AGS finalists in the Women in Law Awards 2019
AGS lawyers Katrina Close and Megan Driscoll have been shortlisted as finalists for the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards. The awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding women shaping and influencing the legal industry.
Katrina has been shortlisted for the In-House Counsel of the Year category. She is a Senior Executive Lawyer with a busy and complex practice. She leads the national Civil Regulation team as well as being the Director of the AGS Melbourne office. Along with balancing the obligations of her ongoing work, Katrina has also been responsible for a number of large scale, complex and sensitive matters during the last year.
She played a key role in the resourcing and management of the AGS team supporting the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The conduct of the Commission involved particularly intense timeframes and work pressures, with lawyers working around the clock to ensure deadlines were met.
Most recently, Katrina has also managed the team of lawyers acting for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the matter of Vodafone Hutchinson Australia Pty Ltd v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission & Anor in relation to the proposed merger between Vodafone Hutchison Pty Ltd and TPG Telecom.
Megan is a finalist in the Rising Star of the Year – In-House category. Megan is a lawyer working within the Dispute Resolution practice. She joined AGS as a graduate in 2016 and has recently worked on some of the Commonwealth's most complex and highest profile cases, such as the High Court matter of Palmer v Australian Electoral Commission (2019) HCA 24 and the Federal Court matter of Brett Cattle Company Pty Ltd v Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry & Anor (NSD1102/2014).
She was the responsible lawyer for the Dispute Resolution team in Palmer, which involved an application made prior to the 2019 election regarding the publication of information by the Australian Electoral Commission about its indicative 2 candidate preferred count before the closure of polls nationally. Megan coordinated the 'many moving parts' of the case and was the main point of contact for a number of the Commonwealth stakeholders involved with the matter. The Commonwealth ultimately succeeded in its arguments and the team received excellent feedback including from the Solicitor-General.
In 2018 Megan took on the role of mentor to a postgraduate student as part of the ANU's Women in Law Organisation and the ACT Women's Legal Association mentoring program. Until her recent departure from the ACT, Megan was a member of the ACT Women Lawyers Association and has encouraged and coordinated her colleagues' attendance at these events.
Congratulations to both Katrina and Megan. The winners will be announced at a dinner in Melbourne on 22 November 2019.