Presenters

Bronwyn Weir, Director, Weir Legal & Consulting
Bronwyn has been a lawyer for over 20 years. She recently established Weir Legal and Consulting Pty Ltd having previously worked as a senior partner of a large law firm. Bronwyn advises governments on complaints management, licencing, disciplinary inquiries, enforcement, decision making and administrative law. Bronwyn also advises on regulatory practice and risk-based decision-making by regulators. She has worked with regulators in sectors including early childhood education and care, building, VET education, health, food safety, racing and primary industries. Bronwyn has a strong reputation in the area of building regulation. In 2018 she co-authored a report with Professor Peter Shergold to all state and territory and federal governments on building regulation issues. She continues to act for a number of governments in relation to their implementation of the report including Victoria, Qld, NSW and WA.


Vanessa Twigg, Principal Legal Adviser, Victorian Ombudsman
Vanessa is a criminal lawyer with extensive experience providing legal services in Commonwealth and Victorian Government law enforcement and integrity agencies. In her work she has particularly focused on the responsible exercise of both discretionary coercive investigative powers used to compulsorily acquire oral and written evidence, and electronic surveillance powers. Vanessa has highly developed skills in legal analysis and the application of public interest tests to establish and implement electronic and manual case management processes that are legally competent and ensures the appropriate and proportionate exercise of intrusive investigative powers.


Alison Smith, Principal Decision Maker, Victorian Building Authority
Before joining the VBA’s Practitioner Discipline Unit, Alison was an appointed member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (and formerly the Social Security Appeals Tribunal) for 12 years. Alison joined the VBA in 2019 and acts as a delegate in disciplinary proceedings against building practitioners. Alison has taken a lead role in developing and maintaining the VBA’s regulatory and disciplinary strategy in relation to the non-compliant use of combustible cladding in a cross-divisional team of lawyers, technical experts, and investigators.


Brad Powell, Compliance and Investigating Manager, Harness Racing Victoria
Brad is a professional and approachable investigator with over 20 years experience conducting, managing and contributing to complex investigations within law enforcement, public sector and private sector contexts. He has extensive experience as an investigator and manager, establishing and leading teams, coordinating policy development and implementation, and leading compliance operations.


Shail Singh, Lead Ombudsman Investments and Advice, Financial Ombudsman Service
Shail completed a law/science degree at the University of Melbourne in 1996 and commenced his legal career in 1997 at a top-tier Australian Law Firm Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashursts). Since that time, Shail has worked both in-house, and as legal counsel for various regulators including Worksafe Victoria and the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria. Shail completed his Masters in Law at the University of Melbourne in 2005, and in 2008 he left the law to train and work as a financial planner, completing his Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning in 2009 at Kaplan, before joining AFCA’s predecessor scheme, FOS, as a case manager in 2010. Shail was appointed as an Ombudsman at the commencement of AFCA in 2018, and then the Senior Ombudsman (Investments and Advice) in 2021. From January 2022 he was the Acting Lead Ombudsman Investments and Advice until he was officially appointed to the role in May 2023. Shail has now worked in dispute resolution for over a decade and is a specialist in Investments and Advice complaints. This includes financial planning, derivatives, managed funds, timeshare, cryptocurrency and stockbroking disputes.