Winning Your Contract Law Disputes
Gain the insights & strategies needed to ensure that any contract dispute ends up going your way. Explore the latest unfair contract developments & what they mean for your contracts. Master how to make sure your contract interpretation arguments win out. Work through each step in the breach of contract process, from mitigation to remedies to damages. Perfect your procedural and evidentiary tactics in contract litigation. Examine which contract dispute resolution processes you should adopt & why. WEB219N10
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Chair: Josephine Brook, Special Counsel, Clayton Utz
9.00am to 9.05am Opening Comments by the Chair
9.05am to 9.50am Unfair Contracts Update: Recent & Upcoming Reforms & the Latest Cases
- Understanding the genesis of unfair contracts legislation and the impact of its basis in unconscionability & other underlying legal principles
- Overview of the legal development of unfair contracts law and where it currently stands
- Key takeaways and updates of the latest legislative reforms
- Practical analysis and implications of the latest unfair contract cases
Presented by Sally Armitage, Barrister, Inns of Court
9.50am to 10.35am Contract Interpretation Disputes: Convincing the Court to Use Your Interpretation
- Analysis of recent cases dealing with contract interpretation
- Identifying and defining the existence of an ambiguity
- Key considerations involving surrounding circumstances & extrinsic evidence
- What to do with evidence of prior negotiations, intent or subsequent conduct
- When is rectification available?
Presented by Bridie K. Nolan, Barrister, 12 Wentworth Selborne Chambers
10.35am to 10.45am Break
10.45am to 11.30am Navigating a Breach of Contract: Options, Remedies, Mitigation and Damages
- A party's ability to cancel a contract for repudiation, breach or misrepresentation
- Alternatives to cancellation
- Knowing your termination rights
- The effects of breach, including the right to seek damages
Presented by Stephen Carius, Barrister, Gibbs Chambers
11.30am to 12.15pm Evidence and Admissibility Issues in Contract 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 evidence has been admitted in some famous (eg Codelfa) and not-so-famous cases?
Presented by Sydney Jacobs, Barrister, Thirteen Wentworth Selborne Chambers
12.15pm to 1.00pm Dispute Resolution Processes in Contract: What, Why and how Much?
Examine four different dispute resolution processes that parties can incorporate into contract, including a breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of each process in a contract dispute context and why they might be attractive for parties.
- Expert Determination
- Arbitration
- Mediation
- Litigation
Presented by Peter Yeldham, Partner and Karmen Gallegos, Senior Associate, King & Wood Mallesons
1.00pm to 1.10pm Final Q&A and Closing Comments by the Chair
Presenters
Josephine Brook, Special Counsel, Clayton Utz
An experienced and client-focused negotiator and litigator, Josephine has represented and advised Federal and State Government entities and commercial clients in a wide range of complex construction and major projects, dispute resolution processes and litigation. Josephine's practice also focusses on dispute management and litigation strategy, risk reduction and cost minimisation.
Sally Armitage, Barrister, Inns of Court
Sally Armitage was called to the Bar in 1994. Since 2004, the primary focus of her practice has been on building/construction, infrastructure, mining, professional negligence and commercial matters in a variety of jurisdictions, mediation and dispute resolution processes such as arbitration and expert determination. From October 2006 to October 2008, Sally was appointed as a Sessional Member of the Commercial and Consumer Tribunal (Qld). During that time, she presided over numerous matters in the building and construction division.
Bridie K. Nolan, Barrister, 12 Wentworth Selborne Chambers
Bridie Nolan is a senior junior barrister, arbitrator and accredited mediator practising across a broad range of areas, both domestically and internationally. Prior to being called to the Bar in 2006, Bridie was an academic at the University of Sydney and UNSW in both international political economy and law. She has also worked in a large corporate commercial firm before spending time as the associate to Justice Allsop, now Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia. Bridie is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and ACICA, a District Court and Local Court Arbitrator and a Dispute Resolution Service Decision Maker with the State Insurance Regulatory Authority. She is also a NMAS Accredited Mediator.
Stephen Carius, Barrister, Gibbs Chambers
Stephen Carius is a member of the Queensland Bar with a court and advisory practice entailing all aspects of commercial law and estate litigation. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London.
Peter Yeldham, Partner, King & Wood Mallesons
Peter is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution group in the Sydney office of King & Wood Mallesons, with expertise in insurance advice and disputes, commercial real estate disputes, and general commercial litigation. In his insurance practice, Peter provides policy response advice and claims support (including litigation, if required) in relation to a range of insurance claims (including claims made under Professional Indemnity, Directors & Officers, Statutory Liability, W&I, cyber, Contract Works insurance, and Industrial Special Risks policies). The bulk of Peter’s experience has been in the professional indemnity space, often advising other professional services firms.\
Karmen Gallegos, Senior Associate, King & Wood Mallesons
Karmen is a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution Group in the Sydney office of King & Wood Mallesons. Karmen regularly acts in a range of commercial disputes in the Supreme and Federal Courts, particularly those involving the building and construction and energy and resources industries. Karmen also has a vast array of experience in domestic arbitration, as well as construction specific disputes regarding the security of payment regime and contractual dispute mechanisms, including expert determination. Karmen deals with various issues including delay and disruption, extensions of time, defect rectification, as well as assisting with day to day administration of live projects for various clients.
Sydney Jacobs, Barrister, Thirteen Wentworth Selborne Chambers
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 building & construction disputes. A list of his many cases and publications is to be found on his 13 Wentworth Chambers website. Underscoring a life dedicated to the law (when he is not snowboarding), Sydney is the sole author of two major loose-leaf services, namely: Commercial Damages 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.