School Law Series 2022
Gain the legal information, updates & strategies you need with a series of the most important topics all tailor made for schools. Make it easy & save by registering for the series or just the sessions that interest you. Watch each session live online or as an on-demand recording. Explore the breadth of vaccinations, hiring & firing, social media, religious discrimination, LGBTIQ+ issues, sexual harassment, defamation, family law, investigations, injuries & leave, cyber risks, governance & more. WEB228N50Z
Description
Teachers attending the entire series earn 13 Professional Development Hours (NSW, VIC) / CPD Points (QLD, WA, SA)
Lawyers attending the entire series earn 13 CPD units in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
If you register for the full series as a live online product after the date of an individual session, you will be sent the recording for the sessions that have passed. Alternatively, you can register for individual sessions by following the links below.
Session 1
Wednesday, 3 August 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Vaccinations, Conscientious Objection and Discrimination
- What options does a school have when developing their immunisation policy?
- Notifiable outbreaks, reporting and privacy: what are a school’s legal obligations and responsibilities?
- Conscientious objection and discrimination: how to ensure that legal obligations are met without unlawfully discriminating against non-vaxxers
Presented by Jessica Lipsett, Director, Corney and Lind Lawyers
Register here for Session 1 only
Session 2
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Casual vs Permanent Staff in Schools: Hiring, Firing & Performance Management Issues
- Implications of High Court's WorkPac decision on casual employment
- Definition of casual in the Fair Work Act
- Award entitlements pertaining to casuals
- Casual terms for employment contracts
- Hiring in schools: pre-employment screening
- Firing in schools: termination at common law and serious misconduct
- Reportable conduct pertaining to casual employees
Presented by Paul O'Halloran, Partner, Colin Biggers & Paisley Lawyers
Register here for Session 2 only
Session 3
Wednesday, 17 August 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Update on Social Media, Staff Misconduct Outside School Hours and Employment Obligations
- When does an employee’s private life conduct affect employment?
- The duty to take appropriate action
- Disciplining or dismissing employees for out of school conduct
- When is there a nexus between work and out of work conduct
- The impact of social media use and employment implications
- When does social media conduct or comment by teachers become misconduct
Presented by Robert King, Principal, Cornwalls
Register here for Session 3 only
Session 4
Wednesday, 24 August 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Religious Discrimination: New Law & Your School’s Risks & Obligations
- The current state of play: where things stand with religious discrimination reforms and the impact on schools
- Rights and limitations on schools involving religious issues
- Staffing policies with religious implications: what works and what doesn’t
- Enrolment issues related to religious issues
- What is a school allowed to teach?
- Rights and obligations to accommodate students or staff with different religious needs or beliefs
- What practices or other requests must a school accommodate for a specific religious group?
- Navigating exemption requests from students
- Students seeking exemption from school activities
- How should a school respond to religious discrimination or intolerance occurring at the school by students, parents or staff?
Presented by Jennifer Parkes, Partner, Hicksons Lawyers
Register here for Session 4 only
Session 5
Wednesday, 31 August 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Preventing & Responding to Sexual Harassment in the School Workplace
- Overview of key recommendations in the Respect@Work Report
- The various roles in sexual harassment cases including perpetrators, bystander, victims, complainants and investigators
- The spectrum of interventions
- The duty of care in sexual harassment claims
- Practical leadership actions that build a prevention of sexual harassment culture in your school
Presented by Elyse Galvin, Associate and Julie Kneebone, Special Counsel, Sparke Helmore Lawyers
Register here for Session 5 only
Session 6
Wednesday, 7 September 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Defamatory Comments on Social Media: Is Your School Liable?
- What is and isn’t defamation in 2022?
- How schools should deal with defamation in a social media context
- Risks for schools maintaining social media pages, particularly those who enable comments by third parties
- New cases & reforms potentially impacting your school
- Practical advice for schools to develop a social media policy to effectively deal with defamatory comments on social media platform
- Best practice for monitoring employee comments and third-party comments
- Training anyone using an organisation’s social media
- Minimising the risks of defamatory communications
Presented by Alistair Macpherson, Managing Director, Corney & Lind Lawyers
Register here for Session 6 only
Session 7
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Managing Separated Families
- An overview of context and how family law issues impact the school
- Interpreting Family Law Orders
- The difference between Family Court Orders and Parenting Plans
- Live/ spend time with Orders
- Separation in the absence of any written documents
- The difference between equal shared parental responsibility and sole parental responsibility
- Intervention Orders (IVOs)
- The school’s obligation to ensure the Order is observed
- How to respond to breach of an IVO
- IVOs vs Parenting Orders
- Rights and responsibilities relating to provision of information:
- To parents
- To the lawyer for a parent
- To an Independent Children’s Lawyer
- To Family Consultants and Family Report writers
Presented by Rebecca Dahl, Partner, Nicholes Family Lawyers
Register here for Session 7 only
Session 8
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Workplace Investigations in Schools: Managing Difficult Employee Behaviour & Misconduct
- Key steps in managing a misconduct allegation, including when an investigation is recommended
- The role of procedural fairness in the investigations and disciplinary processes
- The fundamentals of a robust investigation process, including how to allocate responsibilities
- Managing communications with those involved
- Acting on investigation findings including disciplinary action
- Lessons for your school from the case law
Presented by Lauren Townsend, Special Counsel, Thomson Geer
Register here for Session 8 only
Session 9
Wednesday, 2 November 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Understanding and Meeting Your School’s Obligations to Manage Staff Mental Health & Wellbeing
- Identifying your legal and HR issues and risks when a staff member is facing a mental health issue
- Considering the impact on other staff and on students, including your obligations to address those impacts
- Checklist of different strategies to implement when dealing with a staff member facing mental health and wellbeing issues
- Guidance on policies and procedures to have in place to support staff and minimise risk
Presented by Erin McCarthy, Partner, Piper Alderman
Register here for Session 9 only
Session 10
Wednesday, 9 November 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm How to Deal with Injuries, Leave and Workers Compensation Claims
- What are your school’s rights and obligations in relation to managing an ill or injured employee?
- How should you specifically approach and navigate long-term illnesses and injuries?
- How do schools accommodate impairments in the workplace to ensure someone is reasonably able to perform the inherent requirements of a position?
- When is it fair to say you cannot accommodate an employee’s impairment?
- How can you get more information?
- Can you challenge a medical certificate?
- Independent medical examinations
- Practical guidance for managing challenging issues
- Communicating with an employee who is away sick
- Paid leave entitlements
- Providing suitable duties
- Workers compensation considerations
- Things to be cautious about: discrimination claims and unfair dismissal claims!
Presented by Bridget Nunn, Partner, Thomson Geer
Register here for Session 10 only
Session 11
Wednesday, 16 November 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Step by Step Checklist for Privacy Risks and Cyber Security for Schools in 2022
- Privacy and duty of care: How do you balance these competing obligations?
- How to navigate unique issues facing schools:
- Minors and consent
- Photos
- Newsletters/prayer cards
- School counsellors
- Up to date guide to privacy and data breach risks in schools in 2022
- Legal obligations, including mandatory reporting of breaches and penalties
- Real case law examples: what schools did right, wrong & the consequences
- Ensuring you have a compliant privacy policy and data breach response plan
- Simulated data breach exercises
Presented by Grace Appleford, Lawyer, Moores
Register here for Session 11 only
Session 12
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm Navigating LGBTIQ+ Issues in Schools
- Identifying and examining the latest developments in legal rights and protections for LGBTIQ+ students
- How do legal rights and protections differ for public or private schools?
- What policies should a school have to support LGBTIQ+ students?
- Sport and transgender students
- School uniforms
- Names & pronouns
- Bathrooms
- Camps
- Responding to bullying and discrimination
- What obligations does a school have to educate and inform students and staff of LGBTIQ+ issues
- What about LGBTIQ+ staff?
- Practical considerations when supporting an LGBTIQ+ student
Presented by Jennifer Parkes, Partner, Hicksons Lawyers
Register here for Session 12 only
Session 13
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
1.00pm to 2.00pm A Framework for School Board Governance
- Understanding the environment: What do regulators expect?
- Your duties as School Board members
- Key responsibilities for School Boards
- Structuring an effective School Board
- Case studies on school governance
Presented by Rebecca Lambert-Smith, Practice Leader, Moores
Register here for Session 13 only
Presenters
Rebecca Dahl
Bec is a seasoned family law expert and Partner at Nicholes Family Lawyers. Bec assists clients to achieve outcomes that work (practically, emotionally, financially) - across the full breadth of family law services. Bec is dedicated to: Helping the LGBTQI+ community navigate donor agreements, parenting disputes, property agreements and disputes, donor / surrogacy arrangements; Helping women before and after separation/divorce so they can live the best life they can – and to move onwards and upwards with confidence!; Helping grandparents build and maintain valuable and life changing connections with their grandchildren – wherever they are; Achieving outcomes that contain costs and risk, reduce anxiety and long-term damage; Representing clients on issues across the lifespan of a relationship: from binding financial agreements (BFAs) (or ‘’pre nups’’) to marriage to separation/divorce and spousal maintenance to child support. Bec approaches all her matters with a human, caring approach and with an understanding that reflects the complexity and anxiety that is often associated with family law issues. Clients rely on Bec for her compassionate yet robust approach in looking after their needs. She is trained as a Collaborative Practitioner and works hard to avoid costly and upsetting litigation unless it is needed.
Lauren Townsend
With over a decade's experience advising and acting for Australian and international employers in relation to the full range of Australian employment law issues across the employee lifecycle, Lauren is well regarded by her clients for being able to explain complex legal issues in a digestible manner and for her pragmatic and timely advice. Lauren's practise encompasses all aspects of employment law, industrial relations, work health and safety, discrimination law and workplace investigations. This includes employment/executive contracts, enterprise bargaining, industrial action and other industrial disputes, enterprise agreement and modern award compliance, management of ill and injured workers, management of employee misconduct and underperformance (including termination of employment), transfer of business, employee/contractor distinction, workplace bullying and employment related litigation. Lauren's legal expertise is complemented by her experience as an independent workplace investigator, having conducted external misconduct investigations for a range of private and public sector clients. For example, Lauren has conducted workplace investigations for a major public hospital in Melbourne, Universities, Victorian Government Departments, Victorian Government emergency services (police and ambulance), and the APS. Lauren regularly provides presentations and training to in house counsel and HR professionals.
Erin McCarthy
Erin McCarthy is a specialist employment partner based in Adelaide. She has fifteen years' experience in providing advice to employers and employer associations on all aspects of occupational health and safety, employment and industrial relations law as well as delivering essential information seminars and training workshops on key employment issues. Erin has experience providing advice in relation to performance management, misconduct investigations and unfair dismissal claims, bullying, discrimination and harassment matters and occupational health and safety issues including support clients during investigations, defending prosecutions and risk management and policy development. Erin is a co-, author with Professor Andrew Stewart and Elise Jenkin of Parental Leave: A User Friendly Guide published by Thomson Reuters. The book examines the practical interaction between various leave entitlements as well as managing pregnant employees in the workplace and return to work from parental leave. As a part of the Piper Alderman Employment Relations national team, Erin advises clients in all states and territories in Australia. In 2015 she was once again listed in the peer-selected "Best Lawyers, Australia" in the practice area of Labour and Employment.
Bridget Nunn
Bridget Nunn is a Partner at Thomson Geer Lawyers. Her main areas of practice are employment law, work health and safety and workers compensation. As part of her practice she has assisted employers across a range of industries with matters relating to the management of ill and injured workers, including providing advice on strategies for assisting workers with non-work related injuries to return to or exit the workplace, providing representation in workers compensation disputes and other termination disputes (unfair dismissal, general protections and disability discrimination) involving ill or injured workers and drafting workplace policies relating to management of ill and injured workers. Bridget has assisted a number of schools in both South Australia and New South Wales with matters relating to both employment and safety law.
Grace Appleford
Grace helps education and other not-for-profit clients navigate complex regulatory spaces. She has expertise in regulatory compliance, education and privacy. Grace also has a passion for technology, and enjoys learning about how emerging technologies are disrupting the legal sector, and also the practices of her clients. With an innovative spirit, she enjoys the tensions and possibilities of data analytics and data security. Grace works with the Corporate Advisory and Education Teams to provide practical, clear and accessible solutions to clients. Grace takes pride in being solutions orientated and making the law less intimidating by using simple language to demystify technical compliance requirements. With a professional background at the Victorian privacy regulator and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Grace is confident helping clients navigate the intersection of privacy and technology in an increasingly complex online world.
Rebecca Lambert-Smith
Rebecca is a Practice Leader in the Corporate Advisory team and heads up the For Purpose team at Moores. Rebecca provides expert advice to charities, not-for-profits and social ventures on a wide range of legal and governance matters. As a trusted advisor to For Purpose clients experiencing creation, crisis and change, Rebecca enjoys helping clients navigate the challenges of the current regulatory environment. This includes helping new organisations get established, providing complex structuring advice, improving governance, resolving internal disputes and responding to ACNC investigations. Having served on a number of Boards, Rebecca understands the competing priorities of modern governance. She regularly provides Board training and presents seminars and webinars to the For Purpose sector. Rebecca formerly practiced in commercial litigation.