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LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
New South Wales - Presenters

LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
New South Wales - Presenters

PRESENTERS

Andrew Chen

Senior Partner, Findex

Andrew is a Senior Partner in Findex’s Professional Practice Advisory team.

He is a Chartered Accountant with 30 years of experience working with partners, boutique and top tier firms, focusing on improving financial outcomes and advising on tax effective planning and structures for legal professionals, firms and privately held businesses.

Andrew is a legal sector specialist and a regular presenter and writer on law firm financial matters. He also leads an annual Financial Benchmarking Study across 100 law firms.

 

Anthony De Govrik

A C de Govrik & Associates

Tony is a NSW solicitor and senior corporate lawyer based in Sydney. He has over 35 years post admission practical experience in the areas of companies and securities industry law, regulation of the securities industry, commercial law, corporate governance and company secretarial practice. This includes nearly 20 years employment with the Australian Stock Exchange (“ASX”) in various positions - the last of which was Chief Legal Officer and Group Company Secretary. During his employment with ASX he was seconded for 2 years to the London Stock Exchange to gain international experience. In the past, Tony has spoken regularly in Australia and overseas on corporate and securities industry law, corporate governance issues, legal compliance and professional ethics.

Post ASX Tony has been contracted to a number of listed public companies in the role of in-house counsel and company secretary. He has also had a lengthy involvement with the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association (ACLA) – a professional association for in-house corporate lawyers – where for over 13 years he acted in various capacities including as National President (for 3 years), General Counsel, Company Secretary and Director of Legal Affairs & Communications.

For 2 years Tony wrote a monthly column for Australasian Legal Business (ALB) magazine on issues of particular relevance to the in-house legal profession in Australia. For over 12 years he was also the editor of ACLA’s journal, The Australian Corporate Lawyer.

In addition to being an Honorary Life Member of ACLA (now Association of Corporate Counsel Australia), Tony has affiliations with a number of other professional associations including the Law Society of NSW (where he serves on the In-house Corporate Lawyers Committee), Governance Institute of Australia (formerly Chartered Secretaries Australia) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Tony is also a former Law Society Councillor.

Tony is presently General Counsel and Company Secretary for Probus South Pacific Limited - a not-for-profit company with over 140,000 members in Australia and New Zealand. He is also an adjunct lecturer in the Masters of Applied Law Program at the College of Law.

 

Sue-ella Prodonovich

Prodonovich Advisory

Sue-Ella is an award winning adviser and author who brings more than 20 years of senior level Business Development experience in the legal sector.

In 2011 Sue-Ella was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Australasian Professional Services Marketing Association for services to the sector and in 2019 she was made a Fellow of The College of Law Practice Management for outstanding and sustained contributions to the industry.

Sue-Ella specialises in:

  1. Building the business development skills of lawyers training and coaching programs
  2. Providing Business Development ideas and helping execute plans
  3. Building better client relationships thought client analysis and feedback projects.

Detail on Sue-Ella’s experience and thinking can be found at www.prodonovich.com

 

Glenn Dennett

Executive Coach and Lawyer

Glenn Dennett is an executive coach and lawyer who specialises in working with the legal profession.

Glenn was admitted as a lawyer in 1988 and has worked in private practice and as a corporate in-house lawyer in Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, Geneva and New York.

Glenn now draws upon over 25 years’ experience in various senior management and legal roles to work as an executive coach.  He specialises in one-on-one executive coaching and mental health and well-being education to the legal profession. 

Glenn holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Law from the University of Sydney and a Masters’ degree in Coaching Psychology from the University of Sydney. He is an Adjunct Lecturer at the College of Law in Stress Management and an Adjunct Lecturer at the Law Extension Committee of the University of Sydney in Legal Institutions. His pro bono activities include working with law students, community legal centres and facilitating peer support groups for people living with drug and alcohol addictions.

 

Jairan Amigh

Jairan is an Inhouse Special Counsel and Company Secretary with 30 years experience predominately in corporate legal teams in financial services.

During Jairan’s corporate career she has had significant experience in:

  • Developing practice management processes in order to improve the quality and timeliness of legal work and to enable more proactive legal services and collaborative teams.
  • Working in multidisciplinary teams to deliver on a variety of projects in a manner which helped ensure effective project planning, project governance and project delivery.
  • Leading legal and governance teams with a focus on pragmatism and professionalism.
  • Providing legal advice and counsel to enable appropriate deliberation and swift decision making and supporting my team to do the same.

Jairan is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW and Queensland, having completed a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Queensland.

 

Jeffrey Roth

College of Law

Jeffrey is the Academic Manager, Practitioner Education, with The College of Law. He oversees the delivery of all postgraduate courses in the Applied Law (LLM), Legal Business Management, and International Law programs. Jeffrey also manages the delivery of all short courses, most notably the Legal Practice Management Course (LPMC) NSW, Nationally Accredited Mediator Training Program (NMAS), and Notarial Practice Accreditation Course. In addition to managing all adjunct lecturers, teaching fellows, and presenters and facilitators, he is responsible for all academic compliance and student academic matters. Jeffrey is also responsible for facilitating and lecturing in LPMC NSW. In 2020 he was on secondment with The College of Law New Zealand, in the role of Acting Chief Academic Officer.

Jeffrey is an adjunct lecturer with the College and has taught the subjects ‘Development and Management of a Family Law Practice’ and ‘Client Strategy and Implementation’ in the LLM program. He also presents on Business Development and Marketing and Preparing a Business Plan in LPMC. Jeffrey was a practicing lawyer in New Jersey and New York for more than twenty years and established and built his own law firm during the latter half of his legal career.

Upon moving to Australia and prior to joining the College, Jeffrey held various business development/strategy managerial roles with law firms, in both traditional and ‘new law’ models. He received his BS degree in Marketing from the University of Maryland and his JD degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. His specialised competence includes professional business building and development, strategic professional business planning, marketing, promotion and sales of professional services, and client relations.

 

Glenda Carry

Legal Risk Manager, Lawcover

Glenda was admitted to the Australian legal profession in 2014 and shortly after commenced her role as a Regulatory Compliance Solicitor with the Law Society of NSW from where she joined Lawcover in the role of Legal Risk Manager in September 2021.

Prior to this Glenda was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 2006 and practised as an Associate Solicitor in the areas of personal injury law, wills and estates, conveyancing and family law. Glenda studied law and commerce in her undergraduate degree and went on to complete a post-graduate course in marketing practice at the UCD Graduate School of Business, Dublin, Ireland. With her background in business and marketing as well as law, Glenda has a keen interest in law practice management with a particular focus on promoting the benefits of good risk management practices for sole practitioner/small law practices.

 

Joshua Box

Wotton + Kearney

Joshua Box is the Clients & Innovation Director at Wotton + Kearney in Sydney, Australia.

For more than 25 years, he has worked with in-house legal and claims teams and has helped law firms and other professional service businesses build and grow lasting collaborative client relationships through improving the way legal services are delivered. Josh is a former in-house lawyer and was the Head of Legal for a FTSE 200 UK Bank before moving into legal consulting and outsourcing and then returning to Australia in 2012 working with firms in business development and technology innovation.

His key achievements include:

  • implementing core client & firm technology and innovation programs
  • implementing practical client relationship programs and business plans through deliberate client and industry selection and focusing on sustainable more valued business relationships;
  • helping law firms win new clients and additional revenue through opportunity management plans and legal panel tenders
  • mentoring and training law firm partners and other senior professionals on business development, negotiation and relationship management skills;
  • helping in-house teams test and align corporate legal strategies with business objectives and create more effective legal service delivery models
  • implementing productivity initiatives and operational structures through alternative legal delivery and resourcing models
  • implementing industry wide diversity & inclusion initiatives

 

Malcolm Campbell

Coleman Greig

Malcolm Campbell is a Principal Lawyer at Coleman Greig Lawyers and has over 20 years’ experience across business, commercial, workplace and estate planning law.

Through his successful representation of a diverse and growing list of businesses, associations and organisations, Malcolm has developed a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by those operating within today’s commercial landscape. His passion for business and law has allowed him to develop strategies to help businesses reduce their risk, increase productivity and maximise profit.  

With professional qualifications spanning a range of commercially relevant areas including economics, law and corporate governance, Malcolm’s clients regularly benefit from his eclectic knowledgebase. He possesses an in-depth knowledge of the unique challenges faced by businesses - particularly those located within the Greater Western Sydney region.

Malcolm has a vested interest in delivering strong outcomes for local businesses, both through his role as a commercial lawyer, and via his ongoing involvement in the local business community. Malcolm is also a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia (FGIA). Passionate about educating others in an engaging manner, he regularly presents webinars, seminars and workshops to a wide range of audiences, from not-for-profit organisations and charities through to top tier firms and peak body groups such as Lawcover, the College of Law and Legalwise CPD seminars.

 

Neil Watt

Neil Watt Consulting

Neil is a Sydney-based solicitor and legal ethicist with a prior background in government consultancy and community sector management. In a former life he founded the Queensland Law Society Centre for Lawyers’ Ethics and it’s widely-used Ethics Centre website. Neil served as QLS Senior Ethics Lawyer until moving to Sydney in 2011 to open his own CBD practice specialising in the defence of lawyers facing complaints and disciplinary proceedings as well as providing training in ethics and professional standards.

A believer that values will always be more powerful than rules Neil nonetheless was a major contributor to the Law Council of Australia’s (almost) national Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules now adopted in SA, Qld, ACT, NSW, Victoria and, as of 2021, WA. When not working in his practice he teaches at UTS & Macquarie Law Schools, trains senior practitioners at the College of Law (in NSW and Victoria) and provides advice, training, a bit of inspiration and his signature humour to lawyers, regulators and businesses around Australia.

 

Ronwyn North

Managing Director, Streeton Consulting Pty Ltd

Ronwyn is an experienced provider of management consulting and education services promoting professionalism and profitability in professional practice. Her particular focus is reducing exposure to professional liability risk, unethical conduct and client dissatisfaction by strengthening people, processes and culture.

With background in legal practice including as a law firm principal, Ronwyn is an acknowledged ‘thought leader’ in the management of professional risk. She was principal researcher and co-author of Streeton Consulting’s Managing Client Expectations and Professional Risk, a ground-breaking study of the causes of liability claims against Australian lawyers that continues to inform and influence claims analysis and prevention programs in Australia and overseas.

Ronwyn is a board member of the Sydney Local Health District where she chairs the Finance Risk and Performance Committee and represents the board on the Education and Research Committee, and the Cyber Security Steering Committee.

 

Stephen Burke

Stephen Burke Management

Stephen is a senior manager with extensive experience in complex professional services organisations within the legal and health care environments.

From 2005 to present, Stephen has worked as a freelance practice management consultant, and as the Administrator of QL Inc (www.ql.org.au).

He has assisted a number of Incorporated Legal Practices with OLSC Self Assessment Procedures, and arranged strategy planning workshops for practices.

Recent assignments have included

  • assisting Incorporated Legal Practice with OLSC Self Assessment Procedures,
  • strategy planning workshops for practices,
  • teaching management and related subjects at university
  • interim practice management roles,
  • financial turnaround including debtor management,
  • quality certification,
  • recruitment and performance management,
  • establishing board reporting framework,
  • client relationship management and
  • implementing organisational change programs.

Clients have included retail pharmacy, employer associations, commercial law firms, and executive search firms.

He currently teaches at UTS, UWS and UTS Insearch. Subjects delivered include Service Operations Management (UTS), Performance Management and Benchmarking, Business Reengineering, Management of Quality and Operations Management – UWS, Introductory Management – UTS Insearch.

From 1997 – 2005 he held a number of practice management roles in CBD and suburban firms including Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, The Institute of Actuaries, Australia, Atanaskovic Hartnell Lawyers, Watkins Tapsell Lawyers and Toomey Pegg Drevikovsky Lawyers – Practice Manager

Prior to his career in legal practice management, he worked in healthcare with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and as a Director of Nursing and Clinical Services with Australian Medical Enterprises, Sydney Hospital and St. Vincent’s Hospital.

 

Trish Carroll

Principal, Galt Advisory

Trish is a combination of business strategist, facilitator and coach. She enjoys nothing more than seeing people succeed. Since establishing her business in 2004 Trish has advised clients ranging from small local firms to global firms and in-house teams in the public and private sector. She believes relationships are everything and supports her clients to become more effective communicators and manage client, employee and market relationships in ways that build trust and confidence. She helps firm pitch and win business, successfully adapt to, and implement, change and deal with challenging situations. Trish often works with other consulting firms as part of a cross-functional team delivering various organisational and professional development programs. Apart from all this serious stuff, she likes to make the legal practice management sessions entertaining and to make thinking about things a little differently fun.

During her long career she has been National Director of Marketing & Business Development at Minter Ellison, Bell Gully (New Zealand) and Baker & McKenzie (Australian offices). Trish has been a member of the teaching faculty of The College of Law NSW for 20+ years which is just slightly longer than she’s been writing a regular column for the Law Council’s Australasian Law Management Journal. She was the first Australian to speak at the North American Law Firm Marketing Association Conference.  She has also spoken at legal conferences hosted by the International Bar Association, the Australian Financial Review, the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia, the Corporate Lawyers Association of New Zealand and the Australasian Legal Practice Management Association.

 

Zile Yu

Quantum Law Group

Zile is the Managing Partner and founder of Quantum Law Group, which was listed as Top Boutique Law Firm in 2021 by Australasian Lawyer and as a finalist in Boutique Law Firm of Year in the 2021 Australian Law Awards.

Zile is also currently a Consultant at Meridian Lawyers where he consults to the Management Team and the Sydney Commercial Group. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest person in the history of the firm to hold the title of Consultant at 28 years of age. He served as the Head of Innovation and Special Projects at Meridian Lawyers between 2018 – 2019, during which he was responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s online revenue generation strategy. Meridian Lawyers is a national law firm with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle and Perth.

Zile is also currently a Lecturer at the College of Law in the Legal Practice Management Course for Partners and senior lawyers intending to start their own law firms or practices to remove condition 3 off their NSW practising certificates.

He has previously built his own legal technology platform and is featured in or presented conferences and publications including the Australasian Lawyer, Boutique Lawyer Show, Australian Financial Review, BenchTV, Tax Talks, the Global Legal Hackathon 2018, the Australian LegalTech Summit 2019, the Boutique Law Summit 2021, the Centre for Legal Innovation and Lawyers Weekly.

Zile is the winner of the Sole Practitioner of the Year Award in the 2020 Australian Law Awards. He was listed as a finalist for the Managing Partner of the Year Award in the 2021 Australian Law Awards, the 2021 Partner of the Year Awards in the Criminal Partner of the Year, Real Estate Partner of the Year, Innovator of the Year and New Partner of the Year categories, the 2021 Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards in the Real Estate and Criminal categories, the 2020 Partner of the Year Awards in both the Innovator of the Year and New Partner of the Year categories, the 2020 Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards (Dispute Resolution and Litigation), the Rising Star of the Year in the 2019 Australian Law Awards and the 2018 Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards (Real Estate and Construction).