Governance

At Lander & Rogers, we are authentic and conscientious in how we govern our firm.

Our governance framework is an organised system of controls and processes designed to hold the firm, and our people, to account, ensuring our actions and behaviours comply with ethical and regulatory requirements and are aligned with our values.

Effective governance is critical in meeting our firm’s commitment to our people, clients, community and the legal profession. Learn more below.

Board

Our Board is responsible for the overall strategic direction, governance and performance of the firm, as set out in the Board Charter. The Board is accountable through its Chair to the Equity Partnership.

Board composition

The Board comprises the firm’s Chief Executive Partner, other equity partners, and a non-executive director from time to time. Members of Lander & Rogers' Board currently comprise:

  • Chair, Julie Smith
  • Chief Executive Partner, Genevieve Collins
  • Board member, John Wells
  • Board member, Peter Monk
  • Board member, Daniel Proietto

For more information about the Board structure, charter and operating principles, click here.

Governance roles and functions

Lander & Rogers has established specialised roles and functions to assist the firm in developing, managing, and maintaining responsible business practices. These include:

Roles

Chief Executive Partner
Genevieve Collins

Brisbane Partner in Charge
Genevieve Dee

Sydney Partner in Charge
Jonathan Hunt

Audit and risk management
General Counsel - Risk, Peppy Mitchell

Privacy
Chief Finance Officer, Greg Spring

Information technology
Chief Technology Officer, Manoj Swarnapuri

Cyber security
Head of Cyber Governance, Siddiqua Shaheen

People and culture, and diversity and inclusion
Chief Executive Partner, Genevieve Collins

Environment and sustainability
Sustainability Consultant, Michael Boley

Pro bono and community
Partner - Pro Bono, Community & Environment, Joanna Renkin

Functions

Ethics Committee
Lander & Rogers' Ethics Committee advises on ethical issues relating to the undertaking of work for clients and prospective clients of the firm in accordance with the Ethics Committee Charter. The Committee is also required to identify and advise on perceived, potential and actual ethical risks resulting from firm or individual conduct, as distinct from professional compliance risk issues. For more information about the Ethics Committee Charter, click here.

In providing its advice, the Ethics Committee uses a documented decision-making framework.

Risk Committee
Lander & Rogers' Risk Committee monitors, assists and advises the Chief Executive Partner on firm-wide quality standards that help the firm's people to manage day-to-day risks to ensure compliance with professional and legal obligations. For more information about the Risk Committee Charter, click here.

Business continuity and incident response
Lander & Rogers has documented plans to guide our firm's response in the event of an incident to minimise or avoid disruption to normal business practices. These plans include guidance on when to trigger the incident response team and the composition of the response team.

UN Global Compact

Lander & Rogers supports the core principles of the United Nations Global Compact - a voluntary framework for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices.

As signatories, we:

  • believe all businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery, and
  • commit to proactively developing policies and programmes to address corruption internally and within our supply chains.

Our approach to engagement is transparent and our actions are governed by a compliance and risk management framework.

Learn more about our commitment here.

Operating principles and policies

Lander & Rogers has a range of policies and procedures to support the effective governance of our firm. We believe in transparency around our policies and practices, many of which are included below.

Sexual harassment policy

Lander & Rogers' sexual harassment policy outlines expectations of behaviour of our people in workplace settings. The policy includes a mandatory reporting requirement for anyone who experiences, witnesses or becomes aware of sexual harassment within our firm, which aims to empower not only the impacted person, but also bystanders and witnesses of inappropriate and/or illegal conduct. In conjunction with mandatory reporting of sexual harassment, Lander & Rogers also has a policy on consensual personal relationships in the workplace to deal with conflicts of interest.

Workplace gender equality

Since 2020, Lander & Rogers has been named an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the Federal Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency. This recognises our initiatives to promote gender equality through pay equity, flexible work practices and tools, gender neutral parental leave policies and the equal opportunity for women to be promoted to positions of leadership. As citation holders, we actively advocate for a more gender-balanced world, where we can celebrate inclusion, raise awareness against bias, and act for equality.

We are proud that in 2023 we achieved gender equity in our partnership with half of our practice groups led or co-led by women.

"We want to create a culture where senior leaders don’t look at gender equality as a women's issue, but a business issue and a fairness issue — essential for economies and communities to thrive, and enabling everyone, regardless of their gender to share equally in the opportunities the world has to offer." – Genevieve Collins, Chief Executive Partner.

Whistleblower policy

Lander & Rogers is committed to maintaining the highest legal, ethical and moral behaviour in governance and operational standards. While not a legal requirement, the Board has elected to implement a written whistleblower policy, as it forms an integral part of our culture at Lander & Rogers. The policy outlines the types of disclosures that qualify for protection, to whom disclosures should be made, how whistleblowers will be supported and protected, and how disclosures will be investigated.

Privacy policy

We recognise the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. As legal professionals, we have an inherent legal and ethical duty to maintain the confidentiality of our clients' information, as well as the information of all individuals who engage with our firm. Our privacy policy is an affirmation of this commitment. View our privacy policy here.

Information security policy

We are committed to protecting the intellectual property, assets, activities and facilities of Lander & Rogers, its people and its clients against misuse, loss, damage, disruption, interference, espionage or unauthorised disclosure. Lander & Rogers has adopted security policies aligned with industry best practice.

Supplier code of conduct

The Supplier Code of Conduct applies to all suppliers of goods and services to Lander & Rogers. We take measures to ensure suppliers and their agents, employees, representatives and third parties involved in the provision of services to us comply with this Supplier Code of Conduct 2022.

Payment Times Reporting Scheme

Lander & Rogers adheres to the national Payment Times Reporting Scheme, which requires large businesses and enterprises to report their small business payment terms and times. It is designed to assist small businesses in making informed decisions about the organisations with which they work, and to create transparency that incentivises improved payment times and practices.