From the cool things they’ve spotted in the world of legal recently to their amazing hidden talents and hobbies – our in-house legal community are an interesting and diverse group of people with some brilliant opinions and thoughts.
Get to know community member Marina Mitrevski in the below interview!
Who is Marina?
Marina Mitrevski is General Counsel & Company Secretary of THE ICONIC, the leading online retailer for fashion, sports, beauty, home and lifestyle in Australia and New Zealand. Since early 2018, Marina has been responsible for building the legal function from scratch and now leads a highly successful team who are charged with delivering the full ambit of THE ICONIC’s Legal, Governance, Regulatory, Compliance, Legal Operations and Company Secretariat function spanning all areas of the business including: Category Management, Technology, Operations, Marketing, Finance, Growth & Development, and People & Culture. Marina has seen the business grow from strength to strength, with THE ICONIC now home to over 17million+ visits per month.
What is a unique talent or fun hobby of yours?
I’m a lover of the outdoors, from exploring cities or the countryside, to hitting the beach or the slopes – I absolutely love getting out and about and I’m happiest when exploring my surrounds, meeting people, appreciating scenery and immersing myself in culture, be it here in Sydney or abroad.
When I’m not exploring places and spaces, I really enjoy spending time reading-up on start-ups, mega-disruptors and venture deals in various industries and markets around the world. I’ve always been attracted to leaders and companies dreaming big and re-imagining the future.
What’s your favourite part of your current role?
I love that literally no two days are ever the same at THE ICONIC. For some lawyers that might be unsettling but for me the pace, scale, and breadth of work is what makes leading the Legal team so challenging, rewarding and fun! Plus it’s fantastic to work alongside some of the most passionate and intelligent (yet grounded) people across so many functions who truly love what they do, every single day.
In my role as General Counsel & Company Secretary, I also have the privilege of leading a small but mighty team that includes a Legal Counsel and a Legal Operations Specialist. Together we are responsible for partnering with the business on a whole range of Legal, Regulatory, Compliance, and Governance subjects right across fashion, retail and e-commerce. We regularly advise on privacy and data; consumer and competition; promotions and campaigns; various supply/trading models and own brand; sustainability; supply chain and logistics; health, safety and workplace relations; intellectual property and brand management; responsible marketing; corporate development; other growth activities and more! We also have a huge focus on legal transformation and legal operations where we inch this agenda forward each and every day.
What’s one cool thing you’ve done in the legal community recently?
Nurturing and fostering the development of the next generation of in-house lawyers is something I’m extremely passionate about. I’ve been fortunate to have had unique and unparalleled in-house experiences myself pre-admission at Ernst & Young, and also Australia’s leading prime time television broadcaster, Seven Network. These experiences really helped shape and form me as a lawyer, and giving back to the profession by mentoring, sharing learnings and facilitating experiences for the next generation of lawyers is something I truly believe all lawyers should be involved in throughout their career.
I’m really proud to say that since 2018, our Legal team has committed to hosting one to two vocational placements with Law Schools since 2018 and throughout the pandemic, 2020 and 2021 have been no exception! We’ve also recently signed up to the Associations of Corporate Counsel’s In-House Legal Clerkship in Australia, having been a part of their pilot program in earlier years, and we’re so excited to welcome another student to our team over summer to introduce them to the world of in-house.