Carmel Mulhern is the Group General Counsel of Telstra. Carmel is responsible for providing legal advice to Telstra’s Board, CEO and senior management. She manages one of the largest in-house corporate legal teams in Australia, with members also located in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, London and New York. Before this, Carmel was the Telstra Company Secretary, responsible for continuous disclosure, compliance, corporate governance and communication to Telstra’s 1.4 million shareholders.
In 2015, Carmel was named General Counsel of the Year at the Australian Law Awards, the Association of Corporate Counsel Awards and the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards. Then in 2016, she was named in The UK Financial Times Global General Counsel 30.
Before joining the Telstra legal team in July 2000, Carmel had a successful career at Mallesons Stephen Jacques (now King Wood Mallesons). She has previously held the positions of Associate to Justice Mary Gaudron of the High Court of Australia and Associate to Justice Philip Cummins of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Alongside her vibrant professional career, she also taught at Monash University.
Carmel Mulhern has written two legal texts on criminal law and prosecution of corporations. She was the founding Chair of the ACC Australia GC100, a member of Chief Executive Women in Australia, a member the General Counsel 50 and a former member of the St James Ethics Advisory Council. Carmel holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland and a Masters of Laws from Monash University.
