About us

Jil Toovey

Director, Innovative Knowledge Development, IKD

 

Jil has deep expertise in the area of professional development for lawyers. With a background in education and a career in leadership development for senior executives spanning 30 years, she is well versed in emerging ideas and research relating to leadership development. Jil’s focus over the past sixteen years has been leadership development for lawyers. The work focuses on what it is that makes a lawyer exceptional beyond their technical expertise. 

Jil designs and delivers programs to enhance the performance of lawyers and legal teams. She has worked with lawyers at the different stages of their careers but over the past 5 years has focused on lawyers in senior roles within private practice or in-house settings.  She is very interested in how lawyers might be better equipped to work in complex environments, become more adaptive and deepen their self awareness, all in order to become more effective leaders. Jil led IKD’s research into the role of the Inner Critic for Lawyers and has developed programs on this topic. She speaks at conferences on this topic and is passionate about the opportunities for lawyers to be more efficient, effective and confident as they deepen their awareness about this phenomenon, and make conscious choices about the way they take up their roles. 

Her client base includes Partners of law firms, General Counsel of global corporations, and Senior Managers in the Social Justice sector. She has designed and facilitated leadership programs for lawyers in private practice at Herbert Smith Freehills, King Wood Mallesons, ABL, Maddocks, Hall & Wilcox, Allens, Lander & Rogers, Clayton Utz Carroll O’Dea and Gadens. Jil has worked with in-house lawyers at National Australia Bank, BHP Billiton, ANZ, Caltex, The Migration and Refugee Review Tribunals, Macquarie Bank, CSIRO, REA and Telstra. Jil has been Program Directing the Legal Counsel Executive Development Program (LCEDP) for over 16 years. This program is a five-day program that develops leadership skills lawyers need to lead behavioral change in their teams and organisations. 

Jil has a strong interest in social justice and provides leadership development programs for the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Victoria Legal Aid, PILCH and the Human Rights Legal Resource Centre. 

Jil’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Monash University), a Diploma of Education (Monash University) Graduate Diploma of Training & Development (Melbourne University) and as a Psychodramatist, accredited through the Psychodrama Institute of Melbourne (PIM). She has authored the chapter “Professional Development for In-house Counsel: What’s Next?” in Leadership and Management Challenges for In-house Legal Teams (Benny Tabalujan, Editor, LexisNexis, Australia, 2008). Jil is an Associate of the Melbourne Business School (MBS) and is sought after as a speaker at business and industry forums, addressing topical issues related to business and organisational leadership.

Geoffrey Still

Director, Innovative Knowledge Development, IKD

Geoffrey’s career has largely focused on developing leaders, and he is passionate about supporting legal professionals to achieve their personal and professional development goals. 

Since joining IKD in 2007, Geoffrey has designed and facilitated programs specifically for legal audiences on developing executive presence, effective client relationships, managing workload, improving interactions with challenging clients, emotional intelligence and psychological flexibility, and presentation skills. He co-facilities IKD’s five day residential Legal Counsel Executive Development Program, three day residential Lawyers Leadership Program and two day Lawyers in the Limelight program.

His specialisation in leadership, team development and executive coaching has resulted from 20 years’ experience in consulting, learning and development and adult education. His commercial approach developed through senior national roles at IKEA Australia and GlaxoSmithKline over 10 years.

Geoffrey’s clients have included ACCC, Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), Aconex, ANZ, Arnold Bloch Leibler, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Department of Premier and Cabinet – Office of General Counsel, DMG Radio, Energy Australia, The Federation of Community Legal Centres, GlaxoSmithKline, Herbert Smith Freehills, Justice Connect, King & Wood Mallesons, Queensland Treasury Corporation, Red Energy, Real Estate.com, Telstra and Victoria Legal Aid.

Geoffrey is an Associate of Melbourne Business School (MBS) and facilitates leadership programs with a range of clients including the Australian Institute of Sport, the City of Melbourne and the Energy and Water Ombudsman of Victoria (EWOV). He co-facilitated The Leadership Consortium’s Senior Executive Forum from 2008 to 2012 and speaks at legal conferences, most recently in Dubai at a General Counsel conference, Auckland for the Australasian Legal Practice Manager Association (ALPMA) and Melbourne for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers. 

Education and accreditations include:

  • Bachelor of Business Communications - Journalism (QUT) 
  • Graduate Diploma in Employment Relations (UTS)
  • Masters in Applied Positive Psychology – current (University of Melbourne)
  • The Leadership Circle (TLC) 
  • Life Styles Inventory (LSI – Human Synergistics) 
  • Executive Coaching Levels I & II (Inst of Executive Coaching & Leadership - Melb) 
  • Advanced Certificate in Executive Coaching (Inst of Coaching & Consulting Psychology - Syd)  
  • Emotional Intelligence (MSCEIT and Genos)
  • DiSC (DTS International)
  • MBTI (CPP)

Personal interests involve mentoring and volunteer program facilitation for the DOXA Youth Foundation in Victoria and the Future Directions Network in Sydney.

Associates

IKD Associates offer a range of content expertise, and are engaged in a variety of programs we deliver to clients. Our group of Facilitators also support specific coaching and program delivery initiatives. Many of our Associates and Facilitators are lawyers who have transitioned their careers along a different pathway.