Joanna Oakey

Managing Partner

Joanna is Aspect Legal’s ‘fearless leader’ with close to 2 decades of experience behind her. She has wide experience working with a large and diverse portfolio of organisations in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, contract law, procurement, commercial law, and branding. She is the proud host of two of the top business law podcasts in Australia: Talking Law (providing smart legal tips for business), and The Deal Room (Australia’s first mergers and acquisitions podcast).

Joanna spends her spare time dreaming about ways to create the perfect business, one that breaks the traditional lawyer mould, delivers deep value to its clients, and has a positive impact on the community and the world. When she isn’t protecting her clients from the unexpected storms of business, Joanna enjoys quality time with her 2 beautiful children and husband.

Robyn Purdy

Partner

Robyn is a Partner and heads up Aspect Legal’s operations in Melbourne.  Robyn has over 15 years of experience practising in commercial law, with a particular focus on drafting and negotiating a wide range of commercial contracts, as well as comprehensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property law and general contract law disputes.

When she is not in the office, Robyn spends her time volunteering as a Director of Ethiopiaid Australia Foundation, contributing to her childrens’ primary school through the Parents in Partnership Committee and enjoying precious family time with her husband and two young children.

Ben van de Beld

Partner

Ben is our Queensland-based Partner who heads up Aspect Legal’s offices in Brisbane and Toowoomba, and also our Commercial team. He has been practicing law for 15+ years (seven of which as a Barrister) and knows a thing or two about commercial law and running a business generally as, prior to moving to the law, he built a start-up manufacturing company to an $8 million annual turnover business with 75 staff. In light of this, Ben is ideally placed to understand the highs and lows of running a business that our clients face on a daily basis.

His legal experience, gained at the Queensland Bar, working for firms, as well as a number of years as in-house legal counsel for two large multinationals, spans across a wide range of both litigious and non-litigious matters involving business and share sale and acquisitions, corporate, commercial, bankruptcy and insolvency, competition and consumer law, property, insurance, defamation, intellectual property, employment and general business law. In addition, as a Barrister, Ben appeared on behalf of clients as Counsel in trials and hearings in the various Courts and at mediations.

When he isn’t assisting our clients with their legal needs, Ben spends his spare time with his wife, teenage son and his Collie Rough (think Lassie) and Standard Poodle. He enjoys restoring the family’s 1911 built Queenslander home, walking, reading, mountain biking, and (most importantly) going to Brisbane Roar matches with his other (not so teenage) son.

Marc

Special Counsel

Marc brings to the team experience in the areas of employment law, litigation, industrial relations, restraints, breach of confidence and discrimination. Marc enjoys problem solving for clients on complicated workplace issues. In his spare time, Marc enjoys ocean sports and cooking.

Brigid Keary

Special Counsel

Brigid is an experienced senior commercial lawyer, leader and manager with over 28 years’ experience in strategy and operations, contract management and commercial law. Brigid has expertise in financial services and privacy and data protection and loves drafting bespoke agreements for tricky commercial arrangements. Brigid has astute commercial acumen and a proven track record of working independently to deliver insights, results and value. Brigid is committed to excellence in customer service with a focus on a pragmatic and collaborative approach. When she isn’t working as a lawyer Brigid helps people free themselves from whatever is holding them back as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Intuitive Healer.

Nicole Segal

Special Counsel

Nicole has over 20 years of experience in providing commercial advice across a diverse range of businesses from startups, privately-owned companies and listed public companies. Nicole is your one-stop shop for commercial law issues. She handles her clients’ cases from inception to resolution, providing advice and applying her keen negotiation skills and legal and industry knowledge to ensure that clients achieve excellent commercial outcomes. Nicole’s areas of expertise include franchising, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and drafting of commercial leases.

Robert Pacella

Solicitor

Robert joined Aspect Legal following the pursuit of business ventures throughout Australia and overseas. In addition to being qualified in the laws of both Australia and England & Wales, he also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. Robert brings a wealth of experience in corporate law and business matters including mergers & acquisitions, structuring, compliance, governance, employment, intellectual property, and dispute resolution. Additionally, Roberts’ many years of global commercial experience provides an unusual level of insight into even the most complex of matters which brings a wealth of experience in commercial law and business matters. 

Dara Macdonald

Junior Solicitor

Dara comes with a wealth of experience gained from her in-house legal counsel positions with various national and multinational companies, with her experience spanning business and share sales and acquisitions and commercial law.

Dara’s super power is in finding simple and fun ways to communicate complicated concepts. This passion and skill has led her to be regularly published in many newspapers and magazines in Australia (and sometimes abroad).

When she’s not working or writing she is reading, or hosting a book club with a matching beverage in hand!

Alexandra Arenas

Finance Manager

Alex is our resident numbers expert! Alex manages our Accounts and Finances and helps Aspect Legal to keep its ducks in a row. Given she is in charge of paying the staff at Aspect Legal, Alex is not surprisingly one of the most popular team members! 

She loves to take on diverse and challenging roles – being a project assistant, legal researcher/writer, book-keeper, and finance manager. If that’s not enough to keep her busy, she’s a single mum of three adorable kids. Alex knows how to chill in front of the TV watching sports leagues and dancing competitions. 

JB

Project Manager

Having 2 Jo’s in the office could be tricky so we refer to our Project Manager as JB who is our technical expert here at Aspect Legal. JB is the go-to person when technology disrupts operations and she is always looking at ways to improve systems and processes. JB also has Account management and Social Media experience and is a graduate of BS in Information Technology. JB is a single mother of 3 and loves to watch anime and play games during her free time.

Marie Bonganciso

Podcast Manager

Marie is the superwoman behind Aspect Legal’s fabulous podcasts. She does audio editing, artwork, publishing — and everything in between! On top of that, she is the Beyoncé of content marketing and enjoys any task that gets her creative juices flowing! 

When she is not working she enjoys watching anime, going on long motorbike rides, and fun walkies with her two silly pit bulls Ash and Migō.

Eric Beringuela

Client Success Manager

Eric is the Client Success Manager of Aspect Legal and it is his job to ensure that clients are well taken care of, starting from their initial enquiry and all throughout their journey of becoming trusted clients and partners. He also actively manages client feedback to make sure the team is living up to the promise that “We are obsessed with service”.

During the weekends, he likes to take it slow, wake up without an alarm on and listen to jazz or lofi. He’s fond of collecting old coins and enjoys a good bottle of whisky.

Trinity Monteras

Executive Assistant

Trinity is a ray of sunshine, always perky and funny. With years of experience in Customer Service and Office Administration, she is surely a pro in multitasking tasks and dealing with different kinds of people. She takes care of most of the ad hoc tasks for the Managing Director and the Admin Team. In her free time, she likes binging on Korean Series, Netflix, dining out and travelling.

Say “Hello Trinity” as she will be your best person to book in for a meeting for the team.

Luke Matutes

Paralegal

Luke is an aspiring lawyer. He is a go-getter and a purpose-driven individual who loves simplifying complicated matters and processes. He loves to embark on new challenges and is excited to learn new things which he could apply in actual practice. Strolling on the beach and swimming are some of the activities he does in his free time.

Katrina Tago

Marketing/Systems Assistant

Katrina Tago, “Kat” as we call her, is our Marketing/Systems Assistant. She coordinates with our Projects and Client Success Managers in setting up Aspect Legal’s Webinars. Whatever support that’s needed under marketing or systems, Kat is always happy to back up. She loves to take on any challenge to acquire new skills as an assistant.

In her off-time, she and her family would go on food adventures, skimboarding at the beach, and watch motocross events. She’s into kickboxing or any cardio exercise and never misses a day without working out to stay fit and healthy.

Joan

Senior Paralegal

Joan has work experience in both law firm and multinational company settings. Her main practice areas are commercial contract review and contract management. Joan enjoys watching documentaries, reading fantasy novels, tending to her plants (and her 2 young girls, of course), and eating out (now ordering in).

Chloe

Security Officer

Chloe is our in-house security officer (aka furbaby, company mascot). She does a stellar job promptly greeting clients and delivery people as they enter the office. Chloe is a real people person – always greeting our visitors with enormous excitement. She loves the great outdoors but also quite enjoys sitting on the comfy lounge in the office when there is no one to welcome. When not at work, Chloe loves playing with her human siblings and running on the beach each morning with Aspect Legals Managing Director.