The BLS Report Podcast

In this episode, we explore the key tax measures announced in the May 2026 budget and what they mean for commercial lawyers and their clients. Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves are joined by experts Toby Eggleston and Peter Dunn to unpack the technical changes and their practical implications. The discussion considers the impact on investment decisions, private capital markets and high‑growth busine...

The relationship between regulation and innovation has always been complicated. Regulation that assumes one way of doing things can stifle innovation; conversely regulation struggles to keep up with rapid technological change. In this episode, Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves unpack that relationship with the 2026 Trinity College visiting Gourlay Professor in business ethics, Prof...

In this episode, BLS Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves go through the last-minute revisions to Australia’s new merger control regime with competition law expert Caroline Coops from Mallesons, including when deals involving shares or assets need to be notified to the ACCC.

Everyone knows that structural reform of Australia’s corporate regulation is needed, but where do we start? In this episode, BLS Chair Pamela Hanrahan and BLS Executive member John Keeves are in conversation with Professor Jason Harris from Sydney Law School and Natasha McHattan from nlmlegal about the recent work of the Productivity Commission on regulatory reform and the CLRA campaign by industr...

In this two-part episode of The BLS Report, regular co-host John Keeves and special co-host Peta Stevenson, Chair of the BLS Competition & Consumer Committee are joined by guests Caroline Coops from King & Wood Mallesons and Simon Muys from Gilbert + Tobin, to explore Australia’s new merger regime and what it means for businesses and practitioners. Part 2 Part 2 focuses on the practical implicatio...

In this two-part episode of The BLS Report, regular co-host John Keeves and special co-host Peta Stevenson, Chair of the BLS Competition & Consumer Committee are joined by guests Caroline Coops from King & Wood Mallesons and Simon Muys from Gilbert + Tobin, to explore Australia’s new merger regime and what it means for businesses and practitioners. Part 1 Part 1 examines the foundations of the reg...

Australia’s financial consumer law was recently described by the Australian Law Reform Commission as “a tangled mess” and a “confusing maze” that is “no longer fit for purpose”. A new approach is needed. In this episode, BLS Chair Dr Pamela Hanrahan and Executive member John Keeves talk to Professor Lauren Willis, Centennial Chair of Consumer Law at Loyola Law School in California and a world-reno...

Recorded 6 March 2025 In this episode, BLS Chair Dr Pamela Hanrahan and Executive member John Keeves meet two people at the centre of Australia’s coordinated response to cyber threat. Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness CSC, the National Cyber Security Coordinator and Hamish Hansford, the Deputy Secretary for Cyber & Infrastructure Security in the Department of Home Affairs discuss the national...

In this special episode, BLS Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves meet Mette Morsing, Professor of Business Sustainability and Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. Professor Morsing is in Australia as the 2024 Gourlay Visting Professor of ethics in business and talks about how the disciplines of law and management work together in...

With the Senate Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence due to report in September, BLS Chair Professor Pamela Hanrahan and BLS Executive member John Keeves discuss recent developments and likely futures in AI regulation with Peter Leonard, Principal of Data Synergies Pty Ltd and UNSW Business School Professor of Practice.

The Australian Law Reform Commission was charged in 2020 with untangling the mess that is Australia’s financial services law, without altering the policy settings. In this episode, BLS Executive members Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves discuss the Final Report with Christopher Ash and Ellie Filkin from the ALRC to unpack the Report’s 58 recommendations. We explore what needs to change in our approa...

In this episode, Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves discuss the climate disclosure bill introduced into Parliament in March with Tim Stutt, Australian head of ESG at Herbert Smith Freehills and Ben Fleming from Sullivan and Cromwell. The discussion shows how far we still are from achieving a global consensus on this important reform.

In this episode, Olga Ganopolsky of the BLS Privacy Committee and Michael Rivette of the Victorian Bar join BLS Executive Members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves to discuss current issues in privacy, covering how Australia shapes up internationally, rule of law concerns and privacy class actions.

The fourteenth edition of the BLS Report explores the challenge of attributing fault to large corporations and other entities where power and decision-making are diffused. BLS Executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves are joined by Professor Elise Bant FAAL from the University of Western Australia, to discuss her new edited book exploring the conceptions and conditions of corpora...

The thirteenth edition of the BLS Report explores the broader context of the PJC’s current review of aspects of Australia’s insolvency regimes, and the possibilities for change. BLS Executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves are joined by two guests whom are perfectly positioned to provide insight into this topic, Chair of the BLS’ Insolvency & Restructuring committee Chris Pearce...

In the final episode for 2022, BLS Executive members John Keeves and Pamela Hanrahan chat with ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court about ASIC’s enforcement approach. The conversation covers ASIC’s use of court proceedings and ‘why not litigate’, the Star proceedings and ongoing enforcement actions on DDO, and the proposed unfair conduct laws.

BLS Executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves with fellow Executive member Clint Harding of Arnold Bloch Leibler discuss the hot topic of Legal Professional Privilege, including new protocols issues by the ATO.

In the tenth episode of the BLS Report, Professor Jeremy Moon, Chair of Sustainability Governance at Copenhagen Business School, and Mr Tim Bednall of King & Wood Mallesons, discuss the positive and negative influence of corporations in setting the rules of the game for corporate behaviour.

In the first episode of the BLS Report for 2022, Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves speak to Justice Sarah Derrington, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, about the ALRC’s reference on Corporations and Financial Services Laws.

Just in the last months of 2021 the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre delivered its final report on digital assets, one of Australia’s big 4 banks announced that they would add Crypto currencies to their banking app, and ASIC released guidance on “crypto-asset related investment products. It is safe to say the digital world is rapidly expanding and we need t...

This latest episode is about cyber-security and the Critical Infrastructure Bill, legislation that is currently before the Federal Parliament. The Bill will impose a new and extensive set of cyber-security requirements for what is to be regarded as “critical infrastructure” – and it covers a number of sectors beyond what would be typically thought of as infrastructure in ordinary language, includi...

This latest episode explores Environmental, Social and Governance factors (ESG's), how they affect investment decisions and how ESG factors are becoming increasingly important in M&A and investment deals in Australia and overseas.  BLS Executive members John Keeves & Professor Pamela Hanrahan are joined in discussion by fellow BLS Executive member and one of Australia’s leading corporate M&A lawye...

The first episode for 2021 kicks off with a discussion of the recent, and very significant, reforms to Australia’s foreign investment review framework, that came into effect on 1 January this year. Our BLS Executive Members Prof Pamela Hanrahan and Mr John Keeves are joined by two of Australia’s pre-eminent FIRB lawyers, the BLS’ Foreign Investment Committee Chair Mr Malcolm Brennan, Partner at Ki...

BLS executive members Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves, discuss corporate accountability and whether there has been a shift in focus over recent years.

As the recession bites, all BLS members will need to be across emerging issues in insolvency law. Beginning with a quick refresher on the 2018 reforms, BLS Report Episode 2 provides a clear analysis of the temporary relief measures for insolvent entities and their directors adopted by Government in response to the pandemic. This lively conversation between BLS Insolvency and Restructuring Committe...