Australia

ACC Australia is proud to present the 2021 Australian Corporate Lawyer Awards. These prestigious awards recognise leadership, excellence in the provision of legal services and the contribution made by in-house lawyers whether in government, NFP or corporate legal departments. 

ACC Australia is excited to announce that this year, the winners will be presented in-person, with the return of the Awards dinner at the 2021 In-house Legal National Conference, in Canberra, November 8.

Whether you are an in-house lawyer in a government, NFP or corporate legal department; a General Counsel or new to in-house; or are part of a large or small team – if you have made a significant contribution to your organisation, or know someone who has excelled in the provision of legal services, ACC Australia wants to know. 

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ACC Australia, with the support of our Corporate Alliance Program Partners, has produced our annual In-house Trends Survey, which was completed in March-April this year by 212 members. It is with pleasure that we can now provide you with the link to the newly published report.
 
While revisiting trends around legal technology uptake, work-life balance and direct briefing with barristers, this year’s survey also deeply explored the impact of the global pandemic on in-house legal teams, with some surprising and not-so-surprising results.

The report is meaty for those who want to deep dive into the detail. However, if your time is limited, just go straight to page four for a bird’s eye summary of the findings.
 
We are incredibly grateful for our Corporate Alliance Program (CAP) Partners, whose generosity enables us to provide valuable information and quality services to our members. Please ensure you are familiar with our CAP partners, as without them, we would not be able to produce such excellence in publications for you.
 

Employment law issues have become one of the biggest challenges facing general counsel in the workplace - even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Association of Corporate Counsel Australia and Thomson Reuters’ Employment Law for In-house Counsel Conference is taking place online on 11 October 2021.

The conference will address the most recent changes to employment law with consideration to the practical effects of these developments for employers. The conference is for in-house counsels acting as trusted advisers to help them navigate the workplace relations regulatory maze.

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The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) In -house Counsel Certification Program covers the core competencies that are applied by corporate counsel professionals. ACC Certification draws on the collective knowledge and experience of ACC’s global membership to identify what is essential to a successful in-house practice worldwide. 

The training is a combination of self-paced online training modules (8) and virtual workshops. The virtual workshops are three hours in duration, four days a week for two weeks.

Monday, August 23 – September 2nd  (Monday to Thursday evenings over consecutive weeks) at 5-8pm Melbourne time. 
 

Member in the Spotlight allows us to get up-close and personal with some of our ACC Australia members. In our last newsletter we featured Andrew Paloni, Senior Legal Counsel at AIMS and a member of the New to In-house Special Interest Group.

Andrew works as a lawyer at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, known as AIMS. AIMS is a Commonwealth research institute that leads marine research across Australia’s tropical north.

To read more about Andrew's experience working at the world’s most advanced research aquarium facility, and his journey in an in-house legal role, click here.

News
 

MON, JULY 26 2021

Rebecca Lim: Reflections on Leadership and the Role of the Group General Counsel

With responsibility for leading Westpac’s legal function globally, Rebecca Lim has held the role of Group General Counsel and Enterprise Executive at Westpac Bank since 2011. 

MON, JULY 26 2021

Level Up Your (iPhone) Tech Savvy

Article by: Zoee Bradley, General Counsel and Compliance Officer at Teva Pharmaceuticals. This article will help you level up your tech savvy without any further investment beyond your time in messing around with your iPhone. I don’t use Android phones, but I suspect many of these tips and features can be found on that operating system as well.

Australian Corporate Lawyer – Winter 2021 issue available now

Visit the Australian Corporate Lawyer page on the ACC Australia website to read these features from the Winter 2021 issue.  

Featured articles include:

The role of lawyers in the face of Increasingly Capable Technology – David Field, Chief Legal Counsel at Canon Oceania
While talk of artificial intelligence replacing lawyers is a common topic, it is reasonable to expect technology to make increasingly aggressive inroads into the practice of law over coming decades. No sensible lawyer should be resisting this trend, and in fact the true challenge for lawyers lies in collaboration with technology.