Biography
Karen Evans-Cullen is a partner in Gilbert + Tobin’s Corporate Advisory group.
She has over 25 years’ experience as a strategic mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance and advisory lawyer. Karen has acted in a number of Australia’s significant strategic corporate transactions, including a range of takeovers, schemes of arrangement, mergers, demergers, acquisitions and divestments, and equity capital raisings.
She advises clients on transactions across a broad range of industry sectors and is highly regarded for her ability to deliver innovative solutions to achieve her client’s objectives.
Karen has established a strong reputation for advising boards and management on corporate governance issues including governance practices and processes, risk management, board effectiveness, continuous disclosure, regulatory investigations, related party transactions, directors’ duties and executive remuneration.
Karen was a part-time member of the Australian Takeovers Panel, a government appointed peer review body that regulates corporate control transactions in widely held Australian entities, from 2014 to 2023.
Karen was Acting General Counsel at PwC Australia on an 8 month secondment in 2023. She was a member of the firm’s executive leadership team as it undertook a broad-ranging review and investigation into various leadership, governance and accountability issues arising out of the findings of the Tax Practitioners Board in relation to the firm.
Karen has a Master of Laws (Distinction) from Georgetown University USA, which she completed as a Fulbright Scholar. She also has a Bachelor Laws (1st class Honours) from the University of Western Australia, and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment (Securities Institute of Australia). Karen regularly guest lectures in takeover laws at the University of New South Wales and is a member of the Corporations Committee of the Law Council of Australia.