Jennifer Sirca

Jennifer is a senior lawyer with substantial experience in regulatory and litigation matters, and the management of large teams and complex projects and transactions. She joined the VGSO in November 2021.

Prior to joining the VGSO, Jennifer was General Counsel at the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation and before that, General Counsel at the Labour Hire Licensing Authority. Jennifer spent 12 years in the legal team at Telstra Corporation, after eight years in private practice at top and mid-tier law firms.

Jennifer has a strong understanding of the client perspective and is skilled at balancing good legal advice with pragmatism and strategy and her deep experience in investigations and inquiries means she can give forward thinking, practical and strategic advice to achieve the best outcome.

At the Foundation, Jennifer led the organisation's participation in the Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence and managed the Foundation's response to a Victorian Auditor-General performance audit.

As the Authority's inaugural General Counsel, Jennifer was responsible for establishing the legal and governance function and providing advice on new and untested legislation. She also had a key role in the development of organisation-wide policies, processes and procedures.

At Telstra, Jennifer was Supervising Counsel where she managed a team of senior lawyers who advised the Corporate Affairs and Wholesale business units. She also directly provided advice on the company's responses to significant regulatory inquiries and investigations, managed several significant judicial review proceedings, played a key role in the implementation of Telstra's statutory undertaking to structurally separate its wholesale and retail business units and the plan for migrating users from its copper network to the nbn, and negotiated large wholesale agreements. There was also a period when Jennifer was a Regulatory manager leading a team of compliance specialists while continuing to lead her legal team. Prior to becoming Supervising Counsel, Jennifer provided advice in relation to workplace health and safety matters and ran a portfolio of workers compensation litigation in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal Court of Australia and a legal challenge before the High Court.

In private practice, Jennifer was a Senior Associate who worked on a wide variety of judicial review and litigation matters including migration and citizenship applications, commercial disputes, insurance, personal injury including recovery and asbestos claims, water disputes, and prosecutions. She regularly drafted submissions and appeared at mediations, interlocutory and final hearings in a range of jurisdictions including the Federal Court, AAT and Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Prior to admission, Jennifer was a law clerk working on a variety of personal injury and general litigation matters, regularly instructing junior and senior counsel in the Supreme and County Courts of Victoria, AAT and Federal Court.

Jennifer mentors informally and formally as part of the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia Future Leaders Mentoring Program, and is passionate about supporting women lawyers to take up leadership roles.

Phone: 03 8684 0467
Email: jennifer.sirca@vgso.vic.gov.au