About

Jessie Porteus has served as the legal counsel for Coca-Cola Amatil for four years, working with a multitude of departments in several business units across Australia, advising on everything legal-related including contract drafting, commercial work, strategy, intellectual property, competition and consumer law, environment and marketing to name a few. She explains that, ‘this last year has proved to be the most revolutionary and successful year of my career in terms of having a positive impact on my team and on internal clients. I played an instrumental part in the Amatil legal team’s transformation towards being “more than just lawyers”, which is now our team tagline’. Porteus has also gone on to establish the first of its kind legal clinic, where clients within the Amatil business can attend three mornings a week to ask quick questions. She has also developed and launched the Amatil legal team’s intranet page, which includes all of the contract templates, letter templates, training slides and guidelines for use by internal business clients so they can self-serve first, before they contact the legal team for further advice. She has also been involved in rolling out the Plexus Trade Promotion Wizard technology-based solution to assist the marketing team run its trade promotions and receive terms and conditions within 24 hours. Along with the deputy group general counsel she has drafted over 20 new contract templates for procurement and sponsorship arrangements. The templates have the commercial details at the front and the legal terms at the back, allowing business clients to complete the commercial details table at the front. Porteus has always had a passion for helping law students and for education. Last year she announced the launch of her start-up, The Learned Crew (TLC), which is a legal training and “law student incubator” business. ‘My aim is to bridge the gap between what students learn at law school, and the practical skills they need to know as a lawyer in an ever-changing legal industry, and to share my study and career insights with others so that the next generation can not only survive in law, but thrive. I also have a particular passion for promoting in-house career opportunities to law students’, says Porteus.