FEATURES
HOT LIST TRAILBLAZERS – LEADERS CATHY QUINN Chair and head of M&A MINTER ELLISON RUDD WATTS Cathy Quinn has been chair of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts since 2009 and under her watch the firm has unquestionably become one of the top firms in New Zealand. She is highly regarded for her specialist legal work in mergers, acquisitions, capital markets, corporate governance and private equity. Quinn has led many trans-Tasman mergers and acquisitions, including for private equity, and advised on dual listings on the NZX and ASX. In 2015 she acted on the first dual-listed IPO under New Zealand’s Financial Markets Conduct Act. Quinn was a member of the Securities Commission for nine years and the only lawyer appointed to the government’s Capital Markets Development Taskforce, which led to significant institutional and legal reforms in New Zealand’s capital markets. She is a member of the Commercial Advisory Board to the New Zealand Treasury and the executive board of the New Zealand China Council.
ROBIN LYONS Partner MINTER ELLSION Robin Lyons is the driving force behind Minter Ellison’s MEStreamline – next generation technology with tailored workflow and document automation tools for client portfolios with a high volume of smaller matters. The technology automates workflow of routine legal matters based on predefined, common elements of legal transactions and best practice responses. The outcome is reduced risk and improved efficiency for routine legal work. MEStreamline has been embraced by clients for retirement villages and development conveyancing; by both landlords and tenants in relation to leasing portfolios; and by companies with high-volume immigration needs. Lyons leads Minter Ellison’s national retirement villages practice and is considered one of Australia’s foremost advisers to this sector.
KEN JAGGER CEO ADVENTBALANCE Ken Jagger is co-founder and CEO of AdventBalance, now the largest and fastest-growing alternative legal services business in the Asia-Pacific. Jagger observed both a market gap and a need to provide lawyers with more flexible work options. Clients saw significant value in having lawyers work directly with them on site, and lawyers were looking for alternatives to traditional law firm structures. The result was the creation in 2008 of the AdventBalance secondment business model, which has grown to over 200 lawyers in six offices across three countries, and over $25m in revenue. Jagger leads change in the industry, challenging traditional structures, supporting NewLaw models, and continually looking for new ways to provide both clients and lawyers with better ways of working together.
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STEPHEN GILES Partner NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT Stephen Giles is a senior corporate partner in Melbourne and head of the national franchising practice, having had a large role in developing the firm’s paperless franchising product. Launched back in April, the solution serves as a document production tool, a disclosure compliance tool, and is used for document management and record-keeping. Improving compliance, minimising errors and cutting costs for clients, the product landed Norton Rose Fulbright on the Legal Innovation Index for 2015. Giles has also served for 12 years on the board of the peak industry body Franchise Council of Australia.