 staff and 13 subsidiaries. It is a creative technology company operating a global collective of marketing and communications specialist agencies. We service a diverse portfolio of clients including Adobe, ALDI, Facebook, the Federal Government, Hyundai, LinkedIn, Petbarn, Tourism Tasmania, among others.  

Prior to FY21, the legal team consisted of just Cathy, as sole General Counsel, but Stacey joined full time in July 2020. Every day they proactively stretch across global time zones and timelines, not stopping at the baseline, but committed to being the best in field, despite limitations in size. Operating in seven legal jurisdictions, 75% of revenue in international offices, requires a thorough knowledge of an extensive variety of laws and regulations.  

This year has presented the most challenging circumstances, but with Cathy and Stacey’s help Enero Group has achieved its best results since the GFC. The Group has moved to a growth strategy during Covid-19, and has welcomed a new CEO, Chair and CFO. Cathy was also promoted to Company Secretary. 

COMMONWEALTH DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH - LEGAL AND ASSURANCE DIVISION LEGAL TEAM

The legal team within the Legal and Assurance Division is the Department of Health’s in-house legal practice delivering legal services across the wide spectrum of the Department’s activities.  Working in an exciting, dynamic, and intellectually challenging environment, the lawyers and support staff provide high-quality, solutions focused legal advice and support to Portfolio Ministers, the Executive and other officers of the Department on a broad range of complex legislative, program and policy issues affecting the portfolio. The practice encompasses all aspects of government legal work including, but not limited to, administrative law, aged care, biosecurity, commercial law, compliance, corporate governance, employment, FOI and information law.  

The legal team is the first point of contact for departmental staff requiring legal advice and assistance. The team assists the Department to manage and reduce legal risk by providing and coordinating internal and external legal advice, by supporting and coordinating the department’s legislative program and by managing departmental litigation while building legal understanding across the Department.  

The legal team within the Department of Health’s Legal and Assurance Division is a leader in government law best practice, providing first class legal services to government. Through innovative work practices, a culture of respect, and strategic engagement with clients, we have embedded ourselves as trusted advisors and partners.