OUR TEAM
UNCCA's leadership team comprises of a Board of Directors and Executive Committee. The Board is responsible for overseeing organisation's activities and is supported by the Executive Committee.
Judges, legal practitioners, academics, researchers and law students are all represented on UNCCAs leadership team, which is volunteer-based.
UNCCA Directors
Chair
Justice Sarah C. Derrington was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 10 January 2018. Immediately prior to her appointment to the Court, she was the Dean of Law at the University of Queensland and a barrister specialising in maritime and shipping law, general commercial law and arbitration. From 9 January 2018 to 9 January 2023, she was the President of the Australian Law Reform Commission.
She has been a member of the Admiralty Rules Committee since 2006, and was a member of the Council of the Australian Maritime College (AMC) from 2012 -2023. She continues to serve on the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM).
She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Law in 2009, of the Nautical Institute in 2013, of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018, and an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn in 2021.
She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List of 2022.
The Hon. Justice
Sarah Derrington (AM)
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Therese Wilson is the Dean of Law and Head of School at Griffith Law School. Her teaching and research expertise is in the areas of corporate law, banking and finance law, consumer law, international commercial law and international arbitration. She wrote her Ph D thesis on “Regulating to Facilitate Access to Safe and Affordable Credit for Low Income Australians”.
Therese has served as Chair of the board of Foresters Community Finance Limited and as Chair of the Australian Financial Inclusion Network.
Therese has coached Griffith Law School’s Vis international commercial arbitration moot team since 2003 and has taught international commercial arbitration and investor-state arbitration courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Deputy Chair
Prof. Therese Wilson
Dr Jessica Viven-Wilksch is a lecturer at the Adelaide Law School at The University of Adelaide. Jessica has studied in both civil law and common law jurisdictions, and is a comparative commercial law scholar at heart. In 2019, she published a book chapter titled ‘How Long Is Too Long to Determine the Success of a legal Transplant? International Doctrines and Contract Law in Oceania" in Vito Breda, Legal Transplants in East Asia and Oceania (Cambridge, 2019) where she called for more education on international instruments in law schools, using the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods as a case study.
Her PhD thesis considered the role of good faith in Australia and the EU. Her 2019 article on good faith in Australian and Canadian contract laws, published in the Journal of Commonwealth Law, was cited in 2020 by the South African Constitutional Court. Jessica’s research focuses on bridging contract law theory and practice. Using a comparative framework, Jessica is exploring how jurisdictions can learn from each other. Her current research explores the notion of relational contract in domestic law and international instruments. Jessica lectures in Contract law, Corporate Law, Comparative law and Private International law. Her passion and commitment to teaching and her unique learning journey have led her to bring comparative materials and international matters to her students. She has been engaging with UNCCA since her first attendance at a UN Day lecture in 2017 and is looking forward to contributing to the next chapter of the organisation.
Director
Dr Jessica Viven-Wilksch
Director & Treasurer
Michael Green SC
Michael Green SC was admitted as a legal practitioner in 1991, came to the Bar in 1998 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.
He has appeared in the High Court of Australia, the Federal Court, State Supreme Courts, the Land and Environment Court, and various tribunals. He has participated in many mediations and arbitrations and practises throughout Australia.
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Michael practises principally in the areas of Intellectual Property (particularly Copyright, Trade Marks, and Patents), Consumer Protection, Privacy and Information Technology, Confidential Information, Competition Law, Corporations Law, Regulation and Planning, Corporate Insolvency, and general Commercial Litigation. He has appeared in numerous notable cases.
Dr Alan Davidson is a Director and Fellow of UNCCA and is its Education Director arranging for Australian Law students to attend UNCITRAL Working Groups (50+ to date). In 2011 Dr Davidson was invited to speak at the UNCITRAL Colloquium on Electronic Commerce at UN Headquarters. Since 2014 Dr Davidson has attended all sessions of Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce), and in 2015 was invited to join its Panel of Experts to assist with future directions.
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Dr Davidson is a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and of the High Court of Australia. He practiced law for more than a decade before moving into academia full time. He was engaged as an Assistant Professor at Bond University, Queensland University of Technology including acting Head of School, and Associate Dean at James Cook University before commencing at the University of Queensland in 1997. He is a Fellow of the Institute of International Banking Law and Practice and regularly speaks at the conferences for the Institute in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York.
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Dr Davidson presents courses in International Trade Law, International Trade Finance Law and Law and Technology. He has been a visiting academic in the USA, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and China. In 2016 he formed the UNCITRAL Society which comprises students who have attended UNCITRAL Working Groups from UQ, meeting six times per year. His books include Social Media and Electronic Commerce Law in 2 editions by Cambridge University Press; The Internet for Lawyers and The Internet for Accountants.
Director & UNLAWS
Co-ord.
Dr Alan Davidson
Director & Delegates
Co-Ord.
Dr Anne Matthew
Dr Anne Matthew is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a practicing lawyer, and Consultant with Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Lawyers. Her research focuses on companies engaged in innovation, entrepreneurship and regulation. Anne’s research studies how regulation can create an enabling environment for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including particularly their access to finance. Her current research projects include an examination of regulatory approaches to artificial intelligence and the place of artificial intelligence in board practices.
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Anne’s PhD thesis considered how to best position the legal environment created by corporate law to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking, particularly among start-up ventures. Anne’s thesis explored this question by examining select elements of Australian corporate law through the lens of innovation economics, and broke new ground in doing so. Anne’s thesis was awarded QUT’s Outstanding Thesis Award 2019. Anne is keen to support the ongoing success of start-up culture development and innovation initiatives on campus and participates as an academic mentor in Disrupting Law, an annual 54 hour hackathon in which lawyers and students collaborate to generate new ideas seeking to advance legal practice via technology and innovation.
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Anne lectures in Corporate Law, International Commercial Law, International Sales Law, International Commercial Arbitration, and Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Law. Anne has received a Law Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, has a keen interest in advocacy and dispute resolution, and plays an active role in the QUT Law School’s mooting program, as academic advisor to QUT Law’s team in the Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held each year in Vienna.
Dr Dalma R Demeter is an educator, researcher, independent arbitrator, adjudicator, consultant, and executive with expertise in international commercial law and dispute resolution. As an educator, she is the winner of a series of teaching awards, possessing the ability to adjust the training to her audience. She focuses on teaching professional skills and practical application together with theory in dispute resolution and international commercial law. She holds academic appointments at several universities across Australia and is frequently providing capacity building training for departments of the UN.
As a researcher and author, her publications focus primarily on dispute resolution and legal development, currently finalising a co-authored scholarly textbook on legal dispute management. As a legal practitioner and consultant, Dr Demeter’s expertise is in commercial arbitration, international commercial law, and contracts from both civil law and common law systems.
As an adjudicator, she is accredited to decide construction payment claims. As an executive, she is coordinating the operation of the UNCITRAL National Coordination Committee for Australia, a national organisation contributing to the development and promotion of international trade law in Australia.
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Director
Dr Dalma R Demeter
Director
Delcy Lagones de Anglim
Delcy Lagones de Anglim is one of the leading international ADR practitioners in Australia. Delcy graduated with Honours as a lawyer in her native Peru in 1988, specialising in international contracts and International arbitration.
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Delcy worked as an International Trade lawyer before joining the United Nations in 1992. She currently works as a Dispute Resolution expert with the IFC/World Bank. Delcy is the author of two books on Mediation and Conciliation and writes regularly on these topics, including a chapter on the enforceability of Mediation agreements in “Global Trade Through the Harmonization of Laws”, published by UNCITRAL in November 2015. Delcy has been part of UNCCA since its inception in 2013.
She is a foundaton Director and Fellow of UNCCA with particular interest and expertise in mediation and conciliation. Delcy is invited to speak regularly about ADR at international conferences and at the UNCITRAL conferences in Macau. Delcy has been instrumental in facilitating the adoption of UNCITRAL Model laws in the Asia Pacific region. She is the founder and Managing Director of the Australasian Dispute Resolution Centre. She speaks Spanish, English, French, Italian and basic Quechua, Portuguese and Khmer.
Scott Butler has over 25 years’ experience as a leading restructuring and insolvency lawyer with a broad practice working with clients, company directors, and advisers in a range of sectors. Scott leads Hall & Wilcox’s Restructuring & Turnaround team, a cross practice group focused on restructures of distressed businesses.
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Scott is the chair of the UNCITRAL National Coordination Committee for Australia’s (UNCCA) Working Group V (Insolvency) Expert Advisory Committee, which participates in, and monitors matters being considered by, UNCITRAL’s Working Group V.
Scott is a Fellow of INSOL International, having completed INSOL’s Global Insolvency Practice Course in 2015. Scott is also a Fellow of the Australian Restructuring, Insolvency and Turnaround Association (ARITA). Scott is a current member and past chair of the Law Council of Australia’s Insolvency and Restructuring Committee.
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Director
Scott Butler
UNCCA Executive
Secretary
Inma Conde is a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney in the area of International Private Law (WA
Cooke, Jane Cooke and Alfred Godfrey & RTP Domestic Scholar), and she is a NSW law graduate in a commercial and business law firm in Sydney, Australia. She has Honours Bachelor of Business Administration and read law in Spain, France and Australia (University of Cadiz, Catholic University
of Lyon, University of Technology, Sydney and University of Sydney).
Inma’s PhD deals with the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the work of UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT. She's supervised by Prof. Luke Nottage and Prof.
Chester Brown, who help guide her through the complexities of international commercial law. Inma has broad experience in law and business and is very passionate about International Trade Law and the work of UNCITRAL. Fluent in English, Spanish, French, and German, she brings a multicultural perspective that enriches her contributions to the discourse on international legal matters
Inma Conde
Matyas Szuk is a lawyer at Ashurst, based in Sydney. His experience spans across several areas of commercial law with a particular focus on Finance, Restructuring and Commercial Litigation.
Matyas has been involved with UNCCA since the beginning of 2020 when he attended a session of Working Group II at the UN headquarters in New York. In his current role at UNCCA, Matyas assists the Communications Director with managing UNCCA’s marketing and communications portfolio.
His interest in international law stems from his time spent in Luxembourg. In Luxembourg Matyas was fortunate to gain exposure to several areas of international law including international trade law at the European Court of Justice and the European Commission; space law at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs; and international human rights law at the European Court of Justice.
Comms. Officer
Matyas Szuk
Administrative Assistant
Malena Mavrakis is a student at the University of Adelaide currently studying a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of International Relations, as well as a Diploma of Languages majoring in Chinese. She is also working as a senior debating coach at Wilderness School in Adelaide, assisting children in years’ 9-12 in the South Australian debating competition. She has also recently completed an internship with Food South Australia where she worked with their Export Hub to create a virtual library database where exporting information, market data and other resources could be stored.
Malena has a keen interest in diplomacy and geopolitics. After participating in UN Youth programs throughout high school and receiving a merit in Legal Studies in year 12, she realised her growing interest towards studying in the fields of international relations and law, with a special interest in understanding how international relations theories correlate with international law practises.
She is delighted to be a part of the team at UNCCA and is excited to support them in an administrative capacity.
Malena Mavrakis
Alexander Economos has a Bachelor of laws degree and a Bachelor of Economics (Advanced) from The University of Adelaide. In 2023, he travelled to London and both studied and worked at the Queen Mary School of Law, gaining an interest in international law and diplomacy. He has a variety of experience across law, finance, consulting, M&A, and operations, and now runs his own advisory firm assisting a variety of Australian businesses with their operations.
Alexander has an interest in commercial law and the financial markets, and hopes to use both his law and economics degrees to promote change in existing commercial legal frameworks. Alexander also has participated in a broad range of volunteering and pro bono work in legal clinics and for the broader community.
Alexander is excited to contribute his skills and experience to the UNCCA as the assistant treasurer.
