Judging Panel
Professor Michael Adams, Dean of Law UWS
Professor Michael Adams is an internationally recognised specialist in corporate law, governance, securities markets regulation, and legal education (especially e-learning). Michael has been writing, teaching and regularly presenting on all these topics for over 20 years. He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (FACE), as well as the Australian Academy of Law (FAAL), and is also a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia (FGIA & UK FCIS).
Professor Adams has been the former President of the Australasian Law Teachers Association, the Corporate Law Teachers Association and Chartered Secretaries Australia (now Governance Institute of Australia). He is the co-author of ten books and chapters, 40 articles and over 150 conference/seminar presentations. In 2000 he was the recipient of the Australian University Teacher of the year for Law and Legal Studies and 2005 CSA President's Award.
Josh Kubicki, Legal Transformation Institute LLC (LTI), Michigan State University, TECH Cocktail, LLC
Joshua Kubicki is the founder and President of the Legal Transformation Institute - a business design firm. Over the last decade he has merged his legal practice with his entrepreneurial and strategic development skills, and his transformational leadership ability.
He works with law firms, corporations, legal education professionals, and entrepreneurs within legal services markets and been responsible for implementing and executing organizational change within global practices and enterprises. Prior to founding The Legal Transformation Institute, Joshua held leadership roles within several global legal service organizations where he led specialty divisions/projects focusing on driving innovation and change into business processes.
Josh has received several awards for innovation and leadership throughout his career. He regularly speaks and writes on the broad range of topics encompassed by legal transformation. He is a graduate of the Catholic University, Columbus School of Law.
Joanna Goodman, Writer, editor, journalist, columnist at Law Society Gazette, Guardian Media Network. Legal Business, Legal IT Today
Joanna is a legal technology correspondent for The Law Society Gazette and contributes business/management features. She writes features for Legal Business, covering technology and management topics and collaborating on special editions, and has contributed to The Lawyer's Business Technology Guide and Media Planet's City A.M. Legal IT supplement. Joanna has edited and contributed to several supplements for Raconteur for The Times, covering Legal Efficiency, Corporate Fraud, Big Data and Intellectual Property. In addition, Joanna is a columnist for the Legal IT Professionals website and Legal IT Today, a quarterly magazine which she helped launch in March 2013. In 2015 Joanna started writing about technology for the Guardian Media Network.
Richard Burcher, International Legal Pricing Consultant, Managing Director at Validatum, Chairman of Burcher Jennings
Richard Burcher is a former New Zealand practicing lawyer, managing partner and Notary Public with over 30 years’ experience. His services pricing research and commentary have been widely published or cited in Commonwealth Law Journal, Global Lawyer, Managing Partner, Harvard Business Review and the Pricing Journal amongst others.
Richard is a member of the Professional Pricing Society (USA) and the European Pricing Platform. He is also an Advisory Panel member of the newly formed, New York-based True Value Partnership Institute, a global think tank comprising only around a dozen members including the Pricing Directors in some of the world’s largest and most prestigious law firms in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. He has also recently been invited onto the advisory board of Legal League Consulting. India's premier legal profession management consultancy.
George Beaton, Partner, Beaton Capital
George is the Executive Chairman at Beaton Research + Consulting and has guided clients through a wide variety of strategic decisions in his 25 years as an adviser and consultant. His practice is focused on a mix of advisory, performance improvement and trouble-shooting assignments in services firms.
His management experience includes executive director roles in advisory, consulting, communications and marketing research firms, and professorships in leading universities in Australia and South Africa. He holds MB BCh, MBA and PhD degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Laura Vickers (Previous Winner), Principal at Nest Legal
Laura is Principal of Nest Legal and a 2014 winner of the 2014 Lexis Nexis & Janders Dean Innovation Index Award.
Since graduating from the University of Melbourne with first class honours, she has practiced law for eight years in everything from conveyances to High Court appeals.
Laura has worked as a Principal Solicitor with the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office, where she represented the State of Victoria in the constitutional challenge to chaplains in schools and was the legal advisor to the Victorian Floods Review, assisting former Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie AO, APM. She has also worked for top 20 firm Maddocks and local Clifton Hill law firm Elliott Stafford & Associates, taught undergraduate law at La Trobe University, chaired the Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee at the Law Institute of Victoria and volunteered with the Fitzroy Legal Service.
John Humphrey, Executive Dean – QUT Law School
John Humphrey is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). John is also a Legal Consultant in the Brisbane office of King & Wood Mallesons where he specialises in corporate M&A and general commercial work. John was previously a Partner of King & Wood Mallesons for over 14 years. He has over 30 years experience as a commercial lawyer and has been named Best Lawyers' 2011 Brisbane Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year.
He has also been listed as one of Australia's Best Lawyers as Judged by Clients in 2010. John is a trusted advisor to many Boards, is a director of a number of ASX-listed companies and is a member of the Australian Takeovers Panel.
Justin North, Director and Founder, Janders Dean
Justin is the founder and director of Janders Dean International. He specialises in the area of assessing and developing knowledge and information management strategic roadmaps, analysing unique lawyer behaviours, and maximising the adoption of knowledge initiatives. Janders Dean are recognized as a global leader in advising law firms and in-house legal functions.
A selection of law firms that Janders Dean has worked with include Linklaters, Herbert Smith Freehills, K+L Gates, Clyde & Co, Corrs, Clayton Utz, Mayer Brown, Seyfarth Shaw, Reed Smith, Minter Ellison, King & Wood Mallesons, Ogier, Stevens & Bolton, Nabarro, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance, Paul Weiss, Ashurst, Gilbert+Tobin, Norton Rose Fulbright, Holland & Knight, Fried Frank, Baker & Hostetler, Jones Day, Bowman Gilfillan, Posse Herrera Ruiz, and Webber Wentzel. In-house legal department clients include Vodafone, HSBC, BAE Systems, Swiss Re, BT and numerous others.
Denise Farmer, Head of Strategy, LexisNexis® Pacific
As Head of Strategy for LexisNexis Pacific, Denise works with commercial leaders, partners and customers to execute long-term and strategic initiatives. Denise helps to drive innovation, by bringing together deep industry understanding and customer insights to grow the business and mature products and services which meet customer needs. Since graduating from the University of Cambridge in the UK, Denise has spent over 20 years in strategic management, marketing, corporate development and customer-led innovation in a variety of international business sectors within Australia, the UK, the US and the Caribbean. Denise joined LexisNexis Pacific in 2005 after completing her MBA with the University of Western Sydney and has held a variety of roles across marketing, customer insights and strategy with a predominant focus on the legal, corporate, and government markets. In those years, Denise has supported a variety of strategic projects including the recent launch of Lexis Advance in the Pacific region, LN Practical Guidance, Visualfiles Legal Counsel and our SmartOffice suite of solutions.