About

Martha Maiorana, senior legal counsel at Axicom Pty Ltd, started her career as a property paralegal and spent 15 years at firms such as Makinson d’Apice, Herbert Smith Freehills, and Corrs Chambers Westgarth. This experience within the property sector gave Maiorana skills that are valuable to an in-house legal counsel. She started her in-house legal career with Harvey Norman Holdings before moving to Axicom to take her current role. Maiorana is proud of being the lead legal counsel of a publicly-listed property team that achieved strategic corporate growth while maintaining confidentiality in all matters. She is a keen learner of and embraces new types of technology which can assist with streamlining internal processes to free up time for the legal work that requires more technical expertise. When asked about the importance of support from peers and mentoring to advance in-house lawyers’ careers to the general counsel level, Maiorana explains: ‘More senior lawyers can assist rising stars to be future leaders by showing them how to be courageous and resilient when faced with many challenges’. She continues: ‘Senior lawyers or general counsel are challenged on a day-to-day basis, mostly shoulder the responsibility for the legal team, and are the gatekeepers of the business. Senior lawyers or general counsel will need to lead by example and demonstrate resilience, courage and acting calmly when faced with certain challenges. This will in turn inspire them to take on any challenges and activate these skills which are prerequisites of being a good leader’. In addition, Maiorana adds that, ‘in order to become a leader, senior lawyers or general counsel need to have open communications and transparency with their legal counsels and keep them informed of business activities as this will in any event impact the legal team. Encouraging rising starts to always keep asking questions teaches them to have those open communications that they will need to be able to bridge gaps between different business units’.