Law Executive Council

Law Executive Council Members

 
ELIZABETH BRODERICK, HREOC
(Legal & Community Member) is Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination (Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission). Elizabeth was formerly a partner with the law firm Blake Dawson and head of its Legal Technology Group. Elizabeth has campaigned for workplace flexibility, paving the way for other lawyers by becoming one of the first partners to work in a flexible arrangement. She established the firm's Social Issues Forum to build an extended community between staff and clients. She has established a number of mentoring programs for both indigenous and non indigenous Australians including the State Government's flagship program for women known as the Lucy Program. In 2001, she was Telstra's NSW Business Woman of the Year and the Australian Business Woman of the Year (corporate category). She has served on a number of Boards including the Board of Blake Dawson Waldron. Elizabeth is married and has 2 young children Tom and Lucy.

ROB COOMBE, Chief Executive Officer, BT Financial Group.
(Alumni Representative) Rob joined Westpac with the acquisition of the BT Financial Group in 2002 and has over 23 years experience in banking, finance and wealth management. Rob was appointed CEO of BT in January 2005 and leads a team of over 3,000 people across private banking, insurance, advice, funds management and wealth and superannuation solutions. He started with BT in 1991 and has held a number of positions, including Senior Legal Counsel, Head of BT's International Funds Management and CEO of BT's Funds Management business in Malaysia. Rob has also led BT in the development, packaging, distribution, administration and service of BT's range of retail products, margin lending, corporate super, discount broking and wrap platform businesses. Rob is actively involved in industry issues and has recently been appointed to the Board of Investment and Financial Services Association Limited (IFSA).

LAURIE GLANFIELD AM, Attorney General’s Department
(Legal and community member) Director General of the Attorney General's Department, appointed in1991. Nationally, Laurie is the Deputy President of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and is a founding member of the Board of the National Judicial College of Australia. He is Chairman of the Criminology Research Council and a member of the Board of the Australian Institute of Criminology. Internationally he is the Project Director for the Vanuatu Legal Sector Strengthening Project, an AusAID initiative. Laurie has been the Secretary of the Standing Committee of Attorneys General since 1988. Laurie Glanfield is the Deputy Chair of the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre and a board member of the Australian Centre for international Commercial Arbitration. Amongst other current appointments Mr Glanfield, is a Director of Law Week, a Trustee of the Public Purpose Fund, and a Director of the Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History. Formerly he was a Director of the Law and Justice Foundation, a member of the Legal Profession Admission Board and a Director of the Motor Accidents Authority.

GRAHAM KELLY, Freehills
(Legal and Community Member) has extensive experience in business management, legal practice, the diplomatic service and academic life. Graham is currently the chairman of Colonial First State Private Capital Limited, Centrebet International Limited and Tishman Speyer Australia and a director of a number of private companies. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology and holds the office of the Inspector of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Graham is a former Chairman of TAB Limited and served on the Board of the Colonial State Bank and for several years, Graham was Managing Partner of Freehills, where he is now a consultant.

JUSTICE KEVIN LINDGREN, Federal Court
(Legal and Community Member) is a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and President of the Copyright Tribunal. Prior to his appointment to the Bench in 1994, he was successively a solicitor, academic (Professor and Foundation Head of the Department of Law at the University of Newcastle), barrister and Queen's Counsel at the Sydney Bar. Justice Lindgren's practice at the Bar was chiefly in the areas of Equity and Commercial Law. Both at the Bar and since his appointment to the Bench, Justice Lindgren has maintained a lively interest in legal education. Over the years, his Honour has been the author or editor, alone or jointly, of a number of books, articles and papers and is on the editorial boards of several legal journals. He holds degrees of BA (NSW), LL.B (Lond), MA (N'cle), Phd (N'cle) and LL.D.(h.c.)(N'cle).

TODD ST VRAIN, External Engagement Manager
(Ex-Officio) is the UTS Faculty of Law External Engagement Manager, working to raise the profile of the Faculty and build strategic relationships with legal firms, business and government. Originally from the United States, Todd has worked in the higher education in Australia for the past six years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations (American University, Washington DC) and a Master of International Education (Columbia University, New York).

PAUL HOLT, Faculty Manager
(Ex-Officio) is Faculty Manager, UTS Faculty of Law, a position he took up in April 2008. Paul has extensive experience in university administration and management. Professional interests include organisational development and planning. Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts (Auckland University, New Zealand) and is soon to complete a Master of Business Administration from UTS.

MR BRIAN MCFADYEN, CBA
(Chair) is the Senior Legal Counsel of the Wealth Management Legal Services team at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He has a wide range of legal review and monitoring responsibilities that cover Wealth Management's internal legal activities and its external legal relationships. Immediately prior to this role he was Colonial First State Property and Alternative Investment's Senior Legal Counsel and before that had a 32 year career with Freehills, one of Australia's premier commercial law firms. These included lengthy periods in senior management, board and chairman roles. He was the head of Freehills' national real estate practice for many years, and also served as the head of the Law Council of Australia's property law group. Brian was also involved in advising on various collective and other ownership structures for both direct and indirect real estate ownership models. He has had direct dealings in several international real estate projects. Brian is also the current Chairman of the Bowel Cancer & Digestive Research Institute Australia.

ROD McGEOCH, AM, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
(Legal and Community Member) has a career spanning business, sports administration and the legal profession at the very highest level. Best known as the leader of Sydney's successful Olympics 2000 bid, he is Chairman or Director of a wide range of major corporations and past Chairman Emeritus of Corrs Chambers Westgarth. His director appointments have included Chairman of Sky City Entertainment Group Limited, Vantage Private Equity Growth Limited and the Trans-Tasman Advisory Board of Saatchi & Saatchi. He is also a Director of Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited, Ramsay Health Care Limited & LIPA Pharmaceuticals Limited and is a past President of the Law Society of NSW.

PROFESSOR JILL MCKEOUGH, Dean, Faculty of Law
(Ex-Officio) is the Dean of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Faculty of Law. Professor McKeough is regarded as a leading expert in her field of Intellectual Property and has published extensively on the areas of intellectual property in scientific research, competition policy and copyright, patents, indigenous issues and the human genome diversity project. Jill McKeough is currently on the boards of the Arts Law Centre and Legal Professional Admission Board. She is a member of the Law Council of Australia's Intellectual Property Committee and has served on the on the Copyright and Intellectual Property Committee of the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee, and thereafter the Standing Committee on Information Policy until 1998. Jill was a member of the Ergas Committee (Intellectual Property Competition Review Committee) and chairs the Council of Australian law Deans Standing Committee on Legal Education.

GARY PUNCH, Herbert Geer
(Alumni Representative)holds a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Industrial Relations) from the University of New South Wales and is currently completing a Master of Laws.  His principal areas of practice are general litigation, employment law, discrimination / equal opportunity law, occupational health and safety, industrial relations law, State and Local Government planning, including representation, negotiation and lobbying, workplace relations - redesigning company’s industrial relations both in legal documentation and with trade unions and other stakeholders, water and natural resource issues, fair trading and trade practices, treasury and all government matters.