Andrew Fellowes
In 100 words or less, tell us your career story …
Dispute resolution was always my passion. I progressed through firms in two different states, spending more than 10 years in litigation (six at H&W) and thought my career path was set. When the opportunity came up to work in-house after a 12-month secondment at UniSuper I was nervous – I didn’t know much about superannuation. I’ve been at UniSuper over 10 years now, progressing from a team of one (me) to managing a team of five lawyers responsible for commercial negotiations, insured benefits advice and managing a portfolio of complaints, disputes and litigation.
A typical day at work for me is...
A typical day sees me ‘on the tools’ providing (or signing off) legal advice or negotiation strategies. This could be anything from reviewing a complex IT contract to reading medical reports in relation to a member’s insurance claim. It’s important for me to spend time building and maintaining good stakeholder relationships so I chair communities of practice (forums with presentations and open mic discussions), attend other teams’ meetings and sit on major project steering committees. I also make sure I spend time coaching and developing my team (this is my favourite part of my job).
I'm also passionate about...
Travel, doing my own questionably successful home improvements and my two cats Elmo and Xena.
The best bit of advice given to me was...
Eat the elephant one bite at a time. It’s important to not get overwhelmed by the enormity of a task. Start somewhere (anywhere), chip at a problem one small piece at a time and celebrate successes along the way.
The best part of my role is...
As my career has progressed and I’ve grown a team I’ve found that people management has been the most enjoyable. I enjoy the interaction and satisfaction that comes from coaching and seeing my team succeed.
My most memorable Hall & Wilcox moment was...
I’ve got a few. Two that come to mind are the graduate lawyers’ Christmas show – some people definitely missed their calling as comedians! Another is Tony Macvean bouncing around on a seat at a company briefing pretending it was a time machine for a presentation.
This article was published in September 2022.