Law Week 2018: Phil Ware, General Counsel, Stanwell Corporation From legal generalist to General Counsel and legal mentor.

From Monday, May 14, through to Sunday May 20, ACC Australia will share a member profile that highlights the in-house profession and the role of in-house lawyers across public, private, government and not-for-profit organisations. Keep an eye out for a new member profile each day during #LawWeek 2018. 

Phil Ware, General Counsel, Stanwell Corporation

From legal generalist to General Counsel and legal mentor

Phil Ware, General Counsel at Stanwell Corporation, often uses a metaphor to contrast the role of the in-house lawyer to that of the private practitioner.  It starts with an image of the Mona Lisa covered in butchers’ paper.   As Phil explains, “If you poke a few holes in the paper with your finger, you might reveal a few small patches of the painting underneath.  That might be the equivalent of seeing her hand for a private employment lawyer, maybe part of her face for a private tax lawyer, but little else.  Yet, as an-house lawyer you see everything, the butchers’ paper is removed and the whole painting able to be viewed.  Everything you see is in the context of the whole picture”.  It’s an apt descriptor and one which speaks to the generalist nature of Phil’s in-house experience and the reason he was originally attracted to an in-house career.

As could be expected over a thirty-year legal career, the last seventeen of which have been spent in-house, Phil has been involved in a very broad range of legal issues.  Over a ten-year career at predecessor firms of Allens Linklaters he was involved in commercial litigation, banking, finance, property, infrastructure and an internal secondment as National Risk Management Lawyer.  His first experiences as a young litigator were defending multiple foreign currency loan cases for Westpac in the Federal Court and the High Court.  Banks helped Australian customers (especially farmers and property developers) borrow foreign currencies (usually Swiss francs or Japanese Yen) at 2-4% when domestic rates were 20% plus.  But when the value of the Australian dollar plummeted in 1985, the amount of AUD needed to fund the repayment of the loan principals blew out dramatically, in effect doubling overnight.  Drawn out litigation followed and the contentious episode was the 1990s equivalent of the current Financial Services Royal Commission.

It was an opportunity in the mid 90’s to undertake a long secondment with Queensland Cement (now Cement Australia) that got Phil interested in corporate/commercial law and presented him with his first significant in-house role and the opportunity to have what he terms ‘holistic connectivity’ to the wider business context of law.  A previous short-term secondment to Westpac had been a taster.  After Cement Australia, Phil returned to Allens and a banking, finance, property and infrastructure practice.

After a short stint as Head of Corporate and Government for a mid-tier firm, Phil was appointed General Counsel at Queensland government owned electricity generator, Tarong Energy in 2001. Ironic because he had always planned to be an electrical engineer like his brothers (a long story involving multiple non-fatal electrocutions!).

In 2011, when the state government turned the then three government owned electricity generators into two, Phil became GC of Stanwell Corporation Limited, the largest electricity generator in Queensland and responsible for 40% of Queensland’s electricity.  But Stanwell does much more than run coal-fired power stations.  The company owns a coal mine and has an interest in another; it is involved in a natural gas joint venture; owns gas and hydro-powered power stations; and trades coal, gas, water, electricity derivatives and renewable energy certificates.  Stanwell also developed two windfarms in SA in the early 2000s.  The Stanwell legal team staples are corporations’ law, electricity regulation, financial services law, environmental law, occupational health and safety, and legal compliance generally as well as helping contract Stanwell’s $800million annual procurement spend.    

Phil cites mentoring and developing young (and now not so young) lawyers as his greatest achievement and fulfilment.  He currently has five other smart lawyers in the team who, he says, always make him look good.

Outside of his in-house role, Phil’s commitments to the profession are significant.  He is a committee member of ACC Australia’s Queensland Committee and is a member of its national advocacy and mentoring committees and one of just three male mentors for the Women’s Law Association of Queensland.  Phil is a Senior Councillor of the Queensland Law Society, Chairs its In-House Counsel Committee, Chair of its Wellbeing Committee and a member of its Mining and Resources and ADR Committees.  He also holds memberships with the Australian Energy & Resources Lawyers Association (AMPLA), the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the Resolution Institute (previously IAMA) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).   He’s also finding time to do an MBA and will shortly jet off to attend the General Counsel Masterclass at Harvard Law School in Boston.