Dr Anne Matthew

Biography

I have extensive expertise in corporate and commercial law. I am a Senior Lecturer at QUT Law School, a Consultant at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Lawyers, and Chair of the UNCITRAL National Coordination Committee, Australia's Expert Advisory Committee on Working Group I: Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. I teach postgraduate and undergraduate programs in international commercial arbitration, international commercial law and finance, corporate law and the regulation of artificial intelligence and robots. I study how regulation can create an enabling environment for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including particularly their access to finance. My research focuses on companies, particularly those engaged in innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking play a pivotal role in economic growth and should be encouraged in a modern economy. My PhD thesis considered how to best position the legal environment created by corporate law to encourage these phenomena, particularly among start-up ventures. The thesis explored this question by examining select elements of Australian corporate law through the lens of innovation economics, and broke new ground in doing so. Using principles of neo-Schumpeterian economics, my thesis examined the law from industry, financial and public perspectives, and formulated recommendations for improvement and simplification. My thesis was awarded QUT’s Outstanding Thesis Award 2019. In 2017 I was awarded a seed funding grant to review the regulation of artificial intelligence deployed in computer vision systems in smart cities. This research is a continuation of a project commenced in 2016, when I was part of a research team awarded an earlier seed funding grant to review the legal issues presented in the regulation of artificial intelligence. The outcomes of this research were presented with my colleagues at the prestigious WeRobot 2017 Conference, at Yale Law School. The paper titled, ‘Nudging Robots: Innovative Solutions to Regulate Artificial Intelligence’ was published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law and is available here. I am keen to support the ongoing success of startup culture development and innovation initiatives on campus and participates as an academic mentor in Disrupting Law, an annual 54 hour hackathon in which lawyers and students collaborate to generate new ideas seeking to advance legal practice via technology and innovation. I have received a Law Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, have a keen interest in advocacy and dispute resolution and play an active role in supporting the Law School’s mooting program, as academic advisor to QUT Law’s team in the Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held each year in Vienna. Admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1993, I have practised in commercial property, banking, finance and small business advisory. I am currently a Consultant at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Lawyers practising in the Arbitration Division. Orcid id: orcid.org/0000-0003-2734-7680