In-House Counsel Conference: Legal & Commercial Imperatives
Insulate yourself & your organisation from today’s emerging risks by gaining strategies & information to help you navigate the latest legal & commercial perils facing in-house counsel. Discover how to navigate the continuous disclosure regime, the latest workplace law risks, climate change litigation, business insurance & tax governance best practices. Gain your core CPD points while examining diversity & inclusion, social media & defamation, & protecting your organisation from cyber risks. 223Q10
Description
Attend the full day and earn 7 CPD units including:
4 CPD units in Legal Knowledge
1 CPD unit in Practical Legal Ethics
1 CPD unit in Practice Management & Business Skills
1 CPD unit in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Session 1
The 5 Key Legal Issues for In-House Counsel in 2022
Chair: Michael Kent, General Counsel, Transit Systems
9.00am to 9.05am Opening Comments by the Chair
9.05am to 9.50am Reckless or Negligent Disclosure: Changes to the Continuous Disclosure Regime and What it Means for Companies and Directors
- The changes to the continuous disclosure regime and associated legislative reform
- The impact of the changes on regulated entities, directors & officers
Presented by Josh Steele, Partner, Piper Alderman
9.50am to 10.35am Workplace Law and Health & Safety Update: In-house Counsel’s Guide for 2022
- COVID-19 and the workplace: vaccinations, return to work and best practices in the new normal
- An update on changes to sexual harassment laws in the workplace
- A general health and safety update: a case review
Presented by Danny Clifford, Director, Clifford Gouldson Lawyers
10.35am to 10.50am Morning Tea
10.50am to 11.35am In-House Counsel’s Checklist for Climate Change Risk
- Climate change litigation risks and trends
- The rise in climate change litigation increasingly targeting corporations
- New & emerging types of claims against corporations
- Failure to disclose climate change risks; breach of directors’ duties; misleading & deceptive conduct; greenwashing
- How corporate governance fits in to mitigate climate change litigation risk & the role of in-house counsel
- Insights into how these issues may evolve in Australia & how corporations & their counsel can prepare
Presented by Erin Eckhoff, Senior Associate and Sati Nagra, Senior Associate (Admitted in England and Wales, not admitted in Australia), King & Wood Mallesons
11.35am to 12.20pm Insurance Update for In-House Counsel in 2022
- Business interruption test cases arising from COVID-19: what we have learned
- D&O liability policies: the impact of the Hayne Royal Commission, a hardened insurance market and changes to disclosure obligations
- Cyber insurance: Is it worth it?
Presented by Mark Darwin, Partner & Head of Australian insurance Focus Group and Anne Hoffmann, Senior Associate, Herbert Smith Freehills
12.20pm to 1.05pm Why In-House Counsel Must Engage with Tax Governance Early
- ATO shifting focus to corporations, SMEs and private groups with tax gaps
- More audit activity from the ATO against these entities
- ATO focusing on ADR to resolve these matters, requiring increased legal skills to deal with the matters
- Necessary for companies and in-house counsel to carefully plan tax governance structure
- Tax governance structures and documents will be used as a roadmap by the ATO in any audit activity so it’s critical that it’s created and implemented correctly
- In-house counsel must know strengths and weaknesses in tax governance so the company is ready for audits.
- Increasingly frequent inquiries from Boards to in-house counsel on how to deal with these issues
- Guide to how in-house counsel can understand the issues, answer the Board’s questions, and have a tax governance plan in place to minimise audit risks
Prepared by Damien Bourke, Partner, Holding Redlich; Member, Revenue Committee, QLD Law Society; Member, Business Tax Law Committee, Law Council; Best Lawyers 2022, Tax Law and Megan Bishop, Special Counsel, Taxation, Holding Redlich (Megan presenting Via Zoom)
Session 2
CPD Mandatory Core Areas for In-House Counsel
Chair: Samantha Lennox, General Counsel, Cancer Council of Queensland
Practical Legal Ethics
2.00pm to 3.00pm PANEL DISCUSSION: Diversity & Inclusion: The Benefits and the Realities for Organisations
Gain insights from those working at the forefront of diversity & inclusion in organisations. The panellists will share their knowledge and experience in navigating D&I issues, challenges and initiatives while examining:
- The business case for D&I, the benefits for organisations, and where things stand
- Ensuring D&I stands out in your corporate strategy
- Training, developing and empowering managers and supervisors to create teams that are diverse and inclusive
- How to move forward with diversity & inclusion conversations at the personal level
- Insights from the panel and Q&A
Panellists:
Kirsten Kiel-Chisholm, Director – Legal Services, Translational Research Institute
Theresa Jennings, Legal Advisor, Cancer Council Queensland
Fiona Yeang, Principal, Yeang Lawyers
Henry MacPhillamy, Corporate Lawyer, Suncorp Group
Practice Management & Business Skills
3.00pm to 4.00pm Social Media, Defamation, and Your Organisation’s Risks & Obligations
- Risks for organisations maintaining social media pages, particularly those who enable comments by third parties
- Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Voller (S236/2020); Nationwide News Pty Limited v Voller (S237/2020); Australian News Channel Pty Ltd v Voller [2021] HCA 27
- Best practice for monitoring third-party comments
- Training anyone using an organisation’s social media
- Minimising the risks of defamatory communications
Presented by Shane Williamson, Partner; Best Lawyers 2022, Professional Malpractice Litigation, and Leanne Hsieh, Associate, Sparke Helmore Lawyers
4.00pm to 4.15pm Afternoon Tea
Professional Skills
4.15pm to 5.15pm Protecting You, Your Organisation & its Executives from Cyber Crime
Organisations, executives and in-house counsel hold valuable information that may be an asset to hackers and their clients’ competitors. What can you do to protect your organisation?
- Cyber-attacks in 2022: the latest trends
- Your obligations to the data you or your organisation hold
- Why executives are prime targets and how they’re targeted
- How to prevent a cyber-attack and what to do if your organisation suffers an attack
- Reducing mandatory data breach notifications and fines
- Your Insurance options
Presented by Nicole Murdoch, Principal, EAGLEGATE; Recommended Intellectual Property Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2021
Venue
Sofitel Brisbane Central
Level 2, 249 Turbot Street
Brisbane 4000 QLD
Australia
Parking information
Parking is not included in your registration.
There is parking within the hotel's onsite car park:
0 to 1/2 Hr $17.00
1/2 to 1 Hr $35.00
1 to 2 Hrs $42.00
2 to 3 Hrs $55.00
3 to 4 Hrs $65.00
4+ Hrs $65.00
Motorbikes $10.00
In-house Guests (24hr) $47.00
Valet Parking (24hr) $57.00
Lost Ticket $65.00
Directions
Sole entrance to the hotel from Turbot Street. The doors that lead from Central Station to the hotel will be locked and labeled “Meeting Point”, so guests will know where to start their journey. Displayed will be a QR code that when scanned will play a video of one of Sofitel Ambassadors guiding you to the Turbot Street entrance should you need direction. There is also directional signage installed on the walls & floor within Central Station that will clearly guide you to the hotel. Should you need lift assistance please let Sofitel know your travel details and they will have an ambassador escort you to a lift and into the hotel.
Alternatively, you can enter the hotel via Harelquin Jack (located within Central Station) Monday - Friday, 11:00am - 8:30pm.
For further assistance, please call the hotel on 0468 566 719 and one of the friendly Ambassadors will find you at the Meeting Point to guide you to the entrance.
Presenters
Michael Kent
Michael Kent is a commercial and corporate lawyer who has worked in the legal industry since 1985. Following a career in private practice in Brisbane, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast, Michael enter in-house practice in 2011, initially as company secretary for a marine pilotage company before moving into his current role as General Counsel for Transit Systems Pty Ltd, the country's first privately owned international public transport solutions provider., Michael graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the Queensland Institute of Technology (the forerunner to QUT) in 1985, and he received a Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance from Chartered Secretaries Australia (now the Governance Institute of Australia) in 2010
Mark Darwin
Mark Darwin has 30 years’ experience helping clients resolve a wide range of commercial disputes including contract and insurance disputes and has been part of crisis management teams following major incidents involving infrastructure failures, floods, fires, environmental contamination and public health issues. He helps clients negotiate outcomes which protect their liability exposure and helps corporate policyholders recover business interruption losses from their insurers. Mark’s expertise is recognised by clients and peers in the Australian Financial Review’s ‘Best Lawyers’, Chambers Asia-Pacific and Legal 500 guides, which rank Mark as one of the leading litigation and insurance lawyers in Australia.
Fiona Yeang
Fiona Yeang is a construction, engineering and procurement specialist with extensive experience in major national and international law firms and in-house, in Australia and the UK. She delivers procurement and contract strategies and solutions for capital projects and operations in the water, waste, energy and resources industries, transport and civil infrastructure for local, state and federal governments, and public private partnerships. She is experienced in advising on end-to-end tender processes, from initial structuring advice, through drafting the contract documents, to tender evaluation and negotiating commercial terms, and is an expert in collaborative contracting . Fiona is known for drafting easily readable, workable, bespoke contracts for complex procurement scenarios and is an advocate for tailoring the contract to the needs of the project, not forcing the project to fit the contract. In addition to her own practice, Fiona undertakes assignments on a consultancy basis for Peerpoint by Allen & Overy, and in that role is currently acting as part-time in-house legal counsel for an interstate company, working remotely from Brisbane. She is also a sessional academic at QUT, teaching a construction law unit for undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students.
Theresa Jennings
Theresa Jennings began her legal career as a student volunteer at Cancer Council Queensland and after Admission she was offered a role within the Legal department as the Legal Advisor, a role she has held for 6 years. Theresa provides advice broadly across the organisation including advice on contracts, intellectual property, insurance, deceased estates and privacy compliance. Theresa was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss at 11 and is classified as being moderate to severely deaf. She is a founding member of the Queensland Law Society’s Diverse Abilities Network which is a network that champions equal opportunity and inclusion for people with disability within the legal profession and wider community. Theresa has been a panellist speaker for various events advocating for inclusivity of diverse abilities within the legal profession for International Day for People with Disability and Global Accessibility Awareness Day. In 2020 she contributed to the Queensland Law Society’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disabilities Insurance Scheme about her experiences with applying for NDIS funding and the lack of reasonable accommodations available to people with hearing impairments. Theresa has co-authored an article published in Proctor about her experiences as a lawyer, mother and a person with a disability.
Anne Hoffmann
Anne Hoffmann is Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution Group at HSF. She has been involved in a range of complex commercial litigation matters primarily in the insurance and financial services sector. She has a strategic approach to resolving disputes and her advice is practical and commercial. She has completed secondments to two major Australian financial institutions which has given her a strong understanding of the sector.
Leanne Hsieh
Leanne assists public and private sector clients with commercial disputes and insolvency matters and regularly appears in all levels of State and Federal Courts and Tribunals. She advises on general contractual disputes, property disputes, consumer law disputes and defamation. Her experience in insolvency and debt recovery includes advising insolvency practitioners, directors and creditors on legislative, regulatory and cross-border insolvency issues.
Leanne also brings experience in professional disciplinary jurisdictions acting for regulators in statutory prosecutions and administrative reviews.
Damien Bourke
Damien Bourke has over 20 years’ experience dealing with complex tax litigation and for the past 10 years has been exclusively involved in litigating with the various Revenue authorities. Damien has been listed in the 2020 to 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia for Tax Law. He is also recognised in 2018 and 2019 edition of Doyle’s Guide as a recommended lawyer in Tax Law for Queensland. Damien has particular expertise in tax disputes and is based in the Firm’s Brisbane office. A former partner at Ernst and Young law he led the firm's Queensland tax disputes practice. He advises on all aspects of Australian and State revenue disputes as well as complex cross border tax investigations, tax litigation, management of raids by revenue authorities and strategic discussions with tax authorities. More recently Damien has practiced in his own specialised tax disputes and litigation firm and prior to joining with Holding Redlich the firm (Bourke Legal) was recommended by Doyle’s guide as one of the leading tax litigation firms. He is also recognised in the 2021 Doyle’s Guides as a leading lawyer in Tax for Queensland. He is a leading authority on trusts and has had considerable success in both the Federal and High court in this area. Damien is a qualified solicitor and advocate and is a member of the Tax Institute. He is a member of the Queensland Law Society Revenue Committee (which advises the Society on all aspects of State Revenue taxes including stamp duty and payroll) as well as being on the Law Council’s Business Tax law committee – which advises the national body on all aspects of Federal Tax law.
Sati Nagra
Sati Nagra is a Senior Associate at King & Wood Mallesons (Sydney) and practises in all aspects of international dispute resolution, with a focus on international arbitration. Sati is experienced in complex cross-border disputes and has practised in London, Moscow and Sydney. She advises on private and public international law and ESG risks, including climate change, anti-bribery and corruption, and modern slavery. Sati has assisted Pacific Small Island Developing State delegations at several UNFCCC COPs and has recently assisted the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office with its work to develop children’s rights to a healthy environment across the region. Her research interests lie at the intersection of international climate change, human rights and investment law.
Samantha Lennox
Samantha Lennox has held the position of General Counsel of Cancer Council Queensland since 2011. Prior to joining Cancer Council Queensland, Samantha worked in private practice for 10 years in Sydney, Singapore and London specialising in finance and capital markets. During this period she also provided pro-bono advice and assistance to a number of community legal centres and human rights law organisations. Samantha graduated from Griffith University in 1997 with Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Modern Asian Studies). She has been a member of the Queensland Law Society's Not-for-profit Law Committee since its inception in 2012. Samantha Lennox has been a member of the Australian Charity Law Association since 2012 was a director in 2014/2015. She was the founder of the Bequest Interest Group (for bequest administrators of Queensland charities) in 2011 and is a member of the Queensland Government's Not-For-Profit Reference Group. Samantha was a finalist in 2015 for the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association, Corporate Lawyer of the Year Award.