Lawyers on Boards: Advance Your Career by Being Board Ready
Explore the many career benefits for lawyers serving on boards, how to create a plan to get on a board, and what a board CV should look like. Gain the skills to make the most of a board position through strategic thinking, governance skills, risks strategy, and what makes a good board paper. Avoid potential risks by delving into conflicts of interest, privilege & insurance issues. Gain practical insights from experienced lawyers & directors that you can apply in your career on boards. WEB219N15
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units including:
1 unit in Ethics & Professional Responsibility
1 unit in Practice Management & Business Skills
2 units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Chair: Kirsten Mander, Chair, Legalsuper; Chair, International Women’s Development Agency; Non Executive Director and Chair, Audit and Risk Committee and MePACs Committee, Peninsula Health
Practice Management & Business Skills
9.00am to 10.00am The Benefits of Going on a Board & Seizing an Opportunity when it Arises
- Reasons to consider a board role & the benefits for your career in law
- 7 reasons why boards are good for your career
- Setting a plan
- Where do you want to go?
- Which board is right for you?
- Pathways for lawyers
- Value proposition development: transferable skills exercise
- Steps to take to get onto a board
- WOB Quiz exercise
- Marketing yourself
- Understanding and demonstrating the skills, knowledge and experience relevant to the company
- Turning your professional profile into a board CV
- Mistakes to avoid
- Sample board CV
Presented by Ruth Medd, Executive Chair, Women on Boards; Chair, Australian Health & Science Institute; Australian Chocolate Company; Member, Board of Trustees, Historic Houses Trust of NSW
Professional Skills
10.00am to 11.00am Essential Skills Required to Make the Most of a Board Position: Strategy, Governance & Risk
- Thinking Strategically
- Understanding the job & the relevant legislation
- The company constitution; powers of directors; and delegation of powers
- Governance
- Understanding and overseeing the delegation framework, including the role and functions of the Board, Board committees, and management
- Governance processes: strategy, business plans, appointments & delegations, policies, monitoring & oversight
- Risk strategy
- Assessing, avoiding, minimising, managing or expanding risk
- A guide to structuring risk, including example approaches & strategies
- Appreciating what makes a good board or committee paper
- What should be included and not included
- Rolling subject matters through committees and then the board
- Lawyer or director
- Separating the roles of lawyer and director
Presented by John Edstein, Chair, Macquarie Investment Management Limited; Director, Perpetual Equity Investment Company Limited; Director & Counsel, Walsh Bay Partners Pty Ltd; former Partner, King & Wood Mallesons
11.00am to 11.10am Break
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
11.10am to 12.10pm How to Avoid Legal, Ethical, Commercial & Career Risks as a Lawyer on a Board
- Potential conflicts of interest between lawyer directors, law firms and the organisation
- The dangers of blurring the line between acting as a Director or as a Lawyer
- Protecting legal professional privilege
- Insurance considerations
- Strategies for mitigating risk before you’re in a sticky spot
Presented by Sonia Petering, Principal, Sonia Petering Lawyer; Chair, Virtus Health Ltd (ASX:VRT); Non Executive Director & Chair of Board Remuneration Nominations & People Committee, TAL Life Australia; Non Executive Director & Chair of Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee Qantm IP Pty Ltd (ASX:QIP); Water Board Appointment Panel Member, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria
Professional Skills
12.10pm to 1.10pm LESSONS FROM THE BOARDROOM: War Stories, Insights & Guidance from Experienced Board Members
How the Skills and Experience Gained as a Board Member can Contribute to Legal Practice
Presented by Adrienne Parker, Partner – Head of Perth, Pinsent Masons
How Networking, Fundraising and Governance Skills Help Secure Board Positions
Presented by Alison Gaines, Managing Director & Founder, Gaines Advisory; Independent Non Executive Director, Blackstone Minerals Limited; Governor, College of Law
Being More than a Good Lawyer: Adding Value to a Board and Positive Disruption
Presented by Kieran McCarthy, Principal, Naughton McCarthy; Deputy Chair, Mercy Partners; Director, Brigidine College Indooroopilly
Presenters
Kirsten Mander, Chair, Legalsuper
A skilled chairman, director and business woman, with over 30 years’ experience as a non-executive director, senior executive and lawyer in the financial services, health, energy and resources sectors, working within Australia, Asia and the former Soviet Union. Currently chair of Legalsuper and the International Women's Development Agency and a director on various boards as below.
Ruth Medd, Executive Chair, Women on Boards
Ruth is a Certified Practising Accountant and former IT professional who has been pursuing a career as a Non-Executive-Director since 2000. She was the founding chair of Women on Boards and in this capacity has been instrumental in the growth of the business and supported many thousands of women to become board members. She maintains wide interests outside of WOB, including in the start-up sector and angel investing as well as her other board and committee roles. Ruth was previously the chair of Australian Ethical Superannuation, a member of the NSW Casino Control Authority and a director of the Infants Home at Ashfield.
John Edstein, Chair, Macquarie Investment Management Limited
John Edstein has more than 40 years of experience as a legal practitioner. His primary practice areas have been superannuation, life insurance and trusts and the tax aspects of those areas. That experience has included extensive consideration of corporate law, corporate governance and the legal aspects of investment structures. He was formerly a partner in the Tax and Superannuation Group of King & Wood Mallesons (formerly Mallesons Stephen Jaques) from 1990 to 2012 and was National Practice Team Leader of that group from 2006 to 2011. He was a member of the Law Council of Australia Superannuation Committee from 1988 to 2008 and is now an Emeritus Member and, is a member of the Tax Institute of Australia and is a Chartered Tax Adviser.
Sonia Petering, Principal, Sonia Petering Lawyer
Sonia runs her own broadly based commercial legal practice with a particular specialty in representing landowners of native vegetation in their negotiations with ASX listed and other companies on native vegetation offset agreements. Sonia is currently a non executive director of three companies: Chair of ASX listed company Virtus Health Ltd; non executive director of ASX listed QantmIP Limited; and a non executive director of TAL Dai Ichi Life Australia Pty Ltd. Sonia is a member of and chairs various board committees - including Remuneration and Audit and Risk Committees. Sonia has previously served as a Chair of Rural Finance Corporation, and board member of Transport Accident Commission and Cuscal.
Adrienne Parker, Partner – Head of Perth, Pinsent Masons
Adrienne Parker is the head of the Perth office of Pinsent Masons, a global law firm, and a non-executive director of ASX listed company, Fleetwood Limited. Adrienne has been a non executive director of Fleetwood Limited since August 2017. She is the Chair of the Nominations and Diversity Committee and a member of Fleetwood’s Audit, Risk and Remuneration Committees. Adrienne has been involved in numerous not for profit associations and is currently the National Chair of the Business Law Section of Law Council of Australia’s Construction and Infrastructure Law Committee and Chair of the Law Society of WA’s Construction and Infrastructure Committee. She is also a member of the AICD, a member of Women on Boards, the Society of Construction Law Australia and a former President of the WA Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction.
Alison Gaines, Managing Director & Founder, Gaines Advisory
Alison founded Gaines Advisory to provide a unique board search and board consulting service that responds to the particular needs of clients and helps them realise the power of good governance and board leadership. Gaines Advisory provides chairs and boards with advice about board composition and succession, nomination of chairs and non-executive directors, board performance and CEO performance and executive talent, and board remuneration. She advises listed and private companies, cooperatives and mutual, charities, not for profit and philanthropic organisations, indigenous organisations, education and research organisations, government trading enterprises, professional, industry and trade peak bodies, arts and sports organisations.
Kieran McCarthy, Principal, Naughton McCarthy
Kieran has practiced Family Law for more than 20 years and has been an Accredited Family Law Specialist since 2001. He has a well established reputation for providing expert and empathetic advice to become a trusted advisor to his clients. He is focused on working towards a resolution before litigation. Routinely acknowledged by his peers, is recognised by his peers as a “Leading” family lawyer and Recommended High Value and Complex Property Matter lawyer in the most recent Doyle’s Guide. Outside of family law, Kieran also sits on one of Queensland’s major not-for-profit boards and leads military history tours to the Australian battlefields of France and Belgium.