Leading Lawyers Australia

FSC hosted a panel of four leading lawyers from the Australasian landscape.  

Facilitated by our Head of Regulatory Affairs Carissa Perano, this session covered a range of topics designed to give an insight into some of the key issues in the Australian regulatory landscape, comparable regimes and insights applicable to New Zealand financial organisations and our legislative change.  

Speakers 

Carissa Perano (facilitator)
Head of Regulatory Affairs, FSC

Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand
LLB, BA (Political Science), Grad Dip Arts (Criminology)

With 20 years of financial markets experience in both New Zealand and Australia, Carissa leads the FSC’s Regulation, Tax and Climate and ESG Committees, Solvency Standard Working Group and CRD and CoFI Focus Groups. She coordinates and drafts all the FSC’s responses to industry consultations, the FSC’s Regulatory Outlook publication and ensures continued stakeholder relationships with key government officials and agencies.  

Abigail McGregor
Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia

Abigail McGregor is a dispute resolution lawyer located in Melbourne with expertise in large scale litigation, including class actions.

Abigail advises on the implications of increasing global regulation in the areas of regulation, investigations, securities and compliance in Australia. Abigail advises clients on the introduction of appropriate policies and procedures, as well as undertaking investigations in corruption, bribery and unethical behaviour, often arising from whistleblower reports.  She represents clients in regulatory investigations and prosecutions, as well as any ensuing civil litigation, including class actions. She also has experience investigating fraud and freezing assets of fraudulent employees. Commanding “a lot of respect” in the market, Chambers Asia Pacific reports that Abigail “is highly prized by clients as an “incredibly diligent” practitioner, as notable for her empathetic approach as for her legal acumen”.

Abigail is a thought-leader in respect of Business and Human Rights.  She advises clients in relation to how to manage the risk of human rights impacts in their operations and supply chains, as well as guiding them on corporate reporting.  She has developed an online risk assessment tool to undertake supplier due diligence.  Chambers Global reports that “Abigail is incredibly astute and commercial in her approach to her advice on modern slavery legislation.”

Abigail’s clients range across a number of industry sectors including financial institutions, agribusiness, food processing and manufacturing, construction and infrastructure, extractives and government.

Bart Oude-Vrielink
Partner - Melbourne, MinterEllison

Bart is one of Australia's foremost corporate law specialists and capital markets lawyers. A partner in MinterEllison's Corporate practice group, he has more than 30 years' experience advising Australian and international public and private companies, stockbrokers and financial institutions.  As one of Australia's most accomplished Corporations Act specialists, Bart is in demand by directors and executives for his advice and counsel, particularly in relation to compliance with continuous disclosure obligations and various corporate governance policies and procedures including those issued by the ASX.

James Deady
Partner & Technology and Digital Co-lead, Hall & Wilcox

James has over 17 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer specialising in technology procurement, privacy, data security and intellectual property matters. James is also the co-lead of the Hall & Wilcox Technology and Digital Economy industry group.

James’ specialist expertise in technology procurement, licensing and outsourcing matters includes drafting and advising on IT contracts such as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) agreements, cloud agreements, IT project and implementation agreements, IT outsourcing agreements, software development and licence agreements and IT service contracts. James regularly advises on IT projects and technology procurements matters for a range of clients, including corporates, government bodies and technology vendors.
James also has experience in a broad range of privacy, cyber and data security matters including advising on privacy and data security provisions, data breach issues and privacy law compliance issues.

James has been recognised in The Best Lawyers in Australia in Commercial Law every year since 2019 and in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021 for Media and Entertainment in both 2021 and 2022.

Harry New
Partner, Hall & Wilcox

Harry is the lead partner of the firm’s Financial Services practice. His practice focuses extensively on financial services, corporate advisory and general corporate and commercial work.

Over more than 20 years of practice, Harry has represented responsible entities and trustees of listed and unlisted investment funds, international and local fund managers, non-bank lenders, fintechs, financial advisers, financial intermediaries and other financial services industry participants.

Areas of expertise on which Harry provides advice include financial services and credit licensing, compliance and regulation, fund structuring and establishment, structured products, and product disclosure. Harry’s practice also includes advising on the Corporations Act, mergers, acquisitions and divestments, commercial transactions and AML/CTF compliance for financial services businesses.

Harry is also the Secretary of the Property Funds Association of Australia and Chair of its Issues and Regulatory Committee.

He is recommended for both Financial Services Regulation and Investment Funds in Chambers Asia Pacific 2023 and Band 1 for Family Offices & Fund Structuring in Chambers High Net Worth 2023. He has also been recognised for Corporate/Governance Practice in The Best Lawyers in Australia since 2014.