Adam has spent more than 13 years in investigations and leadership positions within WorkSafe.

In his current role as Head of Operations & Emergency Management at WorkSafe Victoria, Adam plays a key role in the regulation of health and safety laws in Victoria. He leads a workforce of more than 170 employees (from various technical and specialist disciplines as well as support and administrative functions) to manage the delivery, administration and regulation of health and safety services as per the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, Dangerous Goods Act 1985 and associated Regulations within Victoria.

Adam also oversees the incident and emergency response function of WorkSafe. Coming from an investigations background, Adam brings a strong knowledge on compliance and enforcement and how they contribute to WorkSafe's constructive compliance approach. Adam is passionate about ensuring Victorian workers return home safely every day and delivers programs and projects through his teams to ensure WorkSafe Victoria is delivering appropriate, timely and considered interventions in Victorian workplaces.

Adrian Cartland, the 2017 Young Lawyer of the Year, has worked as a tax lawyer in top tier law firms as well as boutique tax practices. He is now the Principal of Cartland Law, a boutique tax and commercial law firm.

Adrian is also the Creator of Ailira, the Artificially Intelligent Legal Information Research Assistant, which automates legal research and information. Ailira has enabled non-professionals to pass University Tax Law exams and is currently used by hundreds of Australian tax lawyers and accountants for tax research and to unlock internal intellectual property. Ailira can also provide tailored legal information to consumers, initially in the areas of Domestic Violence (for which Cartland Law has already delivered a SA Government funded prototype), Business Structuring, and Wills and Estates. Ailira has powered the world's first Law Firm Without Lawyers.

Adrian is known for his innovative advice and ideas and also for his entertaining and insightful professional speeches.

Alex began working at Lethbridges Barristers and Solicitors as a paralegal while completing her Law degree in mid 2004. Alex graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Music.

Alex was admitted to practice in 2006 after completing her Practical Legal Training at the College of Law. She has a wide-ranging experience in criminal law matters appearing and instructing Counsel in complex frauds, major drug and terrorism prosecutions, murder and sex offences as well as other regulatory matters.

In 2016 Alex was awarded the Law Institute of Victoria, Access to Justice Award in recognition of her ongoing pro-bono work for two members of the Bali 9 who were on death row in Indonesia. In 2017 Alex featured as a panellist on the Insight Program (SBS) talking about her experience in acting for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Alex also gave evidence at the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade regarding Australia’s Advocacy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

Between 2016 and 2018 Alex was the Vice President of Reprieve Australia. Reprieve Australia is a not for profit organisation which develops legal and policy solutions to try and end the death penalty.

Alex is a 2019 Doyle’s Guide recommended leading criminal defence lawyer in Victoria and Australia.

was solicitor (pro bono) for Yoshe Taylor from 2016. Alex co-ordinated the legal team for Yoshe Taylor which included Ms Julie Condon QC (Melbourne), Dr Christopher Ward SC (Sydney) and Mr Mosseny So (Cambodia). Alex recently appeared on the Australian Story (ABC) two part documentary, An Innocent Abroad. This documentary looked at the case of Yoshe Taylor and other Australians who were victims of an international drug syndicate scam.

Amanda Storey is the Director of Legal Practice of the Consumer Action Law Centre a Victorian community legal centre which specialises in consumer credit law, consumer law and insurance law. She leads a team of 13 lawyers who are dedicated to making life easier for people experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage. Consumer Action strives to create a just marketplace where people have power and businesses play fair. In 2018, Consumer Action acted for 5 clients who gave evidence before the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services. Consumer Action was awarded the 2019 Law Institute of Victoria Access to Justice Award in its work for supporting their clients as witnesses before the Royal Commission and the 2018 Tim McCoy Prize for outstanding work by a community legal centre for advancing the rights of vulnerable Victorians for banking misconduct. Prior to joining Consumer Action, Amanda worked in private practice as a litigator specialising in banking, bankruptcy and insolvency. Amanda holds a Masters in Law specialising in commercial law and is a member of the Law Council of Australia Australian Consumer Law Committee and co-chairs the Federation of Community Legal Centre’s Professional Standards and Support Committee.

Anna is an experienced Chair and independent board member, with a strong interest in consumer advocacy and particular expertise in regulation and policy. She has worked in a wide variety of sectors, including legal services, as past Chair of the Council of Licensed Conveyancers, and the health sector as a past Chair of the General Optical Council and chair of Healthwatch England.

She is currently an Independent Board Member of pay.uk and chairs the Board’s End User Advisory Council, as well as chairing a Customer Challenge Group at Southern Water and an Independent Governance Committee at Zurich. She has previously chaired the Ofcom Communications Consumer Panel and the Rail Safety Standards Board and has been a Commissioner at the Care Quality Commission.

Anna is a former Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council and her executive career included roles at Which? and the Financial Services Authority.

Anna Cronin is Victoria's first Commissioner for Better Regulation, appointed by the Victorian Government in 2015. In June 2018, the Victorian Government appointed her as Red Tape Commissioner as well.

Anna has considerable experience in regulatory issues across many policy areas, including in agricultural and mining regulatory and approvals frameworks. She has also held a number of board positions in the government and not-for-profit sectors, including on the Australian Landcare Council and Rural Skills Australia. Anna was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal for services to rural leadership. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Melbourne School of Government at the University of Melbourne.

Anna graduated from the Australian National University in economics and econometrics and started her career as an economist in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and (what is now) the Productivity Commission. She has been closely involved in policy development for 25 years from diverse perspectives, including as CEO of the National Farmers’ Federation, as the senior bureaucrat responsible for major project approvals in the Western Australian Government’s State Development department and as Chief of Staff to two Premiers in the Victorian Government.

Ashley is a Partner / Executive Director of Pitcher Partners who has provided accounting, taxation and advisory services to small to medium sized businesses since joining the firm in 1993. Ashley was admitted to the partnership in 2006 and is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Ashley works with businesses in a range of industries including professional services, farming, magazine publishing and property. He works with the owners and accountants within those businesses to ensure their accounting and regulatory requirements are satisfied without risk but in a highly commercial and tax effective manner. The wealth successful families grow outside of their business may ultimately become just as significant as the business itself. As such he is also constantly involved in the wealth management of the families that own those businesses including estate planning, cash flow management and superannuation.

Carl is a passionate advocate of service excellence and recognised as a Client Experience champion and influencer in the legal sector. Carl entered the profession with Ashurst in 2002 in the UK. He is the founding director of CXINLAW and a Distinguished Fellow and member of faculty at the Centre for Legal Innovation (College of Law). He has a background in theatre, retail operations and law, with expertise in learning and development, employee experience, service design and innovation.

Carl and the CXINLAW team has authored market-leading research that examines the Client Experience advantage for law firms, in partnership with the UK College of Law in 2012 and ALPMA in Australasia in 2015 and 2018. Carl is the former Vice President of the Continuing Legal Education Association Australasia (CLEAA) and faculty member of Queensland Law Society and speaks internationally.

Catherine Myers was appointed CEO for the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation in July 2015. She has an extensive background in communication, regulation, education, strategic planning and client services within both the public and private sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Education and a Masters of Business Administration from La Trobe University. Ms Myers has been a part of the VCGLR since its establishment in 2012. Prior to assuming the role of CEO, Ms Myers served as Director of Strategy and Planning where she managed the VCGLR’s client services, oversaw strategic planning, audit and risk management processes, ICT, communications, policy and data and analytical functions.

Catherine brings her considerable experience as a consumer advocate and ombudsman to the Board.  She is Chair of the new VLSB Consumer Advisory Committee and is the Customer Advocate at NAB, where her role includes making decisions about complex and sensitive complaints and advising on how to improve complaints handling and customer outcomes more broadly. She is also an independent consumer representative to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and Chair of the Victoria-based Consumer Policy Research Centre, a specialist consumer policy think-tank.

Catherine was previously an Ombudsman and Head of Market Affairs at the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service, and is a former CEO of the Consumer Law Centre Victoria (which later became the Consumer Action Legal Centre). She was Senior Policy Officer at Choice, and is a former Chair of the Consumers Federation of Australia.

Her overseas experience includes running international human rights legal NGO, Fair Trials, and the UK’s whistleblower NGO, and she was a member of the Legal Services Consumer Panel in England – the expert advisory body to the UK’s Legal Services Board.

Chris has held senior leadership roles for over 15 years in health policy and regulatory reform, as well as workforce planning and innovation.

He is an authority in the design and application of the National Law across 15 health profession boards, which was a COAG reform initiative. It established a single national regulatory scheme for what is now over 670,000 registered health practitioners in Australia.

He holds a Graduate Certificate of Health Management from the Queensland University of Technology and a Bachelor of Commerce from Griffith University. He was previously a registered nurse with qualifications in critical care from the Alfred Hospital Melbourne. Chris is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dan is Head of Pro Bono & Community Impact at King & Wood Mallesons leading a team of pro bono & social impact experts via the KWM Community Impact program (pro bono, volunteering, philanthropy and reconciliation & empowerment).

Dan is a leading pro bono, community and responsible business lawyer and was named in the 2016 Hot List by Australasian Lawyer magazine. He has been a speaker at the International Bar Association Conference in Sydney, the Asia Pro Bono Conference in Myanmar, Hong Kong and Indonesia, the PBI Conference in the United States, the National Pro Bono & A2J Conference in Sydney, the NACLC Conferences in Brisbane & Melbourne and the Australian Pro Bono Academy in Sydney. Dan is often quoted in the legal and mainstream press including The Age, LIJ, Boardroom Radio, Lawyers Weekly, Brisbane Legal and ADVOC News. He has written various articles that have been published in the LIJ, Governance Directions and My Business.

Dan's primary areas of practice include: Poverty Law (housing/tenancy rights, domestic violence, credit & debt and victims compensation); Public Interest Law/Human Rights Litigation; Insurance Litigation (defence/claims work); and Practice Management (pro bono, charities & community legal centres).

Dan has developed considerable expertise in acting for (and assisting) CLCs, charities and non-profit organisations, as well as insurers & corporations. He has built a substantial practice advising and assisting charitable institutions and is a trusted advisor to many of the largest charities, non-profits and CLCs in Australia. Dan has highly developed skills in strategy planning and implementation, communications and community engagement.

Daniel has been involved in devising and delivering significant pro bono, volunteering, charitable and community engagement projects, with large teams of people and in a variety of jurisdictions, including Australia, South Africa, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands. Many of these projects have been run in partnership with commercial clients.

Dan has worked in pro bono & community for over 12 years. Prior to coming to KWM, he was Partner at an Australian firm where he led the pro bono & community program and prior to that position, Dan was the Asia Pacific Pro Bono Director for a global firm.

Dr George Rivers is a director of Rivers Economic Consulting and a member of the Economics Department of Monash University.

Dr Rivers has been engaged as a consultant by various government departments as a cost-benefit economist including the Department of Sustainability and the Environment; Department of Primary Industries (Victoria); Department of Primary Industries and Resources of South Australia (PIRSA); Victorian Road Corporation; Energy Safe Victoria (ESV), Department of Health and Human Services (Victoria) and the Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation, as well as the Supreme and Magistrates Courts.

Since 2012, he has presented annual two-day economic evaluation workshops in New Zealand for the Government Economic Network, sponsored by the New Zealand Treasury.  Dr Rivers also presented to the evaluations unit of at the Australian Taxation Office in 2011 and the Queensland Competition Authority in 2012.  He is a council member of the Economic Society of Australia.

Dr Ian Freckelton is an experienced Queen’s Counsel with a national practice that is trial, appellate and advisory in administrative, criminal and personal injury law. He is currently appearing in various proceedings associated with the Lawyer X Royal Commission and also the Bourke Street Mall Inquest. He has appeared throughout Australia in disciplinary proceedings involving health practitioners and lawyers. Ian is also a Judge of the Supreme Court of Nauru and a Professorial Fellow of Law and Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne where he is the Co-director of the Masters of Health Law program. He has been a member of many tribunals and boards, including currently the Mental Health Tribunal and the Coronial Council of Victoria. He is a member of the Victorian Bar Council and of the Ethics Committee of the Victorian Bar. Ian is the author of more than 40 books and over 600 articles. His most recent book is the 6th edition of Expert Evidence: Law, Practice, Procedure and Advocacy.

Tessa is the founding CEO of Health Justice Australia, established in 2016 as the national centre for health justice partnerships.

She has worked in health, criminal justice and human rights organisations in Australia and internationally. She was previously Deputy CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service. Her report of her Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Nonprofit Leadership was published as Lead or be left behind: Sustaining trust and confidence in Australia’s charities. Her PhD on the detention and release of mentally disordered offenders was published as a book, Protecting the Public? Detention and Release of Mentally Disordered Offenders by Routledge in 2010.

She is on the Board of Gondwana Choirs, the leader in Australian choral performance; and plays ultimate Frisbee.

Tessa’s TEDx on health justice partnerships explains why seeing a lawyer might be good for your health (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh_n_ZNScCg) and her TEDx on philanthropy through partnership argues against ‘bizsplaining’ and builds on her work as the inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholar in Nonprofit Leadership (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4etaKwZZ4HI).”

Fiona is a non-executive director of Hills Ltd and Select Harvests Ltd. She is a Chartered Accountant with extensive experience in commercial and financial management, governance, risk management and auditing.

Fiona has held senior executive positions at BHP Billiton Ltd and Coles Group Ltd, and has been Chief Financial Officer of several organisations in the health sector. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Management.

Fiona was appointed to the Board in January 2008 and was appointed as Chairperson of the Board by the Attorney-General in January 2013. Fiona was re-appointed Chairperson on 30 November 2016.

Fiona was appointed as the Victorian Legal Services Commissioner and CEO of the Board in September 2017 and commenced her tenure in January 2018.

Fiona is the former CEO of the access to justice organisation, Justice Connect, and has also previously held the positions of General Counsel at World Vision Australia and Special Counsel at Clayton Utz.

Fiona has a BA (Hons) from the University of Melbourne majoring in psychology with honours in criminology, an LLB from the University of NSW and an LLM in public and international law from the University of Melbourne. She also has an LLM in public service law from the New York University Law School and has attended both the Harvard and Stanford Business Schools.

Fiona was appointed Director and Board Chair of Health Justice Australia in 2016 and is a Board member of The Intrepid Foundation and Equality Australia.

Geoff Browne has held several high profile senior roles supporting the small business sector.

Geoff was the Victorian Small Business Commissioner from 2011 to 2016, where he successfully decreased the number of disputes between landlords and commercial tenants, expanded engagement with small and medium businesses, and increased awareness of the dispute resolution services offered by the Commission with customer satisfaction ratings of 95%.

Prior to this Geoff was Deputy Director at Consumer Affairs Victoria and has had senior management experience in both the public and private sectors, working in telecommunications, finance, and e-commerce. He has also run his own small business.

Mr Browne holds a Masters Degree and First Class Honours Degree in Economics, and a Graduate Diploma in Company Secretarial Practice.

The Consumer Action Law Centre, an independent, not-for-profit consumer organisation based in Melbourne. Consumer Action provides financial counselling, legal advice and representation to support vulnerable and disadvantaged Victorians, and draws on its direct knowledge of the consumer experience in modern markets to pursue consumer interest campaigns and policy reform at both state and national levels.

Gerard is also the Chair of Consumers’ Federation of Australia, the peak body for consumer organisations in Australia, representing a diverse range of consumer groups, including most national consumer organisations.

Greg graduated from Law at Adelaide University in December 1984.

He commenced practising in November 1984 with a firm that, through some mergers etc, ultimately became the Adelaide based member of the Minter Ellison Legal Group.

After 21 years as a partner at Minter Ellison, Greg retired from the partnership in 2013. His roles with Minter Ellison over that time included as Chairman (2001 to 2007), Chief Operating Partner (2007 to 2011) and General Counsel (2011 to 2013).

Greg started as the Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner on 1 February 2014, with that role then formally commencing on 1 July 2014. He was appointed initially for a 5 year term, and has recently been re-appointed for a further 5 year term.

Greg’s non-work interests include playing golf and watching sport – mainly the Adelaide Crows and the Adelaide 36ers.

He is married with two adult children.

Helen Townley has a legal and policy background, and a graduate diploma in psychological studies. She initially qualified as a lawyer, working for the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department in administrative law, then briefly for NSW Legal Aid in civil litigation. She spent several years working in public and environmental health policy and legislation development, before moving into broader health policy, in particular health workforce issues and regulation.

At the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), Helen worked as Executive Officer with several National Boards and as National Director Policy and Accreditation, now works on regulatory policy across professions in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.

John McKenzie was re-appointed as NSW Legal Services Commissioner on 28 February 2019 for a period of five years. The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner receives complaints about solicitors and barristers practising in New South Wales and strives to improve the ethical and professional behaviour of legal practitioners in providing services to consumers of legal services.

A solicitor for 34 years, he has worked primarily as an Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law, largely for the Aboriginal Legal Service and on the staff of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. He has also worked some years in private practice, Legal Aid and community legal centres.

John has had a career as a lawyer working for Aboriginal Legal Services spanning more than 30 years in various remote, regional and urban centres having begun his career at the ALS in Moree, north-western NSW in 1980. He was a Principal Solicitor on the staff of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1988 – 1991 under Commissioner Hal Wootton QC. He was part of the team compiling the Final Report of that Royal Commission in Adelaide under Head Commissioner Elliott Johnson QC.

Since then he has worked to have the recommendations implemented by all levels of government, with little success. He received the NSW Law and Justice Foundation’s Justice Medal in 2011 for his work towards improving access to justice for Aboriginal people. He was the Chief Legal Officer of the ALS (NSW/ACT) based in Redfern from 2006 before being appointed to his current role as the Legal Services Commissioner NSW in 2015.

John continues to be a member of the Legal Information Access Centres Advisory Board (the State Library of NSW) and the Strategic Directions Committee of “Just Reinvest NSW” (auspiced by the ALS (NSW/ACT)).

Julie practices in all facets of criminal law. She has appeared in interstate jurisdictions and internationally. She was appointed Senior Counsel in 2016.

Julie is an experienced trial advocate. She has appeared in criminal trials in both the Supreme Court and the County Court of Victoria and has conducted appeals in the Court of Appeal. Julie is also a Victoria Legal Aid Criminal Trial preferred barrister.

From 1999-2001, employed by Aboriginal Legal Services in Katherine, Darwin and Alice Springs as a Criminal Lawyer. Appearance work in all courts as Defence Counsel and in Coronial Inquests. Involved in the submission to the United Nations Human Rights committee in 2000, seeking a declaration against Mandatory Sentencing in the Northern Territory and its affect on Aboriginal Defendants. Has written and presented papers on the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report and Aboriginal Customary Law.

Between May 2006- July 2006 Julie was a legal consultant to the Defence Team of OTP v Krajisnik at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Between July 2006- November 2007 Julie was engaged as Defence Co-Counsel in OTP v Popovic, “Srebrenica Trial”. ICTY, The Hague, the largest genocide trial to be conducted on European soil since Nuremberg.

Julie is also on the List of Defence Counsel eligible to practice at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, based in Phnom Penh. She has also provided pro bono legal advice to persons on death row in Indonesia under the auspices of Reprieve Australia. More recently she was a member of the legal team providing legal asistance to Yoshe Taylor, an Australian national undergoing sentence in Phnom Penh,Cambodia

By invitation of the Victorian Bar, Julie has traveled to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu on a number of occasions to teach Law Students and members of the profession advocacy workshops.

Kate joined the Victorian Bar in 2000 and has developed a broad, general commercial practice, particularly in regulatory work in respect of competition law, legal professionals and health practitioners.

She is also admitted to practice in Papua New Guinea and she was formerly a member of the Victorian Bar Council.

She regularly acts for the VLSC and for or against the ACCC and ASIC.

Recently she acted as counsel assisting in the investigation led by Charles Scerri QC into the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle’s alleged misconduct as Chair of Melbourne Health.

Kate Jenkins is Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner and a member of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Her purpose is to advance gender equality, consistent with the Sex Discrimination Act and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  
 
Kate is leading a number of projects including the National Inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces and the Commission’s collaborative project on cultural reform with the Australian Defence Force. Kate is also the co-convener of the National Male Champions of Change group (established 2015), and the Co-Chair of Play by the Rules, a joint project between human rights agencies and sports commissions to make grass roots sports safe, fair and inclusive. 
 
Prior to joining the Commission, Kate spent three years as the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, 20 years as lead equal opportunity partner with Herbert Smith Freehills and many years serving on the boards of Berry Street Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art and Carlton Football Club

Katherine Lorenz commenced as CEO of the Victorian Bar in November 2018. Katherine is responsible for the Bar’s financial management and governance, the implementation of the Bar’s strategic plan and building strong stakeholder relationships across legal bodies, regulators, the courts, government and media. She has significant commercial sector experience in complex commercial litigation matters; regulation; commercial advisory; strategy and enterprise-wide strategic execution; governance; and, compliance and risk.

Katherine’s previous role was Executive Director, Corporate Services and Governance, Chief Legal Officer at Monash Health.  Prior to joining Monash Health, Katherine was the Executive Director of Legal & Information Services at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

Prior to joining The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne in 2012, Katherine was Special Counsel for the Australian Wheat Board, now Agrium Asia Pacific Limited. A Special Counsel for Clayton Utz – one of Australia’s preeminent commercial law firms – Katherine was also Solicitor and Senior Associate (commercial litigation) with Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons).

Kellie Grainger is the Chief Executive Officer at the Law Society Northern Territory. The Society is a key regulator of the legal profession in the Northern Territory dealing with a broad range of regulatory matters including conduct complaints, licensing, trust account and CPD compliance, as well as undertaking its other functions including engaging in advocacy and supporting and educating its members.

In 2012 Kellie started at the Society as Manager Regulatory Services with responsibility for investigating complaints against legal practitioners and oversight of the Society’s various regulatory functions. In June 2016 she was appointed as Acting CEO and subsequently confirmed as the CEO in January 2017.

Before joining the Society she worked in private practice for a regional Queensland law firm for over 16 years, practising in a range of areas of law and Court jurisdictions.

A driven collaborator and an unlikely lawyer, Kerri-anne Millard brings 20 years practising in public service. Specialising in policy and legislation development, Kerri-anne’s passion for engagement and collaboration has driven legislative reform for 5 regulators in Australia.

Liz is Director of Ovid Consulting and consults to corporate and government in-house counsel and law firms on legal spend management, pricing and process improvement, utilising legal project management principles. With a background as a practising lawyer specialising in Cost Law, she has insight into best practice in management of litigation and legal costs.

She has extensive expertise in costs in class actions, both in advising on budgets, and as a Court appointed Special Referee.

Liz regularly presents workshops on legal spend management and legal project management in Australia, the UK and the USA.

Madeleine has been Executive Director of the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division of the Department of Education and Training in Victoria, since the introduction of the National Quality Framework in 2012.

Madeleine oversees regulatory matters including training, monitoring and compliance and assessment and rating of Early Childhood Education and Care services in Victoria.

Mark is an Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law and Family Law, and general litigator practising in regional Australia. He is a past president of the Law Institute of Victoria, and has oversight of the Institute’s Legal Assistance Scheme. He was founding chair of the LawAid Trust, which funds the out of pocket costs of lawyers acting pro bono. He has served on the boards of the Victoria Law Foundation, the Leo Cussen Institute for Continuing Legal Education and the Australian Pro Bono Centre.

Mark chairs the Access to Justice Committee of the Law Council of Australia, the nation’s peak body for lawyers and is the immediate past chair of the influential Australian Legal Assistance Forum. He currently chairs the Access to Justice Committee of the International Bar Association, and is a Council member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. He frequently presents at international conferences on family law and criminal law topics, and access to justice issues.

Mary Ollivier is the New Zealand Law Society’s Director, Regulatory.

Mary was admitted to the High Court in December 1991 and has worked in law firms in Auckland and Wellington and overseas. She was previously the NZLS acting Executive Director from January 2018 until April 2019 which coincided with significant media scrutiny about bullying and harassment in law firms leading to several new initiatives being introduced by the New Zealand Law Society.

Mary is involved in all legal regulatory matters including lawyers becoming reporting entities under the anti-money laundering legislation since July 2018.

Dr Matt Collins AM QC is the President of the Victorian Bar and a barrister specialising in media and commercial law.

In his time as President of the Victorian Bar, he has made lawyer health and wellbeing a priority, including by conducting and leading the implementation of the results of a landmark health and wellbeing survey and introducing a range of improved conduct policies and grievance measures to address discrimination, harassment and bullying.

Michael Tidball was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Law Society of New South Wales in 2006 after having been appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2004. In recent years, he has also concurrently served as Secretary General of LAWASIA.

Among the key reforms during Michael’s tenure at the Law Society of New South Wales has been the lead role played by the Society in the move to a national legal services market in Australia. A current key focus is leading the Society to respond in its service offering to the forces of innovation, disruption, changing technology and artificial intelligence.

Michael serves as a Director of Lawcover Insurance Pty Ltd and Lawcover Pty Ltd as well as of LAWASIA Holdings. He also serves on the Board of Management of Quality in Law and is a member of the Council of the Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History.

Michael has a strong interest in classical music and serves as Chair of the Board of the Song Company, Australia’s leading and internationally acclaimed classical vocal ensemble. He has recently completed post graduate studies at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mitzi is also a Director at Xakia Technologies, Director RATCH – Australia, Chair of the Swinburne Law School External Advisory Committee and member of the Justice Connect Digital Innovation Advisory Board.

Hive Legal was founded 5 years ago on the vision of improving the experience of legal practice for its team and its clients. With a flexible cloud based work place, a commitment to innovation and by replacing timesheets with value pricing, Hive has proved top tier legal services can be compatible with work/life integration, diversity and innovation. Mitzi is strongly committed to pro bono legal services and served on the Justice Connect board for 11 years – 7 as chair. She remains involved in their digital innovation program. She also contributed to the establishment and ongoing direction of Swinburne Law School which has focussed on educating lawyers for the future practice of the law.

Neil Mallon is the General Manager Regulatory at the New Zealand Law Society and a member of its Executive Team.

Having started his legal career in the Fraud and Operating Risk division of ANZ Bank New Zealand, Neil has a long history of working in the regulation of professionals. Beginning with a stint in London, working for the Bar Standards Board where he managed prosecutions and appeals involving the conduct of barristers in through the Inns of Court and Royal Courts of Justice.

Following his return to New Zealand, Neil spent time working for the New Zealand Teachers Council, leading their complaints and prosecutions team, before joining the New Zealand Law Society in 2012. Neil was previously the National Complaints Manager before taking on his current role.

Peter Corcoran was appointed CEO of the Victorian Institute of Teaching in February 2018; his leadership has seen the organisation undergo a rapid transformation, in both its functions and culture, through a robust regulatory approach and a focus on child welfare and safety.

Peter has a passionate commitment to delivering quality service to Victorian citizens. He commenced his professional life as a secondary school teacher in regional Victoria, and has since developed a strong regulatory portfolio.

Prior to his position at VIT, Peter was Director of Maritime Safety with Transport Safety Victoria, during which time he was responsible, among other things, for the regulation of 400,000 licenced operators of commercial and recreational vessels. Peter was also Director of the Victorian Taxi Directorate for four years during a period of significant challenge and transformation.

Philip Willox is a Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution team in King & Wood Mallesons’ Perth office. He specialises in workplace relations, employment law, major incidents, safety, and regulatory compliance. Philip is also the Perth Centre People Partner and the KWM National EEO Partner. In these roles, Philip helps KWM deliver on its strategy to be a great place to work and grow.

Philip has worked across many sectors assisting clients with their human resources issues, workplace investigations and disputes. Philip has significant experience in industrial relations strategy, bargaining, and managing and resolving industrial disputes. He has advised in regulatory areas such as employment, sham contracting, fraud, counterfeiting, HSE incidents (fatalities, property and environmental damage), immigration, customs, sanctions and export controls, anti-money laundering, and provision of financial services. He assists companies to manage the range of issues that arise following workplace incidents, including regulatory requirements, investigations, inquiries, prosecutions, and civil litigation.

Nigel joined the VLF in December 2018 as its inaugural Research Director. He has been conducting empirical research for over twenty years and is expert in the application of social science and modern quantitative methods to explore how the public understand and interact with the law.

Nigel’s research includes work on the role of law in everyday life; attitudes to justice; public experience of and response to legal issues; the interaction between legal and health problems; and design of legal services and legal aid. He is best known for his work on legal need surveys around the world, including recent guidance supporting global access to justice initiatives under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16.

Nigel is also Professor of Law and Social Statistics at University College London.

Robert Fitzgerald AM was formerly a Commissioner with the Productivity Commission since 2004 and a Commissioner on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for 5 years. He was recently appointed as the inaugural NSW Ageing and Disability Commissioner.

Previously Robert was the NSW Community and Disability Services Commissioner and Deputy Ombudsman and practised as a commercial Solicitor for over 20 years. Robert has conducted over 18 government commissioned national inquiries into regulatory, economic and social policy areas.

He has served on numerous NGO boards including previously as President  of the Australian Council of Social Service, a member of the Advisory Board to the University of Sydney Law School, and currently a Board Member of Social Ventures Australia. Robert was the inaugural Chair of the Advisory Board, Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.

Robert holds degrees in commerce and law from the University of NSW and an honorary doctorate from the Australian Catholic University and is currently an Adjunct Professor with the University of Western Australia. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1994. Robert is patron of Justice Connect and SAMSN (Survivors and Mates Support Network).

Ronwyn is currently chair of CLEAA (Continuing Legal Education Association of Australasia). Ronwyn has a detailed background and insight into CPD from many different perspectives, as lawyer in private practice, director of professional development in large law firms, provider of risk management, ethics and practice management education and member of the National CPD Task Force that helped bring about harmonisation of CPD rules. As a member of the AICD and board member of Sydney Local Health District she has insight also into the CPD regimes for company directors and clinicians.

Samantha Bishop worked as a commercial lawyer in the UK and Australia, including 12 years as General Counsel of a private healthcare company in the UK, before joining Victoria Legal Aid in 2016. After working in grants, policy and legal professional support roles, she assumed the role of Assistant General Counsel in early 2018. She is particularly interested in applying her extensive practice experience to the delivery of legal assistance services, and during 2018 and early 2019 managed the first phase of VLA’s review and overhaul of its Conflict of Interest Policy, as well as its response to proposed changes to the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules.

David Habersberger was admitted to practice in 1972 and signed the Bar Roll of Counsel in February 1973. He was appointed One of Her Majesty’s Counsel for the State of Victoria in November 1987.

David was a member of the Victorian Bar Council for fifteen years. He held numerous positions with the Bar Council and its associated bodies, including that of Chairman of the Bar Council in 1994-1995. At the time of his appointment as a Judge, David was the elected member of the Legal Practice Board in Victoria.

In July 2001, David was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He sat in all divisions of the Court including as an acting Appeal Judge. He was one of the two Judges in charge of the Commercial List for over two years, the Judge in charge of the Building Cases List for three years and the Judge in charge of the Probate List for over two years. At the time of his retirement in March 2013, David was the Principal Judge of the Commercial and Equity Division of the Court.

In the second semester of 2013, David was the Judge in Residence at the law school at the University of Melbourne.

Between 1991-2003, David was a member of the Council of Queen’s College at the University of Melbourne, Vice President in 1995 and 1996 and President from 1997-2003. He was appointed a Fellow of the college in 1992 and was the Principal Fellow between 2012 and 2017.

David was appointed a Deputy President of the Anglican Church’s Professional Standards Review Board for the Dioceses of Melbourne and Ballarat in 2016.

David has been a Deputy Chairman of the Victorian Legal Admissions Board since 2015.

Jill Hennessy is the Attorney-General and Minister for Workplace Safety in the second Andrews Labor Government. 
She entered the Victorian Parliament as the Member for Altona District in 2010 and held a number of shadow ministerial roles before she was elected to government in 2014, including public transport, anti-corruption, corrections, crime prevention and women. 
As Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services in the first Andrews Labor Government, Jill was a driving force behind a number of landmark reforms that have changed the lives of Victorians.  
Jill played a leading role in: • establishing tough ‘no jab, no play’ laws, requiring kids to be immunised before they can be enrolled at Victorian kindergartens or pre-schools, leading to record-high immunisation rates across Victoria • enshrining in law guaranteed minimum numbers of nurses and midwives to care for Victorian patients • turning ambulance response times around from the worst on the Australian mainland to the best on record • transforming quality and safety across the health system, responding to a tragic set of circumstances uncovered at a regional hospital years earlier • delivering the biggest investment in health capital in the State’s history  
In 2017, legislation introduced by Jill seeking to allow Victorians with a terminal illness to access voluntary assisted dying passed the Victorian Parliament; the first of any state in Australia. 
Jill has a passion for reform and in her current roles is focussed on delivering key measures to protect working people – through new workplace manslaughter and wage theft laws. 
She is committed to modernising the Victorian legal system to deliver strong, smart, fair and transparent justice, making it more accessible, responsive to victims, the judiciary and legal profession more diverse, and delivering reforms to drive safety, equality and protection of the less powerful.   
Jill holds a Masters of Public and International Law, a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts. 
Jill is a former lawyer, political adviser, board member of Western Health, Western Region Health, and former Chair of the Victorian Working Families Council. 

Tina Turner is the Head of Court Programs at Justice Connect. She has been in the access to justice sector for 12 years and has extensive experience engaging pro bono for the delivery of legal services. Tina also has significant prior experience in civil litigation both in private practice and in government.

Tina is an experienced senior organisational leader at Justice Connect and has established a number of new programs and built multiple teams to deliver effective legal assistance to people experiencing disadvantage and barriers to accessing justice.

In her current role she is responsible for the strategic development and sustainability of Court Programs. These programs deliver unbundled legal assistance to unrepresented litigants in the civil justice system both federally and at state level. The programs rely on volunteer lawyers from Justice Connect’s member law firms who deliver the legal assistance in pre-booked appointments under Justice Connect’s supervision.

Court Programs aims to help people who do not qualify for legal aid and cannot afford a lawyer to help resolve their legal issue. People in the ‘missing middle’ - everyday people with everyday problems who without help can face, financial instability, risk to their home security and personal harm.

Tina is passionate about working with pro bono partners to deliver high impact legal assistance for people at a time in their lives when they need it most.