Presenters

Karl Pattenden, Barrister, Key Chambers
Karl was called to the Bar in 2015. He practices across numerous areas of law including bankruptcy & insolvency, building & construction, commercial & civil litigation, contract disputes, corporations, consumer protection, employment & industrial, occupational health and safety, property and commercial leasing disputes, personal injuries and workers compensation, and administrative law. Before coming to the Bar Karl was the principal of Pattenden Law – a litigation practice which specialised in bankruptcy and insolvency, building and construction, and commercial and civil litigation. He appeared as counsel on behalf of clients and other solicitors in various jurisdictions including the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of the ACT and NSW. Prior to establishing Pattenden Law Karl was an associate and partner of Gillespie-Jones & Co for nine years where he was responsible for the management and supervision of the commercial dispute resolution/litigation practice. In this capacity he supervised and had the carriage of a variety of commercial and common law litigation matters on behalf of clients and appeared as counsel. Before Gillespie-Jones & Co Karl was employed for five years as a solicitor in a large scale plaintiff’s litigation practice specialising in personal injuries, workers compensation and industrial relations. He also served as principal legal officer for one year with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority where he advised on the prudential supervision of banks, life and general insurance companies and superannuation funds. Before that, Karl was employed for a year in a large defendant/insurance litigation practice. Before becoming a lawyer, Karl was employed by the Department of Defence, Inspector-General’s Division engaged in the review of Commonwealth procurement and outsourcing procedures/contracts together with the management and supervision of multi-disciplined teams investigating matters of significant implication for Defence programs. He was also employed by the Australian Federal Police for a period of fourteen years where he managed, investigated and prosecuted offences throughout Australia.


Farhana Islam, Special Counsel, Maddocks
Farhana is a highly experienced government lawyer who advises Australian Government and State and Territory government agencies on administrative law, regulatory law and decision making, statutory interpretation, data and privacy. With over 10 years’ experience as an in-house counsel, including at the Senior Executive level, Farhana has a deep understanding of the sector and is able to infuse her legal advice with a unique perspective. Farhana has undertaken numerous high profile privacy impact assessments, including recently on the national disability data asset and the Digital ID Bill, has provided advice on complex dating sharing arrangements involving multi parties and helped entities develop robust privacy policies, privacy management plans and data breach response plans.


Katherine Armytage, Partner, Maddocks
Katherine Armytage is a partner in the Maddocks Canberra office, where she provides a broad range for commercial law services to Australian Government clients. During her career, she has been lucky enough to undertake several lengthy secondments to Commonwealth agencies, where she quickly became an integral part of those agencies' legal teams and gained an extensive knowledge about the practical issues affecting Australian Government clients. Katherine is a self-confessed ‘Privacy Nerd’, having a very strong interest in privacy and information law. She actually really enjoys examining information flows associated with complex Australian Government projects, developing detailed process maps examining information flows and associated privacy and other legal risks, and coming up with creative solutions to help her clients minimise those risks. Katherine has been fortunate to be involved in some really interesting privacy matters recently – from undertaking a privacy impact assessment about the impact of the new consumer data right on the banking sector, to working through eligible data breaches involving loss of highly sensitive personal information, to looking at new projects involving the transfer of personal information into the Multi-agency Data Integration Project (MADIP).