A briefing from Katrina Warden, Director Legal Services

Legal is delighted to provide the following update regarding a recent appointment and initiatives aimed at supporting the University and its UNE Strategic Plan 2021-2030:

1. Firstly, many of you may have met Kirsten Clayton who joined the Legal Services team in May. Kirsten is our new Senior Legal Officer and has joined us from the APVMA after occupying a number of senior legal roles in various private and public sector organisations. Kirsten’s role has a commercial focus, aimed at providing pro-active and strategic legal advice to the University on commercial matters, contracts and major projects to support the UNE Strategic Plan 2021-2030. Kirsten can be contacted by email at legal@une.edu.au; and by phone on 6773 1567.
2. Secondly, Legal has been working to provide a suite of UNE template agreements aimed at timely, pro-active and efficient contract review and processing – these are the preferred templates for use by UNE  – check them out here https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/governance/legal-office ;
3. Thirdly, while team-based working and collaboration are inherent in the nature of Legal’s work, we are constantly seeking to improve efficiency and leverage the opportunity to build cross-unit co-operation, collaboration and information sharing – here are some of the actions we are taking in this space:

o   daily targeted engagement with teams across the University in our contracting and project work;

o   regular reporting on contracts and meetings with some of our frequent flyer internal and external partners to share information, seek feedback and refine processes;

o   ad hoc targeted meetings with specific business units to share information, seek feedback and refine processes;

o   development of guidelines and checklists for the assistance of our business partners to improve contracting efficiency and to meet various legislative requirements;

o   membership of a number of project teams and working groups across the University and active contributor and services provider to numerous University projects aligned with the UNE Strategic Plan 2021-2030; and

o   updates and advice to internal business partners regarding legislative and common law developments in areas of interest.