Carmel Mulhern runs one of the largest in-house teams in Australia. She has worked at the company since 2000, having trained at Mallesons where she first encountered Telstra. She played a key role in Telstra's first share buyback and the National Broadband Network agreement which was a deal worth Aus11 billion dollars.  Ms Mulhern has also held the position of associate to Justice Mary Gaudron of the High Court of Australia and associate to Justice Philip Cummins of the Supreme Court of Victoria. She has also lectured at Monash University on director's duties and is the author of two legal text books.

How many are in your legal department?

We have over 200 staff in Australia and across Asia, UK and USA.

How is it structured, locally and globally?

I structure my team to align with the commercial structure of the business. We have legal teams dedicated to each of Telstra’s business units as well as specialist teams that provide cross-company support eg. Intellectual Property, Dispute Resolution, Human Resources and Regulatory.

What are the top issues in 2014 for telecoms legal departments?

Privacy and customer data protection (and public education of what is possible in this regard) are increasingly important  in a world of cloud-based services, Big Data and of any-to-any connectivity.   Regulation in the competition law space continues to be a top issue. Telstra is also focusing on improving the customer experience and creating advocates in our customers – and thus this is a focus for the Legal team as well.   For my team this includes simplifying our customer agreements.

What are your greatest challenges? 

Probably my 2 greatest challenges are:(1) People development – with a large and mature legal function, I have an obligation to keep the team engaged, developing and challenged and to provide opportunities for our up and coming top talent.
(2) Predicting what legal issues are “coming at us” in the short to medium term.  As traditional telecoms services decline and we move into new business areas, we need to manage emerging and in many cases, as yet unknown, risks.  For example, one of our key growth areas is e-Health, which is not a traditional area of expertise for my team.

Is your legal budget increasing, decreasing or staying the same?

Our budget has declined over the last few years and I expect it will continue to do so. We have managed this by moving work in-house, prioritising what work we do (and don’t do!) and driving value from our law firm advisors. We are being challenged to find productivity savings in the same way that the business is.  We continue to look for innovative ways to simply our processes, serve our clients and save money.  For example, a few years ago we introduced an “all you can eat” model with some of our key suppliers.  We are also using legal process outsourcing eg. in large litigation discovery.

What are your views on law firm fees? Do you think law firms are becoming more flexible and/or cheaper?

I believe law firms are becoming more flexible and conscious of costs as the industry changes in Australia (a number of top tier firms have merged with UK, Chinese and US firms and there has been amalgamation occurring at the mid-tier).  It also reflects the reality of their clients with most General Counsel I speak with confirming that their budgets are reducing year on year too.   For me it’s not so much whether the firms are becoming cheaper. It’s more about having certainty in our law firms costs (‘no surprises”), getting value for money and using the most appropriate lawyers and fee structures for our work.

How often do you rotate your law firm advisors?

We have a very stable core panel of legal firms as our advisors.  However, to ensure that there is no complacency and that we have the best available resources given the breadth of the legal issues we deal with, we usually review our law firm advisors every two years, with pricing reviews every year. We not only focus on our law firms, but also our individual advisors. If any of our key advisors change firms, we may look to engage their new firm.

Do you use other methods of procuring legal services eg Legal Process Outsourcing?

We have used an LPO for large scale discovery. We also directly brief barristers where it makes sense to do so.

Have you any further thoughts on the telecoms market in Australia and globally?

The telecoms market is going through massive change and becoming increasingly competitive with non-traditional over the top players entering the field. We’re moving away from basic connectivity to value added and cloud based services. Technology continues to shake up the market and the range of competitors expands beyond traditional telecoms businesses. These changes will be heightened in Australia by the roll out of the government owned National Broadband Network, regulation also seems to be increasing. These developments throw up great challenges for lawyers in telecoms and makes it such an exciting industry to work in.

Do you think the role of GC is changing and if so, in what way?

Yes, the role of the GC is changing.  It is a given that the GC must be a legal expert who can give accurate legal advice, but the GC is also increasingly being relied upon as the trusted advisor to Boards and CEOs.   What commercial clients value is the judgment that GCs can bring to decision making, using not only their legal skills but their unique visibility across all aspects of the company.  Accordingly, it is essential that GCs have a strong understanding of their businesses. They need to ensure their team works closely with the business so that legal advice can be given which takes into account the corporate strategy, commercial imperatives and which  manages risk in a commercial way.  Having said that, for the purposes of preserving privilege and providing commercial clients with the legal parameters that they can work within, the GC must be clear when the advice is legal and when it is legal/commercial judgment.