Cooke, Garth
Deputy General Counsel Commercial
Garth is Deputy General Counsel Commercial and one of our most experienced commercial legal and probity advisers.
He has worked on many of the large and complex Commonwealth procurement and funding processes over the last decade, including the National Broadband Network and the establishment of NBN Co, the sale of Medibank Private which was the largest public share offering in Australia at the time, Foreign Affairs’ Passport Redevelopment Program, and the National Emergency Warning System.
Garth was the probity adviser to Defence for SEA 1000 which involved the conduct of a competitive evaluation process to select an international partner to design and build Australia’s future submarine.
Relevant experience
Garth's relevant work includes:
- being lead probity adviser for the $35 billion SEA 5000 Future Frigates Program for Defence
- advising Environment and Energy on the provision of monitoring and water delivery services across the Murray–Darling Basin
- providing legal advice for a complex set of loan agreements for the delivery of farm finance concessional loans in all States and the Northern Territory, including drafting and negotiating the loan agreements and service level agreements for each jurisdiction
- providing strategic legal process advice on the purchase of the next generation Infantry Vehicles as part of Defence’s $13 billion Land 400 project
- advising on phases 1–4 of Emergency Alert, the project to build, operate and maintain a worldfirst, technology-based National Emergency Warning System, including contract negotiations with all telecommunications providers, drafting and negotiating the inter-governmental agreements between Victoria and all States and Territories wanting to use the system.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Laws, University of Queensland, 1992
Bachelor of Economics, University of Queensland, 1991
Recognition
Defence Civilian Commendation awarded in recognition of work as probity adviser to the AIR 9000 Offer Development and Refinement team, 2005
Defence Achievement Award for excellence in developing and releasing the Guide to simple procurement, 1998
Australasian Law Award for equity deal of the year for his role in the sale of Medibank Private by way of initial public offer