Advanced Evidence and Advocacy Masterclass
212N08: Master strategies for ensuring your expert evidence is admissible and for working with conclave and concurrent expert evidence. Consider admissibility issues in contract and tort disputes. Gain an advanced refresher on implied waiver and inadvertent disclosure of privileged material. Plus, learn valuable advocacy skills in interlocutory and urgent applications, tactics around objections, and finding success at mediation, all from some of Sydney’s foremost advocates.
Description
Attend and earn 7 CPD units including:
1 unit in Ethics & Professional Responsibility
6 units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Session 1
Evidence Masterclass
Chair: Dr. Mark Brabazon SC, 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers
9.00am to 10.00am Advanced Strategies for Admissible and Persuasive Expert Evidence
- How involved should lawyers be in assisting experts?
- Proofing the witness including predicting objections
- The fine line between pre-trial conferences and coaching
Presented by Gillian Mahony, Barrister, 8 Wentworth Chambers
10.00am to 11.00am Admissibility Issues in Contract and Tort Disputes
- Admissibility of background evidence / surrounding circumstances in contractual disputes
- Is this restricted to when a contract is ambiguous?
- What about rectification & deceit cases? And cases where capacity of the signing person is in issue? Mehmet v Carter
- What about disputes as to the construction of easements?
- What evidence has been admitted in some famous (eg Codelfa) and not-so-famous cases?
- What evidence is admissible to prove the contra-factual as to causation in duty of care cases?
- Direct evidence of the contra-factual as to causation is not admissible: Section 5D (3) Civil Liability Act
- Strategies for marshaling admissible evidence on the ‘contra-factual’
Presented by Sydney Jacobs, Barrister, Thirteen Wentworth Selborne Chambers
11.00am to 11.15am Morning Tea
11.15am to 12.15pm A Guide to Conclave and Concurrent Expert Evidence: Playing in the Hot Tub
- Evolution and overview of process
- Benefits
- Normalisation: rules and practice notes
- Pre-trial phase: the conclave
- The joint report
- Trial phase: concurrent evidence (Hot Tub)
Presented by Adam Butt, Barrister, 8 Wentworth Chambers
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
12.15pm to 1.15pm Legal Professional Privilege and Implied Waiver: Guidance for the Senior Practitioner
- Implied waiver of privilege, inadvertent disclosure and how to deal with it
- Challenges posed by electronic documents and large volume discovery
- Analysis of recent cases
Presented by Vahan Bedrossian SC, Edmund Barton Chambers
Session 2
Advocacy Skills for Interlocutory Applications, Objections & Mediation
Chair: Michael Finnane QC, Second Floor Wentworth Chambers
2.00pm to 3.00pm Advocacy in Mediation: Objectives, Preparation, Presenting and Closing the Deal
- What skills are required?
- How to prepare for mediation
- Managing client engagement
- Ethical considerations
Presented by Mary Walker, Barrister, 9 Wentworth Chambers; Leading Mediator, Doyle’s Guide 2020
3.00pm to 4.00pm Advocacy on Interlocutory and Urgent Applications for Practitioners
- Assessing urgency and determining when to approach the court
- Effect of delay
- Proceeding ex parte or inter partes
- Notifying the other side
- Preparing the necessary documents
- Tailoring the evidence according to the facts and the time available
- Presenting the facts and the documents
- Assisting the court
- Duties of disclosure during the hearing
Presented by Anthony Cheshire SC, 8 Wentworth Chambers
4.00pm to 4.15pm Afternoon Tea
4.15pm to 5.15pm Dealing with Objections to Evidence
- The importance of objecting to inadmissible evidence
- Best practice for objecting
- General objections
- Dealing with objections to written evidence
- Particular objections to expert’s reports
- Practical scenarios and examples
Presented by David Bailey, Barrister, Greens List
Presenters
Gillian Mahony
Gillian has been practicing as a barrister since 2006. She has a diverse practice, with areas including appellate work, administrative law, estate and family provision claims, child-protection matters including parens patriae, adoptions, and appeals to the District Court and Supreme Court, charitable trusts, commercial claims, coronial inquests and inquiries, defendant work for tort-based actions acting for the State of NSW and many government agencies and prosecution work for the CDPP. Gillian is the current Course Director for the NSW Bar Practice Course and has been in that role since 2016. In addition, Gillian has been an advocacy coach for the NSW Bar since 2014 and a member of its Education Committee since 2016.
Sydney Jacobs
Sydney Jacobs is a barrister at 13 Wentworth Chambers. He read for his LL.M at Cambridge and has a commercial equity practice encompassing property, partnership, corporate law and construction disputes. Sydney has gained expertise in easements involving both Torrens and Old System land, leasing matters, contracts for the sale of land including off-the-plan, notices to perform and to complete, rescission/termination/specific performance /relief against forfeiture, claiming the return of deposits, options/rights of first refusal, strata and building & construction disputes. Underscoring a life dedicated to the law (when he is not snowboarding or playing tennis), Sydney is the sole author of two major loose-leaf services, namely: Damages in a Commercial Context, and Injunctions: Law and Practice, and part authors the leading loose-leaf service, Commercial & International Arbitration (all published by Thomson Reuters). He has been, for many years, a popular presenter of CPD seminars.
Adam Butt
Adam Butt is an Australian Barrister based in Sydney who specializes in international and domestic commercial arbitration and litigation and human rights law. Prior to joining the New South Wales Bar he practiced as a solicitor at Allens Linklaters and as a senior associate in the international arbitration team at Clayton Utz. Adam has acted on numerous international investment and commercial arbitrations with seats in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and the Caribbean, including several matters as assistant to Hon James Spigelman AC. Adam has won major native title and Aboriginal land claim disputes across Australia and also acted as counsel for the Crown in such matters.
Vahan Bedrossian SC
Vahan Bedrossian was called to the Bar in February 2000 and took silk in 2020. He holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Sydney. His practice is primarily in the areas of commercial law, corporate law, equity, insolvency and property. Vahan is a member of and deputy chairperson on the board of directors of Edmund Barton Chambers. He was a member of a New South Wales Bar Association Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) from 2003 to 2010. Since coming to the Bar, Vahan has been involved in a wide range of long and complex matters, including lengthy multi-party commercial disputes, appeal proceedings and applications for special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia.
Anthony Cheshire SC
Anthony was called to the English Bar in 1992 and practised at the bar in London before coming to Sydney in 2003. He practices from the 8th Floor Wentworth Chambers. He has a broad range of practice, in particular in the general commercial, corporations, insolvency, insurance, equity, probate and professional negligence fields. He has extensive experience in relation to the internal affairs of corporations and associations and has acted for a variety of commercial, sporting, recreational, religious, political and other bodies and their members. He has been a barrister for over 25 years and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015.
David Bailey
David is a member of the Victorian Bar, and has been in legal practice for over 40 years. He has a strong interest in dispute resolution including arbitration and mediation. He was a founding member of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration board and served on it from 1985 to 2010; he is a fellow of ACICA and a fellow of the Resolution Institute and the first Chair of the International Law Section of the Law Council of Australia . David is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Victoria University where he teaches Commercial Arbitration. He regularly presents papers on civil litigation and dispute resolution for the Law Institute, Leo Cussen Institute, Legalwise and other bodies. He is the senior author of Civil Procedure Victoria and the author of Discovery and Interrogatories, Australia published by Lexis Nexis. A former solicitor for over 25 years heading up a banking practice in a major law firm he now practises primarily in commercial litigation concerning banker/customer disputes, distribution and franchising disputes, cross border trade and commercial disputes and international transactions. He was counsel for Castel Electronics Pty Ltd in the key cases concerning international commercial arbitration in the Federal Court of Australia, the Full Federal Court of Australia and the High Court, TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd v Castel Electronics Pty Ltd [2014] FCAFC 83; Castel Electronics Pty Ltd v TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd [2014] FCA 1214 and TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd v The Judges of the Federal Court of Australia (2013) 295 ALR 596.
Mary Walker
Mary Walker has been at the forefront of ADR in Australia for the last 28 years. During this period, as a member of an independent Bar, Mary has arbitrated, mediated, negotiated, facilitated multi- party, environmental and community disputes, designed dispute resolution systems and provided expert appraisal and ombudsman services in respect to thousands of disputes referred by solicitors, industry and government bodies and corporations both domestic and international. Mary has mediated over 4,000 matters. Mary is noted in the Inaugural Doyles Mediator List as a Leading Mediator 2018. Mary is currently Co-President of The Australian Dispute Resolution Association with Professor Laurence Boulle (2018-2019) and Co-Vice Chair and Senior Vice Chair of The International Bar Association Mediation Committee with Mr Karim Jamil Nassif (2019).
Dr. Mark Brabazon SC
Dr Mark Brabazon SC practises as a barrister and arbitrator. His main areas of practice are tax, equity, commercial law, professional regulation and appeals. He is the author of International Taxation of Trust Income (Cambridge University Press, 2019), the GTTC chapter on The Application of Tax Treaties to Fiscally Transparent Entities, and numerous other publications on Australian and international tax. He chaired the Costs Committee of the NSW Bar Association from 2009 to 2019, was a member of the Chief Justice’s Review of the Costs Assessment System, and is an expert on the law relating to costs. He has chaired the Council of Law Reporting for NSW since 2015. He was called to the bar in 1984 and took silk in 2008.
Michael Finnane QC
A former Judge of the District Court of New South Wales and Colonel of the Australian Army Legal Corps, Michael has an expansive practice, including, Crime, Personal Injuries, Commissions of Inquiry, and Immigration . Before his judicial appointment in the year 2000, Michael maintained a broad practice, regularly representing clients in long and complex matters, such matters including Royal Commissions and Inquiries undertaken on behalf of the New South Wales Government. He has appeared in the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia and in every Court in New South Wales. Michael has also appeared in the Supreme Court of South Australia and on occasions in the Supreme Court of Victoria. Michael is accredited as a Mediator by the Australian Mediation Association and the NSW Bar. He has acted as Mediator in numerous commercial mediations and has appeared as Counsel on behalf of clients, including the New South Wales Government. Michael also holds qualifications as an Arbitrator. Michael was for some years a practitioner in Papua New Guinea
Venue
The Grace Hotel
77 York St
Sydney 2000
NSW
Australia