Could you tell us a bit about your significant successes in your role?

As the deputy general counsel, I am responsible for legal operations at Vocus and lead a team of six lawyers including a graduate lawyer. I’m proud of building a high-performing, collegiate team with a great culture. I have led a transformation project to improve legal operations by building a legal platform and centralised, searchable contract repository allowing you to search for contracts yourself, get quick legal support and contracts signed faster. I ran a small pilot to test and shape the user experience. The results were impressive; we were able to improve our turnaround and completion time by about 12% and reduced the triage and allocation time by about three hours. I’m really looking forward to introducing the platform to the organisation over the next couple of weeks. People will be able to search for contracts without waiting for the legal team, get contracts signed quicker, have immediate visibility over who will support them when they submit a request and no longer have to respond to follow-up questions. Lawyers are then able to focus on more strategic, higher value work and the organisation can manage risk better.

I am also proud of building a very diverse team. We go for team bush walks around Melbourne which suits members of the team who live further away and drive to social events and those that don’t drink alcohol. It’s a fun way to socialise and bond.

 In your opinion, what are the qualities and skills needed to form a strong legal team?

The ability to inspire, motivate, enable lawyers to learn, develop and thrive, as well as the ability to have courageous conversations and understand and develop people. The ability to work with different people and flex your leadership style is also helpful.

What is the biggest risk to your industry or organisation and how are you contributing to prepare your organisation for this?

Cybersecurity is one of the biggest risks to my industry and organisation. I’m contributing to preparing my organisation for this risk by leading workstreams across the business to understand the data and personal information that we hold and to delete or de-identify the data or personal information that we are not legally required to retain. It involves advising, influencing, and deeply understanding business drivers. I’m also enabling the organisation to use our security offerings and posture to drive growth, leveraging the current environment where there is a focus on cyber security and the introduction of critical infrastructure legislation.

What challenges have you overcome to get to the position you are in today?

I’m a first generation female Asian-Australian who has had to overcome the gender and racial biases that many have also faced. I’ve had the privilege to work for almost six years in London leading a team at Vodafone’s global headquarters. The Australian legal marketplace can be a challenging place to succeed for many and it can sometimes suffer from being geographically isolated and focussed on local talent and experience alone. Returning to the Australian legal marketplace, after an overseas stint and parental leave, was an unexpected challenge. I’m lucky to have found a place where I can enjoy being a working parent.