Team

Brian O’Connell, Principal

Brian is a senior commercial lawyer with over 20 years of experience in the defence, engineering and infrastructure sectors. Brian has worked for international defence contractors, government corporations and Australian law firms.

Key capabilities include:

  • Comprehensive knowledge of ASDEFCON and Commonwealth contracting culture;
  • A pragmatic approach that balances legal risks vs commercial outcomes;
  • Proficient management of the contracting cycle encompassing bidding, negotiating, procurement, teaming and dispute resolution;
  • Bridging the “understanding gap” between international parent company’s perception and the reality faced by its Australian subsidiary.

Qualifications include:

  • Master of Laws, University of Sydney (Major in Indonesian Law/Case study on water infrastructure project in Bandung, Java);
  • Leadership Training Course, AGSM/Thales Australia (Land-Armaments division);
  • Working in the Middle East, Cross-Cultural training (Kwintessential UK).

Brian is fluent in English and French.

Paul McCarthy, Commercial & Contracts Management Specialist

Paul is a senior consultant with over 20 years of experience in the defence industry specialising in financial management and control, commercial risk management and complex strategic defence projects (working for BAE Systems/GEC-Marconi and Thales Australia among others). Prior to that, Paul was a principal cost investigator with the Department of Defence’s FIS branch.

Key capabilities include:

  • Extensive experience in all aspects of ASDEFCON and major defence acquisition policies and projects;
  • Leading the negotiation of strategic agreements and contracts;
  • Sound understanding of export controls (including U.S. ITAR/EAR and Australian Defence Export Controls);
  • Contract management including establishing and maintaining contract baseline, implementing contract changes, identifying flow-down obligations and undertaking supply chain “gap-analysis”.

Paul holds a degree in Commerce from the University of New South Wales (Accounting, Financial Systems major).

OLC can also call on specific expertise in contract financial risk including:
  • Bonding and security arrangements;
  • Parent company guarantees;
  • Payment terms and net exposure;
  • Consequential damages;
  • Performance risks to cost and profit.