VERITY WHITE - TELSTRA

After not really knowing what I wanted to do straight out of high school, I did a Bachelor of Business degree, did some travel, had various stints in publishing, radio, and events. Nothing really got me overly excited. After doing some business law subjects, I thought perhaps I would give the law a try.

I came into law as a ‘mature age’ law student in my early 20s but I really had no idea what was going on. I was working and studying basically off campus so I missed out on lots of the ‘uni’ life. Like the fact that you’re supposed to apply for clerkships in your second last year… Because I did law full time over three years as my second degree, this meant my second year was also my second last year. So, I missed out on clerkships. Looking back this might have been one of the things that started to really irk me about the ‘traditional’ approach to learning the law and developing a legal career.

Luckily for me, Deakin University was ahead of its time with practical experience for students and had a law subject unit that allowed students to get practical legal experience with different organisations. I was lucky enough to land at Primus Telecom and a small legal team of two lawyers and a paralegal. After performing well during the internship, I was kept on as a paralegal. From there when I finished my studies, I was made a junior legal counsel and then corporate counsel.

I really enjoyed the work that I was getting to do as a paralegal working within a small in-house team. It was like that magic feeling when you are getting paid to do something that you have studied or are studying. I could start to see the practical real-world application of the things that I had learned and was learning at law school. It was the fact that it was really challenging and interesting from day one, and that I could have a positive impact on the business that sparked my interest in pursuing that career in-house and staying in-house.

There have been two key influences in my career, one human and one technology. The human influence, Emily Booth (Special Counsel, Holding Redlich) has been and still is a huge influence on my career. She was inhouse with Primus when I started, and we are still good friends. I was always impressed by her work ethic and integrity, as well as her commercial approach. She had such a confidence and skill in handling legal issues that I was and continue to be impressed with. Her keen sense of integrity inspires me and keeps me focused on the key principle of being a lawyer, that you are accountable to the profession.

The other influence has been technology. Because I did start off in-house, and have worked my way up, in my junior days, I found that I was still responsible for much of the administrative tasks of scanning and filing contracts. This gave me some great base levels of skills, however I wanted to spend less time on the administrative work that needed doing and spend more time on the legal work. So I knew I had to find a way to extend myself and make the team more efficient. Thanks to my general counsel at the time who trusted me with a project to investigate different electronic signature technologies. I learnt a lot about technology and change management. And once we had the technology I just went to town. I probably over-automated things to be honest but I was on a roll.

The flexibility and oversight which the tech gave taught me, and the confidence I gained in working with different documents and ‘fixing’ legal processes was a whole new world. As I was doing that re-design work to automate contracts, I started to notice trends across documents and processes, and that led me to start trying to write down my approach to contract design for automation. From there I started getting involved in plain language and legal innovation events.

The fact I needed to get around a problem of wanting to spend more time on challenging legal work and less time on the inefficient, admin work really changed my career. It’s allowed me to share my approach with other lawyers and it’s so wonderful to hear how all kinds of lawyers are applying some of these methods It was the fact that it was really challenging and interesting from day one, and that I could have a positive “ impact on the business that sparked my interest in pursuing that career in-house and staying in-house.”

that I created through trial-and-error as a junior legal counsel. It’s allowed me to speak at wonderful events and make connections with people all around the world who also have a passion for plain language, technology, contract design and automation, and how all that works together.

As in-house counsel, I love the practical and hands-on approach we are empowered to take in all we do. It’s wonderful to be able to see a matter through, from early discussions through to negotiations and then a few years later, help renew the contract. I don’t think all lawyers get to have that ongoing connection with their clients as they dip in and out of segments of a client’s life.

One of my favourite things about working in the big (well, mega really) Telstra legal team, is what a great supportive, flexible, and talented group of lawyers there are. It’s actually pretty intimidating – there are 150 lawyers at Telstra, many very senior, and many different teams. We have subject matter experts in basically every facet of the law, and most of them don’t get enough recognition for the incredible work they do every day, for example to carefully unpick complex telecommunications regulations or expertly negotiate contracts with suppliers. I still think the lawyers at Telstra are some of the best lawyers in Australia, because of the breadth of issues and the depth that everyone needs to cover. As an in-house lawyer, you get an amazing opportunity to learn new areas of the law in a practical setting.

If I could change one thing about in-house, I would love to see in-house legal teams negotiate with each other in a more collaborative, proactive, relational way. I would love to start working closely with other passionate in-house legal teams to develop some guidelines for deal negotiations. Imagine a world where we have some guidelines or protocols for engaging on the legal aspects of large contracts or best practice ways of working to allow for smooth and efficient contract negotiations. I think our clients would really appreciate a clearer path with estimated timeframes for contract negotiation. We could use the process to help reduce external spend. It would give a straightforward way to train junior lawyers and where possible, delegate non-legal tasks to appropriate resources.

So, if anyone is reading this, and you find the current methods of deal negotiation inefficient and not practical to implement on the other side, reach out and let’s start a bit of a working group or committee to put a legal design lens on contract negotiations. Or, if there already has been work in this area, please point me towards the resources so I can get stuck in!

Sometimes I wish I had gone straight into law out of high school, and just got gotten into the industry a lot quicker. Other times I feel that my life experience has given me a real understanding of the broader commercial implications of the law.

If I could go back in time, I also probably would have pushed myself to get more involved in university events and start growing my network earlier. I didn’t start ‘networking’ (formally or informally!) until I was working full time in the law. Making connections with other industries, or with other professionals is so important. So my advice would be to get involved more in areas you are interested in (not just events or groups you think you ‘should’ be interested in) and start connecting the dots a lot sooner if you can.