Modules:

• Commercial

Biography:

Simon practises in Piper Alderman's Corporate division. He utilises his drafting skills on a broad range of corporate and commercial transactions for major Australian corporations, Australian and international private clients and SMEs.

Simon has been involved in many business and share sale and acquisition projects, as well as general corporate and commercial advisory work, having drafted and negotiated a broad range of commercial documentation including Government funding agreements, supply contracts, commercial collaboration and alliance agreements, service agreements and licensing and distribution arrangements.

Modules:

• Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Privacy

Biography:

Joy is a lawyer in Gilbert + Tobin’s Technology + Digital group. Joy has varied experience advising clients on their regulatory obligations and new developments involved with new technology offerings and emerging technologies, particularly in the areas of privacy, data protection, and data portability. Joy also has experience supporting clients on strategic contracting, including outsourcings and procurement transactions. Prior to joining G+T Joy worked at the ACCC in the CDR compliance and enforcement team and was involved in developing the CDR participant portal, guidance for applicants, and enforcement policy.

Professional Organisation

Gilbert + Tobin
https://www.gtlaw.com.au/

Professional Contact

jmkim@gtlaw.com.au

Biography:

Bernice is a partner in Mills Oakley's Commercial Disputes & Insolvency team, based in Canberra. She has a broad-ranging commercial-disputes practice with particular specialisation in insolvency and debt recovery, shareholder disputes, and building disputes.

Bernice is sought out for her sound technical advice, along with her straight-talking and commercially pragmatic approach to protecting the interests of her clients.

Bernice has consistently been recognised in Doyle's Guide and Best Lawyers in Australia for insolvency and reorganisation work as well as for litigation and dispute resolution.

Modules:

• Employment

Biography:

Modules:

• Competition

Biography:

Rhonda is an academic economist who teaches competition law subjects to undergraduates and post graduates.

She was formerly a commissioner with the ACCC and has acted as an expert witness in a number of competition cases.

Modules:

• Intellectual Property

Biography:

Suzanne is the founder of Pinnacle TMS Pty Ltd, your Growth Protection Strategist and an #1 Amazon Best Selling Author of “Trademarking Your Business”.

With 20 years’ experience assisting clients such as Qantas, Southcorp Wines, SnapOn Tools, Toys R Us, Optus, Reed Publishing, Transfield and Chamberlain obtain registration of their brands and managing their trade mark portfolios worldwide, she knows what it takes to get brands protected.

Suzanne uses her experience and knowledge to:

• help business owners avoid business or product name identity theft by trademark registration of their brands in Australia and Internationally
• provide trade mark services, from initial research on a new brand, responding to examination reports through to trademark registration
• keep trade mark portfolios up to date by renewal, recording changes to ownership after assignment/ merger/ acquisition and recording trade mark owner's change of name with IP Australia
• provide due diligence trade mark searches and reports relating to IP when looking at the acquisition of a another business

Suzanne also files trade mark applications through the European Community and Madrid Protocol systems, working with overseas associates when necessary to achieve registration.

For 11+ years she has been running her boutique company, Pinnacle TMS Pty Ltd, specialising in Trade Marks and related work around the world.

Professional Organisation

• Pinnacle TMS Pty Ltd. www.pinnacletms.com.au
• LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/suzanneharrington
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/PinnacleTMS

Awards & Recognition

• #1 Amazon Best Selling Author of “Trademarking Your Business” http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00AMAN9WY
• 2014 Finalist Local Business Awards Sutherland
• 2019 Finalist Business Excellence Awards

Professional Organisation

Many speaking engagements with local business teams educating them on the pitfalls and benefits of Trade Marks

Professional Contact

Mobile: 042 555 8867

Email: suzanne.harrington@pinnacletms.com.au

Modules:

• Immigration

Biography:

Kim provides senior leadership and management to Fragomen across all internal legal areas including commercial law, professional compliance and ethics, intellectual property and data security. Kim has previously held the position of Practice Leader with Fragomen, and during this role provided complex immigration advice and assistance to organisations in Australia and around the Asia-Pacific from a wide range of public and private sector industries.

Kim provides internal guidance on practice management and professional compliance aspects, including trust accounts, risk management, conflict of interest and confidentiality, ethics and client service. As a commercial lawyer, Kim is responsible for ensuring professional obligations are met with respect to terms of engagement, disclosures and record-keeping. Kim routinely delivers internal training on all aspects of professional practice, practice and business management and ethics.

Prior to joining Fragomen, Kim worked at a number of national law firms in their commercial and government teams, with an emphasis on advising on and drafting a range of commercial documents.

Modules:

• Competition

Biography:

Prudence Smith is a highly experienced competition law practitioner who advises clients on a full range of competition regulatory law issues. She has extensive experience in merger clearance, cartel and anticompetitive conduct investigations and litigation, ACCC immunities, authorizations, and notifications of contracts affecting competition.

Prudence's background includes more than 14 years at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), many of those years as an ACCC internal lawyer.

Biography:

Tom has over 25 years’ experience in commercial litigation and insolvency and restructuring law, including 18 years at Minter Ellison, 2 years at a global law firm in New York, and most recently, as Head of Litigation at a boutique commercial firm.

Tom has acted on a range of matters for lenders, creditors, insolvency administrators and distressed companies. This has included acting for the receivers of a large agribusiness managed investment scheme business, the administrators of public company in the mining industry, advice to all the major Australian banks on recovery of loans and enforcement of securities and advice to a distressed hospitality group.

Tom is a regular commentator for LexisNexis on insolvency and restructuring law issues. Some recent examples include:

• Masterclass: The impending insolvency crisis and the impact on the legal profession, where Tom discusses insolvency and restructuring issues arising in the COVID-19 pandemic with Professor Pamela Hanrahan, lawyer, academic and author and John Winter, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association.
• Podcast: The new debt restructuring process—the road from appointment to implementation, where Tom discusses Australia’s new debt restructuring process with Michelle Wibisono, Practical Guidance Legal Writer - Corporations.

Contact

tom.read@lexisnexis.com.au

Modules:

• Competition

Biography:

Having literally consumed the Competition and Consumer Act, Hannah can tell you without blinking whether your advertising claims for the health benefits of cage-free, organically grown charcoal tea leaves will pass muster or leave you with a major regulatory headache. She also knows why they call it "third line forcing" and how to make the ACCC roll over like a playful puppy.v

She’s dealt with the ACCC on airline price fixing investigations, egg cartel investigations, e-commerce market power, merger clearance, and a range of consumer matters.

Modules:

• Competition

Biography:

Grace specialises in competition litigation and consumer law. She has worked on a number of a litigious and advisory matters involving contraventions of the Australian Consumer Law, Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act, investigations by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and has advised generally on the competition and consumer law aspects of commercial transactions.

Biography:

Naomi is a market-leading, strategic, commercially astute, patent lawyer, patent attorney and trademark attorney, with over 25 years’ experience, and a background in molecular biology/biochemistry. Naomi is the founder of Pearce IP, which commenced in 2017 and won “IP Team of the Year” four years later at the 2021 Australian Law Awards and continues winning awards to this day.

Underpinning Naomi’s legal work is a deep understanding of life sciences industries, resulting from first-hand experience and knowledge as VP of IP in-house at global pharma giants, and Partner of a top-tier international law firm. Naomi’s clients value her creative, pragmatic solutions to IP/legal “problems”, and she is recognised by the industry as a market leader in patent litigation, freedom to operate (FTO) clearances, and strategic advice.

Drawing from her considerable in-house IP leadership experience and her experience as a partner and leader at a top-tier law firm with a global presence, Naomi builds elegant market entry strategies which align with clients’ commercial objectives, and are anchored with legal and technical excellence. Naomi manages AU patent litigations in the Australian Courts and excels in multi-jurisdictional litigations. In addition to Australian patent office and federal court proceedings, Naomi has worked with agents overseas to build and manage US Hatch Waxman litigations, US BPCIA strategies and proceedings, CA PMNOC proceedings, patent litigations in AU, HK, UK, DE, NE, NZ, PO, IE (among other regions), and patent oppositions before EPO, AU and NZ. Naomi’s clients use her global litigation experience to assist them develop and manage global litigation strategies with many moving parts, and to coordinate global litigations.

Naomi’s industry focus is life sciences, with a particular focus on health, pharmaceuticals/ biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, animal and veterinary healthcare agricultural technology (ag-tech), food technology (food-tech, including precision fermentation), medical technology (med-tech), gene editing technologies (including CRISPR), gene therapy and cell therapy.

Naomi has a significant practice assisting pharma/biopharma companies to prepare for the launch of generic and biosimilar medicines in Australia and overseas. Naomi’s 13 years with global biosimilars responsibility at Pfizer (Hospira) and at executive level at Mylan put her ahead of the curve on issues relating to the global development and launch of generics and biosimilars.

Biography:

Carrie specialises in litigation and dispute resolution in: Advocacy; Mediation; Contract disputes; Judicial review; Consumer protection and Equity. Carrie has briefed and appeared with some of the most specialised Queen's Counsel and Senior Counsel in Australia. She has appeared as an advocate in most New South Wales jurisdictions and has run a matter before the Full Bench of the High Court of Australia.

Modules:

• Criminal

Biography:

Josh has practised exclusively in Criminal Law since beginning practice in 2006. He is now a partner at the firm Doogue O’Brien George, serving as the firm’s in-house counsel.

Josh has specialised in representing his clients at trial. The bulk of his practice now involves defending clients who are pleading not guilty. This can mean defending clients in Magistrates’ Court hearings or running their cases in jury trials in the County Court. As an advocate, Josh has specialised in indictable crime, including violence (assaults, armed robberies, aggravated burglaries), drug matters, and sexual offences, especially rape charges.

Josh is the vice-chair of the criminal law section executive of the Law Institute of Victoria. He is accredited as a specialist in the criminal law by the same institute. In 2014 Josh attended the National Criminal Defense College in the USA and completed their Trial Practice course.

Modules:

• Intellectual Property

Biography:

Michael has a background in commercial legal practice with a focus on IP commercialisation and strategy.

Michael provides commercial legal services to a range of Australian and international clients across different industries and technologies. In this context, Michael has provided commercial advice and assisted with negotiating and drafting legal documentation relating to online trading, product supply arrangements, manufacturing, technology and other licensing arrangements, compliance with consumer protection and advertising laws and regulations (including in the online space), IT infrastructure projects and implementations and compliance with privacy laws.

As a registered Trade Mark Attorney, Michael currently manages trade mark portfolios and provides related trade mark and domain name services and advice to a range of Australian and multi-national clients to ensure maximum brand value and protection.

Biography:

Marcus Young has been a full-time practitioner at the NSW bar since 1993 and was recently appointed as Senior Counsel (SC). In that period he has practiced principally in the area of equity and commercial law, with much of his work during the last decade being in the field of mortgages.

Marcus Young is a co-author of the LexisNexis Butterworths publication The Essential Guide to Mortgage Law in New South Wales.

Modules:

• Banking & Finance

Biography:

Regularly listed in Best Lawyers, the oldest and most highly-respected peer review guide to the legal profession worldwide, Matt has more than 20 years' experience as a banking & finance lawyer.  Matt's clients include Australia's major lenders, arrangers and underwriters, and leading corporates.

Matt serves on the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (APLMA) Documentation Committee, assisting the Australian financial services industry through the promotion of industry standard documentation.

Matt was recently appointed as a Director of the Banking & Financial Services Law Association Limited (BFSLA), and also serves as its Treasurer.  In this highly regarded position, Matt jointly leads the BFSLA's efforts to provide thought leadership on banking and financial services law issues through connecting with some of the world’s leading practitioners, academics, regulators and members of the judiciary.

Matt has been ranked in Best Lawyers every year since 2014.

Awards & Recognition

Recommended, Banking and Finance - Best Lawyers: 2014 - 2020
Court Admissions:
Australia, Supreme Court of New South Wales - 1999
Australia, High Court of Australia - 2000
United Kingdom, High Court of England & Wales - 2005

Memberships

Director and Board Member of the Banking & Financial Services Law Association Limited (BFSLA) (since 2018)
Treasurer of the BFSLA (since 2019)
Member of the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (Australian Branch) (APLMA)
Member of the APLMA Documentation Committee (since 2015)
Member of the Banking Law Committee of the International Bar Association (since 2020)
Agribusiness Australia member
Farm Writers Association of NSW member

Speaking Engagements

Chair, “Managing and trading a loan portfolio” session, 35th Annual BFSLA Conference, Queenstown New Zealand (2018)
Chair, “Financial Covenants” session at 34th BFSLA International Law Conference, Brisbane, Australia (2017)
Speaker, "Standardisation of Loan Documents in Asia" at the 2nd International Bar Association Asia-Based International Financial Law Conference, Singapore  (2016)
Matt also lectures occasionally at leading Australian universities in banking and finance law and trusts.

Professional Organisation

MinterEllison
https://www.minterellison.com/people/matthew_cunningham
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjscunningham/
Professional Blog
www.matthewcunningham.com.au
Best Lawyers
https://www.bestlawyers.com/lawyers/matthew-cunningham/159593

Contact

Email:  matthew.cunningham@minterellison.com
Telephone: +61 2 9921 4230
Mobile:  +61 400 916 326

Modules:

• Employment

Biography:

Kathryn has worked in workplace relations law since 2006 and joined the Corrs Chambers Westgarth Workplace Relations group in 2008, following a break from practice in employment law to obtain her Master of Laws as a Menzies Scholar in the United Kingdom. Kathryn has been involved in providing advice on a number of aspects of workplace relations law including all aspects of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), industrial strategy and collective bargaining, contract and executive employment matters, and discrimination and workplace diversity. Kathryn works with clients across a range of industries, including non-profit community organisations, mining, telecommunications, and contract services.