Governance

Expertise

Corporate governance is not an easily defined term as it covers a number of areas. 

The OECD has defined it as follows - Corporate governance involves a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined.

Our governance group brings together specialist expertise across our areas of practice and industry specialisations to provide practical and accessible whole-of-organisation corporate governance advice.

We work closely with companies as well as their directors, key executives, company secretaries, corporate governance advisors, risk management personnel and other related company officers.

Our team understand the governance issues and the regulatory environment, including how the regulators work, advising clients how best to navigate complex governance issues to meet their responsibilities and obligations and avoid executive liability.

We can assist in a range of areas including:

• Corporations Act requirements
• Directors’ and officers’ duties
• Australian Financial Services Licensing (AFSL) requirements
• Competition Law compliance
• Environmental compliance
• Executive Officer and Manager personal liability
• Whistleblower policies and investigations
• Preparing and reviewing Modern Slavery Statements
• Executive remuneration and disclosure
• Foreign bribery and corruption
• Foreign investment and dealing with FIRB
• Listings and market disclosures
• Preparation and review of annual reports
• Privacy and data protection
• Probity advice
• Supply chain of responsibility compliance 
• Work Health and Safety compliance.

Experience

Our experience includes:

• assisting with compliance with the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), the ASX corporate governance principles; ASIC regulatory requirements and constituent documents
• assisting in the implementation of corporate governance frameworks
• reviewing compliance statements for alignment with its corporate governance policies and charters, and assisting with annual review and updates of all corporate governance documents
• preparing annual Board and Committee evaluation questionnaires and Board Skills Matrix
• governance training for senior leadership teams
• assisting clients in managing regulators’ monitoring and enforcement visits 
• advising and acting in relation to investigations by ASIC, APRA, Australian Crime Commission and other statutory investigatory bodies 
• reviewing communications and disclosures, including product disclosure statements, prospectuses, and periodic disclosures
• drafting policies, charters and delegation frameworks for managing corporate risk
• advising on Australian Consumer Law issues, including misleading and deceptive conduct
• preparing and lodging all required ASIC notifications and forms.