Current practice

Kathleen is a consultant in the Corporate group in Freehills’ Sydney office. She is one of Australia’s leading lawyers in the area of corporate and regulatory law. She focuses on:

• regulatory law and practical corporate law reform
• mergers, acquisitions and corporate reconstructions
• public securities offerings, and
• duties and liabilities of corporate officers.

Kathleen’s leadership in this area is reflected in her roles as:

• a member of the Takeovers Panel, the primary forum for resolution of disputes concerning control transactions in Australia
• chair of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and a member of the LCA’s Governance Committee. She is a former chair of the Corporations Committee of the BLS
• representative of the LCA on the ASX Corporate Governance Council, which makes recommendations for corporate governance practices by listed entities in Australia
• a company director.

Industry experience

Kathleen has played a key role in:

• major regulatory actions including:
• defending Citigroup against action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission dealing with allegations about management of conflicts of interest and insider trading
• acting for a senior executive of Coca-Cola Amatil on an investigation concerning alleged insider trading
• acting for a major health care provider in an investigation by the Health Insurance Commission dealing with medical equipment procurement
• major floats on the Australian Securities Exchange including:
• NSW TAB (for the government)
• Cable & Wireless Optus (for Mayne Group)
• complex shareholding and governance arrangements including:
• the merger of Swiss Bank Corporations Australian interests with Potter Warburg
• Mayne Nickless’ involvement in Cable & Wireless Optus pre float
• prominent corporate governance matters, acting for institutions in ANI and Goodman Fielder board disputes, and for directors of the NRMA.

Professional background

Kathleen Farrell is a graduate of Sydney University (BA LLB (Hons)). Kathleen joined Freehills in July 1979 and became a partner on 1 January 1984.

In March 1992, Kathleen left the firm to take up an appointment as National Coordinator, Enforcement with the Australian Securities Commission (now the Australian Securities and Investment Commission). Kathleen was responsible for the strategic direction of significant ASIC investigations and related litigation, development of enforcement policy and liaison with other law enforcement agencies.

In addition to her other roles referred to above, Kathleen is currently a director of Colorado Group Limited and Australian Institute of Management (New South Wales and the ACT) Limited. She has previously been a director of Pacific Power and Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank Limited.