Meet our People

Kate has broad experience in company mergers, acquisitions, contested takeovers (including Takeovers Panel matters), capital and debt raisings, continuous disclosure, and general corporate advisory work. Kate is a specialist in corporate governance and regulatory matters and investigations, including compliance and regulation of credit, financial markets and services, funds management, prudential and financial services executive accountability regimes, licensing, and anti-money laundering/counter terrorism financing.

Kate has government policy experience with the Federal Treasury. Among other things, Kate was the Chair and Convenor of the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce and the Government expert panel on corporate whistleblowing, the chief policy adviser on the design and development the corporate collective investment vehicle and was Australia’s representative in multilateral negotiations with Japan, Thailand, South Korea and New Zealand to establish the Asia Region Funds Passport. Kate was also General Counsel and company secretary to the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) (responsible for the development of professional standards in the financial services sector) for two years.

Kate has in-house legal experience as well having spent two years as chief legal adviser to the head of ASX Investigations & Enforcement, six months as head of compliance at UBS AG (on secondment), and stints as lead or general counsel to ASX listed companies.

Since 2008, Kate has been rated by peers as a Best Lawyer in a variety of categories including Regulatory Practice, Financial Institutions, Tax & Accounting Law, Class Actions, and ADR & Litigation.

Kate is also the legal expert advising LexisNexis on its training modules on stockbroking and financial markets, and corporate whistleblowing.

Current and previous Pro Bono engagements:

• Chairman of the Board of Biennale of Sydney Ltd, a non-profit organisation responsible for the biennial staging of a diverse program of international visual and performing arts in Sydney and elsewhere (current).
• Founding director of ICLC Foundation Ltd established to garner private support for the Sydney Inner City Legal Centre, a non-profit community legal service (2014-2019).
• Director of the Refugee Advice & Casework Service which provides legal advocacy services for refugees and asylum seekers (2017-2019).