About

Theo Kapodistrias, an in-house lawyer supporting the University of Tasmania, has a demonstrated passion for educational and public law which first started during his studies. He was the 2013 president of the student legal service, and introduced the University’s migration advisory service after receiving A$55,000 of funding. This service was introduced to provide necessary advice to students facing visa issues, and potentially facing deportation. Kapodistrias has been in his current role as a lawyer for the University of Tasmania, his alma mater, since November 2014. He is the sole lawyer involved with the University’s largest Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) bid. The ‘Blue Economy’ CRC is also the biggest proposed bid the University has ever seen, with proposed funding for the CRC being over A$322m. The CRC aims to bring expertise in aquaculture, marine renewable energy, and marine engineering into one place. His involvement has been advising on the proposed structure for the separate entity to be created, governance issues, leasing of land for the new entity, and working with the other collaborators. In the last five years Kapodistrias has had significant involvement in research funding and research agreements. One major collaboration involved establishing a relationship with several key research partners for the development of a clinical trial referred to as the IDEAL Study. He played a major role in negotiating with entities regarding funding for the project, drafting and negotiating collaboration agreements for the research stage, drafting and negotiating clinical trial agreements with the trial sites, and assisting with the development of the commercialisation strategy. In addition to his role at the university he is also a volunteer director and Tasmanian divisional president of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Australia. In this role, he writes advocacy submissions on issues members are concerned about, organises and facilitates continuing professional development, education, and networking events, and grows a strong in-house network within Tasmania. Asked about the development of new in-house lawyers and advice for their training and development, Kapodistrias highlights that, ‘being at the table is a key way for rising stars to understand how the business operates, how decisions are made, and to be able to provide legal strategy to business issues. Being thrown into the deep end and having key input into an issue is an excellent way to learn and gives future stars the confidence to trust themselves and their abilities’.