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

I have only recently joined Atlassian, but am able to answer based on a previous role. One of my key accountabilities in that role was to provide compliance advice for a large regulatory remediation program. My most significant success in that role was to play a leading role in the design and implementation of a risk-based delivery strategy. This enabled the organisation to target and remediate the most salient areas of regulatory risk.  

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

In my view, the most important skill is the ability to use your individual strengths to support your team and deliver the outcome. It is hard to pin-point specific skills which are vital to succeeding. Throughout my career I have seen many people with different skill sets use their own individual strengths (combined with their team) to deliver great outcomes. This is also one of the reasons that I believe it is important to have teams with different personalities, skills, perspectives and approaches. You need people that are conceptual thinkers as much as those that are detail focussed and meticulous.  

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

I’ll answer this from the perspective of a privacy lawyer. In my opinion, the two biggest privacy risks facing Australian organisations are (1) unauthorised access, disclosure, or loss of their information; and (2) losing the trust of customers and the public by using their information in a manner which is contrary to their wants, needs, or expectations. I think this is reflected in the current coverage of some of the Australian data breaches, as well as recent regulatory action by the OAIC, ACCC and ACMA in this space.
 

Fortunately, the organisations where I have worked have been attuned to emerging risks and proactive in managing and mitigating these risks. The nature of my role is to contribute to the regulatory, legal, and compliance programs to ensure that we are not only complying with the law but looking out for the best interests of the customer. 

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

Without getting into too much detail, schooling did not suit me, and I was close to dropping out after my school certificate due to poor grades. Thankfully, I decided to persevere and through a lot of hard work (and time maturing), I found ways to engage with work and education that played to my strengths rather than my weaknesses. I will never be the person that can sit down for hours poring over detail, but instead focus on understanding the conceptual level and using my interpersonal skills to drive meaningful change.