The Illusionists: How do leading in-house counsel work their magic? (QLD)

Andrew Rankin is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer with a career spanning more than 25 years. Based in Brisbane, he has an exceptional reputation for his expertise in competition and consumer law, and his practice also includes mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance law. Andrew advises both private companies and publicly listed companies and has particularly strong experience in acting for clients in the financial services, health and life sciences, mining and agribusiness sectors.

Over many years Andrew has provided competition and consumer law advice and training to many private sector and government clients, advising them on their obligations under the legislation and how they should interact with their competitors, suppliers and customers. He advises on restrictive trade practices drawing from his extensive knowledge of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) and Australian Consumer Law. He has built a productive working relationship with the ACCC, successfully representing many clients in dealings and applications to the ACCC in relation to anti-competitive behaviour. Andrew is a respected member of the Law Council of Australia’s Competition and Consumer Law committee, and his expertise in this area has been consistently recognised in the Best Lawyers Australia each year since 2012. He was also named ‘Brisbane Lawyer of the Year’ for Competition Law in the 2022 edition.

Andrew also has extensive experience in working with national and international clients on mergers and acquisitions, due diligences, capital raisings and business ventures. His expertise includes take-overs, schemes of arrangement, cross-border acquisitions, corporate restructurings and company divestments. He advises boards on directors’ duties and corporate governance issues. His commercial practice includes advising on commercial agreements, joint venture and shareholder agreements, supply contracts and the unfair contract terms regime. Best Lawyers Australia and the Doyle’s Guide have recognised Andrew in these areas of law, reflecting this additional depth of expertise.

Highly respected by his clients, they appreciate Andrew’s knowledge and expertise, coupled with his commercial acumen, clear communication skills, attention to detail and professionalism.

Tiffany is Head of Legal at Jumbo Interactive Limited, an ASX-listed Brisbane headquartered technology company, where she is responsible for all legal matters impacting Jumbo’s global operations. She has held senior in-house roles in the US and in Australia for global technology and hospitality companies for the past 9 years. Prior to moving in-house, Tiffany was a Corporate partner in a global law firm, with a practice focused on international M&A and commercial matters, and worked in their Sydney, London, San Francisco and Palo Alto offices. She is also a proud mum to two kids and a Moodle.

Angie is the Co Sec and General Counsel of Minor Hotels ANZ.  Minor Hotels is a hotel owner, operator and investor with a portfolio of over 75,000 rooms across more than 520 hotels, resorts and serviced suites across 56 countries under the Anantara, AVANI, Oaks, Tivoli, Elewana, NH Collection, NH, nhow, Marriott, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Radisson Blu and Minor International brands.  In addition, Minor Hotels also operates mixed-use business including shopping plazas & entertainment, residential properties, and a points-based vacation club. Minor Hotels is part of publicly listed Minor International (MINT) – one of the largest hospitality and leisure companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Angie heads up the legal team in the Australia and New Zealand regions where Minor Hotels has some 6000 hotel rooms under management across Australia and NZ.

Her 20+ year career to date has been varied from working in legal private practice in Queensland, to moving out of law to become the general manager of a national property development company managing some $1billion of projects and assets, to then moving to General Counsel and Company Secretary at Springfield City Group (Queensland’s largest private developer) and then to her current role in hospitality at Minor Hotels.

Throughout Angie’s career she has worked for developers, body corporates, retirement village operators, financiers, corporations and individuals on large scale property, construction, and infrastructure projects such as cities, island resorts, high rise developments, dark fibre/telco projects, data centers, commercial projects, infrastructure projects, retirement villages and hotels.   Angie’s broad range of experience ensures that she has had experience at all levels of business and not only provides astute and commercial legal advice but is able to play an integral role in driving business strategy and growth.

Adrian is Executive General Manager, Legal and Corporate at Ausco Modular, a leading modular building construction and hire group. In this role, Adrian is responsible for leading and driving the performance of the group’s corporate operations across Asia Pacific.  He leads a large team covering a diverse portfolio of functions, including legal, risk, insurance, governance, ESG, property, strategy, corporate shared services, IT, strategic projects, and M&A. He also sits on the board of all the Australian and New Zealand entities, is a member of the executive leadership team, and is a senior member of Ausco’s parent company’s global legal leadership team.