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Dr Vicky Comino

Senior Lecturer

School of Law
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
v.comino@law.uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52549
0407 156 829

Overview

Dr Vicky Comino is a Senior Lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law at The University of Queensland. Dr Comino's main research area is corporate law, and in particular the regulation of corporate misconduct. Before commencing an academic career, she practised as a solicitor working at a top tier law firm in the fields of corporate law, leasing, commercial and residential conveyancing, strata development, securities and opinion work. Over the years, Dr Comino has worked voluntarily for Legal Aid, South Brisbane Immigration & Community Legal Service, Women's Equal Opportunity (WEO) and Justice and the Law Society (JATL) (UQ). She has also served on numerous committees, most recently as the chair of a major Queensland Law Society accreditation committee for the accreditation of lawyers as Business Law Specialists. Dr Comino's recent articles have addressed important topics in the corporations law area. Those topics include the difficulties facing the use of civil penalties by calling for Parliament to pass legislation to resolve procedural obstacles, the adequacy of ASIC's 'tool-kit' to deal with corporate and financial wrongdoing, including the deployment of 'new' enforcement tools, such as enforceable undertakings and the possibilities and limits of the use of 'corporate culture' as a regulatory mechanism. Her 2015 monograph Australia's "Company Law Watchdog" – ASIC and Corporate Regulation, which focuses on exploring how, and to what extent, a public authority like ASIC can achieve more effective regulation certainly comes at a time when ASIC's performance is increasingly under the microscope. This is in view of its mixed record of success in some highly publicised cases and a seemingly endless procession of corporate and financial scandals, such as those that engulfed the major Australian banks, prompting not only a number of parliamentary inquiries into ASIC's performance and capabilities, but the establishment of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Her book also consolidates her position as a leading Australian researcher on corporate regulation, with her work cited in the Final Report of the Banking Royal Commission and reports of the Australian Law Reform Commission on Corporate Criminal Responsibility. Dr Comino's research has global relevance and she has extended her work beyond Australia to evaluate international developments, especially in the US and the UK. She is examining the different responses of regulators to the dilemmas presented by policing corporate and securities violations in the aftermath of, and since, the GFC to try to resolve the issue of how policy-makers and regulators should deal with corporate wrongdoing more effectively in the future. She also travelled to the UK in 2018 after being awarded a Liberty Fellowship from the University of Leeds to undertake collaborative work comparing corporate regulation there and in Australia. Dr Comino holds the degrees of BA, LLB (Hons), LLM and PhD (UQ), and is a Fellow of the ​Australian Centre for Private Law (UQ).

Research Interests

  • Directors duties
  • Regulation of corporate misconduct and corporate crime
  • Corporate law

Research Impacts

With the Banking Royal Commission turning the spotlight on systemic and extensive misconduct by banks encouraged and enabled by poor culture, my current research explores the extent to which 'corporate culture' can be used as a regulatory tool. It will also analyse measures that seek to drive cultural change in organisations. These include the embedding of ASIC supervisors in the major Australian banks (what became known as the Close and Continuous Monitoring Program), BEAR and the use of ‘new’ tools, such as enforceable undertakings, which before the Banking Royal Commission had become ASIC's regulatory 'tool of choice' in dealing with financial services misconduct, as well as deferred prosecution agreements, which are used in the US and UK. In addition to developing recommendations for Australia, by evaluating developments overseas, the research has global significance in seeking policy solutions on how we can deal with corporate misconduct more effectively.

Dr Vicky Comino's research cited in the Banking Royal Commission Final Report http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLawJl/2014/7.html and http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UQLRS/2009/3.html

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Master of Laws, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Laws (Honours), The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Arts, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • An Australian Approach to Conduct Regulation and the Supervision of Culture in Banks

    Doctor Philosophy

  • The Board's role in innovation in the for-purpose sector

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Corporate Regulation and Governance

    Critically examine developments and specific issues associated with corporate regulation and governance in Australia and abroad.

    Potential topics could include:

    • Comparative work with other jurisdictions: comparing Australia with, eg, the US, UK and EU, particularly the role of public enforcement of breaches of directors' duties.
    • Theories of regulation and the future of regulation.
    • With the seemingly never-ending succession of corporate and financial scandals in Australia, whether the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an effective regulator has come under growing scrutiny and been the subject of several parliamentary inquiries. Is ASIC ‘fit for purpose’ and/or can or should it survive in its present form?
    • A consideration of recent corporate governance failures, such as with Crown Resorts and The Star Entertainment in the gaming industry and more recently, the PWC tax scandal.
    • ‘Flawed’ corporate cultures have been identified as a major contributor to the appalling conduct that led to the Global Financial Crisis and misconduct since (e.g., of Australia’s leading banks exposed during the course of the recent Banking Royal Commission). However, whether ‘culture’ can be regulated or used as a tool, e.g., in criminal prosecutions, remains a hotly debated question that deserves further scholarly attention.

    Dr Vicky Comino is a leading scholar on corporate regulation in Australia. She has published widely in this area. Her own PhD (2011) explored how, and to what extent, ASIC in its original and primary role as corporate regulator can achieve more effective regulation of the corporations legislation.

    For further information contact Dr Vicky Comino, e: v.comino@law.uq.edu.au

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Civil penalties, company directors and penalty privilege

    Comino, Vicky (2023). Civil penalties, company directors and penalty privilege. The law of civil penalties. (pp. 150-163) edited by Deniz Kayis, Eloise Gluer and Samuel Walpole. Alexandria, NSW Australia: The Federation Press.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • An Australian Approach to Conduct Regulation and the Supervision of Culture in Banks

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The Board's role in innovation in the for-purpose sector

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Corporate Regulation and Governance

    Critically examine developments and specific issues associated with corporate regulation and governance in Australia and abroad.

    Potential topics could include:

    • Comparative work with other jurisdictions: comparing Australia with, eg, the US, UK and EU, particularly the role of public enforcement of breaches of directors' duties.
    • Theories of regulation and the future of regulation.
    • With the seemingly never-ending succession of corporate and financial scandals in Australia, whether the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an effective regulator has come under growing scrutiny and been the subject of several parliamentary inquiries. Is ASIC ‘fit for purpose’ and/or can or should it survive in its present form?
    • A consideration of recent corporate governance failures, such as with Crown Resorts and The Star Entertainment in the gaming industry and more recently, the PWC tax scandal.
    • ‘Flawed’ corporate cultures have been identified as a major contributor to the appalling conduct that led to the Global Financial Crisis and misconduct since (e.g., of Australia’s leading banks exposed during the course of the recent Banking Royal Commission). However, whether ‘culture’ can be regulated or used as a tool, e.g., in criminal prosecutions, remains a hotly debated question that deserves further scholarly attention.

    Dr Vicky Comino is a leading scholar on corporate regulation in Australia. She has published widely in this area. Her own PhD (2011) explored how, and to what extent, ASIC in its original and primary role as corporate regulator can achieve more effective regulation of the corporations legislation.

    For further information contact Dr Vicky Comino, e: v.comino@law.uq.edu.au

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Corporations law, Corporate wrongdoing, corruption, Directors' duties, Corporate crime, Banking royal commission, Corporate goveranance

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ORCID: 0000-0003-1497-0887

Personal Profile: Link

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