Proximity’s advisors are strategic, commercial, pragmatic, innovative and approachable. We’re not just lawyers—we are a team of highly professional and skilful advisors that above all else, just want to help you achieve your goals.
Make an EnquiryProximity’s advisors are strategic, commercial, pragmatic, innovative and approachable. We’re not just lawyers—we are a team of highly professional and skilful advisors that above all else, just want to help you achieve your goals.
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Sean is a highly regarded commercial advisor and lawyer with significant experience acting for the Australian Government, private sector and non-profit clients.
He has significant experience in commercial law, process structuring and governance. He has wide ranging commercial and contracting experience including outsourcing, procurement of major capital acquisitions and services, funding agreements and MOUs.
Sean has carried out numerous on-site engagements and received positive feedback for his combination of legal, commercial and management abilities.
James has built a very strong reputation in the Australian Government legal and procurement sector as a dependable and outcome focused advisor who provides real world solutions that reflect the political, policy and commercial imperatives of his clients.
James’ main areas of practice are government contracting and procurement. He has a particular focus on technology outsourcing and procurement and capital acquisition procurement. He has played an important role in providing legal and procurement services to the Australian Government for many high profile and complex procurement projects.
Simon is a highly-experienced government lawyer with over 25 years’ experience working in private and government legal practice.
He has extensive experience managing legal teams, strategic and legal practice management and providing high level legal advice. He has wide ranging experience in carrying out and managing large scale civil litigation, statutory interpretation, administrative law, freedom of information, executive power and machinery of government, legislative drafting, legal policy, commercial and property law, employment law, media and communication law, general dispute resolution, mediation and arbitration.
Zoe is Proximity’s Chief Operating Officer. She is a lawyer and highly experienced manager with over 10 years working in General Management and Legal Practice Management roles in private enterprise and government legal practice. Zoe has extensive experience managing corporate functions, large professional teams and promoting leadership within organisations. She is highly skilled in managing large budgets and is a specialist in managing change and developing workforce capability to improve business outcomes. Zoe is a critical thinker, excellent negotiator, with exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills. She is passionate about culture as an enabler of high performance, mentoring future leaders and empowering others to achieve and exceed goals. Zoe receives positive feedback for her combination of legal and management abilities and her unique aptitude to work collaboratively across levels and reporting lines to achieve results in large technical specialist teams.
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Tara has extensive experience in a broad range of legal areas and has advised Australian Government clients for 18 years on administrative law, litigation and dispute resolution, government advising, health law, privacy and contract law.
She has carried out many secondments to Australian Government departments and advised on decision making processes; interpreting legislation including statutes, regulations, orders and other subordinate legislation; government contracts; litigation in the Federal Court and AAT; access to records and privacy; secrecy provisions; the aged care industry as well as rights to government support.
David has a proven ability to work as an integral member of a team or independently to achieve stated business objectives, and create long-term working relationships with key customers and suppliers.
He has particular experience in corporate and commercial law and legal practice management, and has extensive general counsel experience. Before joining Proximity, David was for many years the general counsel at BAE Systems Australia.
Bronwyn is a highly regarded commercial advisor, manager and lawyer with significant experience acting for Commonwealth and New South Wales government, private sector and not-for-profit clients. She is an experienced company director, general counsel and is often sought after by industry for her input to working groups, industry policy shifts and planning. She has published legal articles regularly presents at conferences and events, having won legal, government and academic alumni awards. As a general counsel, Bronwyn developed a passion for navigating a path through problematic situations and mentoring junior lawyers to provide practical, commercially focused advice. She has practiced across a broad range of legal fields but has a particular focus on contracting, privacy and information sharing and security, legislative interpretation, risk management, compliance and governance. She is sought after by her clients for her approachable, collegiate manner, and her pragmatic solutions-focused and highly commercial advice
Paul is an experienced commercial lawyer, negotiator and commercial advisor, with a particular interest in the drafting, negotiation and ongoing management of government technology contracts. He also has expertise in Commonwealth procurement, probity, corporate governance and legislation development.
Before joining Proximity, Paul was a senior executive lawyer in the APS and a commercial manager with an international IT services company. He has extensive experience contributing to major government change programs.
Sarah is a highly qualified and experienced government lawyer, company director and accredited mediator, with an excellent reputation for client-focused and strategic problem-solving.
Sarah has considerable experience as an in-house Counsel specialising in administrative law, statutory interpretation, information law and litigation, including as General Counsel for several agencies, head of the AGS Information Law team, and the ACT senior executive with oversight of legislation and policy for the whole of the Territory.
Sarah has extensive experience in legislative drafting and acting as an advocate in administrative appeals, including negotiating the advantageous resolution of matters before hearing. She is experienced in all types of APS corporate regulation, including employment law, information law, compliance, complaints management and governance.
Clients value her strategic and lateral approach to finding innovative and lasting solutions to complex problems, and her ability to manage difficult stakeholders through the use of her negotiation and mediation skills.
Sarah has a current NV1 (Secret) security clearance with AGSVA.
Robin has extensive expertise in administrative law, both in practice and academia. Robin is Emeritus Professor of Law in the College of Law at the Australian National University, where her research is focused mainly on administrative law and military law. Her main research interests are in administrative law, particularly the impact of judicial review cases, statutory interpretation, and the position of tribunals in the Australian system of government.
Robin’s current teaching interests are in the public law sphere, particularly administrative law and military law. She has broad experience in regulation and administrative law as previous Commissioner of the ACT’s Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and one of the longest serving members of the Administrative Review Council. She was also the Integrity Advisor to the Australian Taxation Office and is a member of the Administrative Law Committee of the Law Council of Australia.
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Len holds Bachelor degrees in both Engineering and Law and is a Barrister and Solicitor. He has worked as a professional Engineer in Australia and the UK and spent many years in the Australian health industry, most recently as CEO of a large, metropolitan teaching hospital. Following a 25-year career in the Commonwealth and ACT Administrations (14 years at the level of Senior or Chief Executive), Len moved into consultancy. For the past 20 years, Len has been predominantly engaged by Commonwealth and NSW Government agencies in various roles of probity advising and tender management.
Irene has over 10 years’ experience advising Australian Government agencies on commercial law, including procurement and contracting issues. She has gained a great deal of secondment experience having worked with nine different Australian Government clients throughout her career with Proximity (and previously with the Australian Government Solicitor).
On secondment she advised on contracts, procurement and probity matters, particularly ICT, IP, corporate governance matters, telecommunications outsourcing transactions and market-testing processes.
Edwina has extensive corporate and commercial legal experience, with particular expertise in IT contracting, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud and Digital Media, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Prior to joining Proximity, Edwina held senior legal positions with Accenture (UK & Australia), Melbourne IT Limited, and BHP Billiton. Edwina is valued for her pragmatic approach and for developing long term relationships. She has responded to numerous tenders and has assisted with issuing tenders for telco and hardware requirements. She believes in a balanced approach to risk and enjoys the technical side of solutioning.
Ben has over 10 years’ professional experience providing commercial and legal advice to all levels of the Australian Government. He has a particular focus on preparing business cases to support government decision making and understands the end-to-end procurement process.
Ben recently led the team responsible for developing the business case and supporting documentation for a major Defence ICT infrastructure project and assisted CrimTrac prepare to go to market for a future state biometric system. Before joining Proximity Ben was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers within its Technology, Strategy, Alliances and Delivery consulting group.
Colin is an experienced commercial and procurement consultant with expertise in high technology acquisition and sustainment programs, including multibillion-dollar hardware and software procurement programs such as the Astute Class Submarines (UK) and Wedgetail Aircraft (Australia). Following a successful career with the UK Ministry of Defence, Colin has held senior leadership roles with both BAE Systems and Raytheon, the two largest defence contractors in Australia. Colin has led or supported multi-disciplined teams on bids and programs ranging from lower risk ongoing sustainment business to a higher risk Private Finance Initiative program. He has a full understanding of Commonwealth procurement rules and strategies, and is fully versed in ASDEFCON contracting templates, including Strategic Materiel, Complex, Support (Performance Based Contracting), and the lower risk templates such as the “Short-form” series and Purchase Order terms and conditions.
Simon is an experienced lawyer with over 25 years’ experience in the government and the private sector. His main focus has been on government law, legislation development and financial sector regulatory law. Simon has managed teams, including the Public Law Branch (over 25 lawyers) at FaHCSIA and APRA and has advised on administrative law, information law (secrecy, FOI and privacy) and transfers of staff, assets and liabilities between agencies. He also has extensive experience in drafting administrative and legislative instruments and working with policy teams and OPC on the development of complex legislative reforms. Simon’s experience also includes advising on corporate and procurement matters and the regulation of authorised deposit-taking institutions, superannuation funds, general, life and private health insurers.
Su-Ann joined Proximity in 2017 to launch its Melbourne operations. Clients value Su-Ann’s outcome-focused approach and passion for continuous improvement.
Su-Ann completed her Master of Commercial Law at the University of Melbourne while working as a corporate lawyer. This enabled her to acquire practical expertise in areas including negotiation, technology contracts, liability insurance and international intellectual property law.
Su-Ann speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, and basic Japanese. She enjoys bringing together people from different perspectives to leverage talent and spark new ideas.
Madeleine has extensive experience providing in-house legal advice to a number of agencies across a wide range of projects. She has over 20 years experience in government practice, including statutory interpretation, privacy, intellectual property and the drafting of legislative instruments. She has particular expertise in government procurement, general contracting and probity.
Madeleine has substantial expertise assisting Commonwealth agencies to prepare tender and contractual documentation, and in negotiating contracts with successful tenderers. Madeleine has advised on compliance issues with tenders, including by identifying any contractual legal risks during the evaluation process. Prior to joining Proximity, Madeleine was a Principal Legal Adviser for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) within the Department of Health. In that role, she was the commercial legal expert for TGA, including on Commonwealth procurement and other contractual matters.
David is a highly qualified and experienced government lawyer with an exceptionally strong background in legislation, policy and governance. David has a very strong reputation for strategic problem-solving in challenging review and reform environments and has undertaken major statutory and structural reform projects in a wide range of legal and operational settings.
After a number of years in private practice, David pursued a career in legislative development and legal policy. He was involved in the development of the ACT’s initial land, planning and environment legislation, the establishment of the ACT Planning and Land Authority and Land Development Agency, the establishment of the ACT Emergency Services Authority and the national review of the Australian legal profession.
David has extensive experience within the ACT framework in regulatory law reform, and has worked closely with the ACT’s environment protection agencies in planning, land management, emergency services and waste management review roles.
Michael is an experienced lawyer with a broad background in government work, primarily for the Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth.
Michael has significant experience in administrative law, employment law, investigations, the criminal law, regulatory law, governance and management.
Michael is based in Canberra and has a current NV1 security clearance.
Catherine has over 20 years’ experience advising the Australian Government on legislation and helping develop new legislative schemes.
Before joining Proximity in early 2016, Catherine worked within the Office of General Counsel in the Australian Government Solicitor and advised government agencies on a wide range of matters, with a particular focus on statutory interpretation, constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, legislative development and drafting legislative instruments.
Catherine also has many years of experience as a legal trainer, having devised and presented training on a broad range of legal subjects to government lawyers and non-lawyers.
Katherine has extensive experience providing sound commercial and legal advice within Australian Government and the private sector. She takes a pragmatic and results based approach that takes account her clients’ political, policy and commercial drivers.
Katherine’s main areas of practice are government and commercial contracting, IT procurement and probity. She has extensive contractual drafting experience in IT and experience acting for the Australian Government. She has an excellent knowledge of Australian Government drivers and policy having completed a number of secondments within the Australian Government while employed by Clayton Utz and Norton Rose Fulbright.
Before joining Proximity Katherine was Legal Counsel and Commercial Manager at Fujitsu where she provided commercial and legal advice on many large scale IT projects.
David has long and broad experience as an Australian Government lawyer in most aspects of commercial and public law across a diverse range of agencies including DIBP, Department of Communications, Department of Finance, AGS and DHS.
David is particularly effective working in multi-disciplinary teams on complex projects. He has also successfully managed diverse teams of over 20.
Liana is a highly-experienced government commercial lawyer who has advised the Commonwealth Government on some of its most high-profile projects. She provides strategic legal and probity advice on procurement, contracting, competitive grants, construction and infrastructure and intergovernmental agreements.
Liana’s approach is characterised by a desire to understand the key drivers and personalities in every project, and by her quick, practical and creative problem solving. Liana has extensive experience working as an embedded member of legal and project teams and has exceptional communication skills.
James has over 25 years’ experience as a government lawyer of which 14 years was in senior management roles. James has extensive experience in the provision of high level legal and strategic advice.
James has extensive experience in statutory interpretation, commercial law, property law, administrative law, legislative drafting, criminal law, freedom of information and corporate governance.
Peter is a very well regarded procurement and contracting advisor with significant experience in government and the private sector.
He has significant experience as a commercial, procurement and contracting advisor on strategic and operational information and communication technology procurement projects, covering business systems, IT professional services, hardware procurement, software licensing (including for SaaS and AaaS) and fixed and mobile communications.
He also has considerable experience as an advisor and practitioner in general goods and services procurement projects and whole-of-government procurement and performance-based contract development and management. This experience includes establishing, implementing and managing whole-of-government professional services’ panels and similar arrangements.
Stephen is a Canberra-based lawyer with three years’ experience working for the Australian Government. His main areas of practice are employment law and developing legislation.
Stephen’s employment law experience includes providing advice on Commonwealth public-sector employment law, as well as the application of workers’ compensation and work health and safety laws to the APS.
He has advised on a broad range of Commonwealth public sector employment law matters including code of conduct investigations and dismissals, voluntary redundancy rounds, enterprise bargaining and protected industrial action. He has provided general advice on employee entitlements and conditions under enterprise agreements and public-sector employment legislation.
Stephen’s experience in legislative development includes work on a number of large legislative reform projects, as well as on various shorter projects and legislative instruments.
Caitlin was admitted to practice in 2016 and has worked predominately in commercial law and litigation for both public and private sector clients. She has worked in commercial litigation where her work has included drafting court documents, deeds, affidavits, letters of demand, trade mark infringement notices, trademark registration applications, FOI requests, MOUs and submissions. Caitlin has also worked on governance matters, including reviewing and updating internal policies and procedures in accordance with amended legislation, drafting charters for the Risk and Audit Committees and assisting with management of conflict of interest and other governance team registers.
She has also worked on a number of property law matters for both private sector and Australian Government clients, including in relation to preparing and negotiating leases, negotiating terms and conditions, drafting and amending head leases and subleases, preparing disclosure statements, deeds of agreement and surrender, contracts for sale (both residential and commercial), and drafting letters and correspondence to clients and external parties.
Bilal is a Canberra-based junior lawyer and commercial advisor. He is admitted to practice and has gained significant experience in government and administrative law, commercial law, Commonwealth procurement, contracting and litigation. He works with a range of Commonwealth, regulated industry and non-profit clients.
He has recently undertaken secondments to the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, and the Department of Human Services’ litigation team.
Bilal brings a creative approach and a proven capability in undertaking a variety of complicated and challenging work.
Olga is a highly motivated lawyer with strong organisational, analytical and legal research skills. Olga is an effective communicator who works collaboratively with colleagues and external stakeholders to achieve organisational goals and objectives.
While working at the Moscow Industrial Bank, Olga developed in-depth knowledge of various legal and banking software packages to conduct research and due diligence on case files, client data, legal proceedings and determinations. She also reviewed transaction data and access customer accounts to detect potential money laundering and other illegal activities. In her time with the ACT Government Solicitor she worked in the Civil Litigation Team, where she worked on medical negligence and personal injury matters. She also worked with the Government Law Team, where she worked on freedom of information matters and employment and industrial relations law matters.
Declan is a hard-working graduate lawyer whose professional focus is on value-adding. He has a highly developed ability to efficiently manage competing priorities while delivering high quality products. Declan uses creative solutions drawing on his background in systems thinking from his undergraduate studies in sustainability and environmental science, contributing to demonstrated excellence in problem solving and analytical tasks. This diverse skill set, coupled with highly developed legal research skills, give Declan an ability to digest and synthesise swathes of information with clarity and succinctness in work he produces for our clients. Declan has completed secondments as a Ministerial Writer and a Parliamentary Officer within the Department of Human Services and previously worked within the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources in the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, and Geoscience Australia.
Jason is a hard-working and motivated paralegal with demonstrated excellence in problem solving, research and analytical tasks. He has undertaken secondments at the Department of Human Services and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, performing contract and data analysis in relation to software asset management.
These roles required Jason to maintain a strong attention to detail while approaching high volume, complex work. His duties involved identifying value-relevant assets, provisions and data, extracting and advising on efficient capture methods and presentation. These roles have been an excellent opportunity for him to demonstrate administrative and accounting capabilities while working in a legal environment.
Charlie is motivated, reliable and a fast learner. She enjoys the challenge of working in new environments, and developing her professional skills. Charlie currently works as a paralegal in the Proximity offices, and is expecting to receive Bachelor’s degrees in Arts and Law from the ANU by the end of 2018. Charlie has also worked in a number of Federal government agencies, including the Department of Human Services and the National Capital Authority, as well as the High Court of Australia. Her skills and experience include Ministerial drafting, education and museum curatorship, and legal research. Outside of work Charlie is involved in the Canberra arts community, and can often be found performing stand-up comedy or competing in local Latin dance competitions.
Damon is an efficient and driven paralegal with strong analytical, legal research and drafting skills. With excellent communication skills, demonstrated initiative and a keen eye for detail, Damon achieves results in an effective manner.
Damon has experience in legal drafting and research, statutory interpretation, precedent development, and document and matter management. He is currently on secondment to the Department of Human Services Ministerial Coordination and Parliamentary team. Damon is also undertaking a Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics at The Australian National University (ANU).
Tayla is a motivated, efficient and adaptable paralegal with strong communication and legal drafting skills. She prides herself on her interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team. In doing so, Tayla is able to consistently meet her deadlines whilst producing high-quality work. In addition to her employment within Proximity, Tayla also volunteers her time at the University of Canberra’s Health and Justice clinic. Here Tayla assists the on-site legal team in meeting with clients by drafting reports as well as conducting relevant legal research on a wide variety of matters. Currently, Tayla is completing a Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Canberra and has a passion for employment law.
Simin is a hard-working and driven student and paralegal with strong analytical, communication, and legal research skills. Simin is in her final year, undertaking a double degree in Law and Psychology with a diploma in Spanish languages at the Australian National University. Simin has completed several law courses such as Litigation and Dispute Management, Property Law, Corporations Law, Administrative law, and Employment law, as well as graduate law courses on her exchange semester, such as Financial Skills for Lawyers. This year, Simin will be attending London School of Economics to complete an intensive law course, to further advance her academic and professional skills.
Melissa looks after all of our financials from ensuring our clients are correctly invoiced to making sure our staff get paid. She also manages the higher level budgeting and monthly reporting and liases with our Accountants to ensure compliance. Recently Mel has also taken on the role of Office Manager. She assists Proximity with marketing, event coordination, staff onboarding, administration and general assistance to our Directors & Business Manager. Mel has quickly become a key member in the Proximity team.
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Kerrie-Anne’s professional experience spans ASX100 and Australian Public Service executive boards and she has over 20 years experience in legal and corporate governance advisory roles. Kerrie-Anne is an experienced Commonwealth General Counsel and has previously been the General Counsel at three large Commonwealth Departments: Health, Agriculture and Water Resources, and Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Before joining the public service Kerrie-Anne was a senior executive at Coles Group Ltd, where she had a broad range of business and M&A experience as Corporate Counsel for Officeworks. Kerrie-Anne began her career as a Technology Lawyer at a large law firm and as a management consultant advising in Telecommunications, Financial Services and Aviation industries.
Mike advises boards and business leaders on achieving strategic and cultural alignment to create competitive advantage and to build sustainable organisations. Mike was previously a global Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers based in London acting as principal for their mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances. As a PwC consultant he advised government and large corporations in the UK and USA on governance and strategy, revenue generation, cost management, and operational outsourcing. In Australia Mike has held senior executive positions with listed corporations in financial and operational roles. Mike has led a number of prominent national legal firms as their CEO during periods of significant growth and fundamental change of strategic direction.
Lorin is a chartered accountant and the Founding Partner of MGI Joyce Dickson. He commenced the practice in 2003 and the business has grown to 45 staff and offers a full range of accounting and financial services. Lorin is a Board Member of MGI Australasia (one of the largest alliances of independent audit, tax, accounting and consulting firms in the world), President of the Eastlake Football Club, a former Chairman of the ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce and a former Board member for ClubsACT and Canberra PCYC.
Angus runs Rawson House, a legal industry executive search and selection firm based in Melbourne. Angus’s experience covers establishing new law firm offices across Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart; the facilitation of law firm mergers and acquisitions; and the hiring of key partners for clients. Angus’s expertise covers several aspects of the legal market including government and regulation, procurement, infrastructure and construction and corporate and commercial law. Angus regularly provides counsel for clients on a range of matters from firm growth opportunities, to firm strategy and people management. He has developed a reputation for his lateral thinking and his honest and candid approach to his work.