KELLIE MORTON - ILLION

I am currently the Chief Legal Officer of data and analytics business, illion, based in Melbourne. Prior to that I was a M&A/Private Equity Partner of Johnson Winter & Slattery in Sydney. Saying that, I’ve taken many twists, turns, roundabouts and flights…

I grew up on the sunny beaches of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Growing up, I wanted to be a music journalist for Rolling Stone magazine. I studied a double degree in journalism and law at Queensland University of Technology. While at university I wrote for a few free music ‘street’ papers - the kind you picked up at music stores that had gig listings, band interviews and live reviews. But then the internet really exploded, paper publishing started its decline and Rolling Stone no longer featured writing by journalists like Hunter S. Thompson or artists like Kurt Cobain on the cover.

Around this time, I started working at a commercial litigation firm in Brisbane. Racing around the city serving documents before deadline, interviewing clients to draft their statements of claim and learning how to count the concept of ‘days’ under the law sparked a journey I could never have foreseen. After I graduated, I started as a Graduate at Corrs Chambers Westgarth in the Corporate/M&A team in Brisbane. This was an excellent training ground which instilled technical skills that have stayed with me throughout my career.

After a few years I moved to London and joined the M&A/Private Equity team of global law firm, White & Case. It was an incredible experience working on global M&A deals and travelling to Paris, Egypt and Moscow. I remember going to the office in London on a regular morning and then next minute I was on a plane to Egypt. By that evening, I was in a taxi travelling from Cairo airport to a hotel, stuck in traffic behind a cow (on the highway). The next day, seeing the pyramids from the general counsel’s office was genuinely amazing.

From London, I transferred with White & Case to its head office in New York. I lived and worked in Manhattan, drank coffee from a street cart and toned-down my Australian accent. My office overlooked the Chrysler building to the East and the Empire State to the South - I think I saw those buildings in every light from sunrise to sunset to moonlight. In New York, I focused on Private Equity and M&A – by its nature, the US market is incredibly sophisticated. The skills, market practice and international exposure has been invaluable to my career. During this time abroad, I qualified in London and sat the New York Bar Exam to be admitted to practice in New York. It’s true, sitting the New York Bar Exam is hard (but possible).

After working overseas for most of my career I moved back to Sydney and re-joined Corrs Chambers Westgarth – shortly thereafter my team moved to Johnson Winter & Slattery (JWS) where I made Partner. At JWS, I continued to focus on M&A and Private Equity, with a focus on cross-border deals. My experience in the US was useful when acting for US PE funds investing in the Australian market, particularly being able to translate Australian/American practice. It was at this point my career took an interesting turn and my in-house journey really kicked off!

With a heavy-heart, I left the Partnership. My time in private practice was formative and I was grateful for the experience. Some of my closest and most valued friendships have come from my years in law firms around the world - there is nothing like working back to back all-nighters to form unbreakable bonds.

I moved (again) to Melbourne and to a new role as the Chief Operating Officer/ Legal Counsel of an architecture and interior design studio. I was exposed to running all aspects of a business, including finance, operations, business development and HR. The workplace was creative and dynamic, and I loved working with the talented designers. To my surprise, architects billed their time like lawyers, so the business model was familiar.

My career then went full circle and I joined illion (formerly Dun & Bradstreet) as Chief Legal Officer. Back at JWS, I had worked on the acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet for its current private equity owner. At illion, I am a member of the Executive Leadership Team and responsible for defining and executing the global legal, regulatory and compliance strategy for the illion group. illion has operations across Australia, New Zealand, UK, EU and Canada and the illion legal team advises on a broad range of complex legal matters across the fintech space, including IP and licencing, privacy and data protection, new product launches, M&A and partnerships. That said, my career is about to change again… watch this space.

Working in M&A, gives you exposure to a wide variety of businesses across many different industries. While in private practice, I had gained exposure to businesses in diverse sectors like luxury fashion, technology, entertainment and financial services. I always found learning, investigating and understanding businesses incredibly interesting. I saw in-house as an opportunity to get greater exposure to the full context of a business – its products, services, risk appetite, growth plans, motives and objectives and ultimately be part of its journey. This opportunity for exposure and the diversity of an in-house role attracted me to the industry. An in-house legal team is one of the few business functions that sees the full spectrum of a business. That kind of exposure keeps the position challenging and fresh. In-house also allows you to really refine a sense of commerciality - for any lawyer working in a commercial or corporate environment, understanding the commercial and financial impact of a decision is an important factor in being able to confidently weigh up the risks and deliver appropriate advice.

My mentors and my experience overseas have been invaluable to shaping me personally and professionally. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the guidance and support of mentors throughout my career. For the most part, those have been informal relationships which makes me value them even more. I haven’t always taken the advice (as some of those people will know) but I have always listened and valued the perspective. Spending the formative years of my career overseas was equal parts hard and fun. I gained a true global perspective – closing deals across multiple jurisdictions teaches you the value of context, communication and organisation. There are many principles and practices we can learn from our global colleagues (and vice versa).

One area about in-house I’m keen to see develop is the access to, and use of, technology to efficiently manage the in-house function and its administration. Often legal teams need to slot into the business’ existing software and systems which are not really fit for purpose for effectively managing a legal function. Fortunately, there are more and more legal technologies and innovations emerging in the space so I’m confident this will change. After all, I did learn to type on a typewriter and now we can mark-up documents in real-time over Zoom.

If I could remind my younger self one piece of advice it would be that “It will all work out.” You can never predict where you will end up but every experience along the way builds up the foundation. All those twists, turns, roundabouts and flights that you take will lead somewhere great! Since the interview, Kellie has moved to a new role.