Civil Litigators Drafting Toolkit: Practical Skills
Immerse yourself in a practical drafting session where you will master your drafting skills and learn from experienced practitioners. Refine how to draft effective correspondence and persuasive advocacy. Finesse your affidavits and explore the importance of excellent expert evidence drafting. Learn how to best instruct barristers so that you can put your best case forward once you are in the courtroom. WEB2211N21Z
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Chair: Rebel Kenna, Director and Prothonotary, Supreme Court of NSW
Professional Skills
9.00am to 9.45am Drafting Effective Correspondence
- How to draft punchy and persuasive letters
- How to respond to aggressive correspondence
- Managing aggressive opponents: tips to avoid being censored for breaching guidelines and how to avoid falling into aggressive comebacks
- Keeping the Solicitors Conduct Rules in mind
- Drafting requests for further and better particulars that will invoke a useful response
Presented by Sonya Parsons, Partner, Mills Oakley
Professional Skills
9.45am to10.30am Persuasive Written Advocacy
Written advocacy in the form of submissions are commonly the key document referred to by a court or tribunal in understanding your client’s application or case.
- Understand how to better structure and frame your written advocacy
- Examine your use language for effective communication to your audience
- Learn from good examples in preparing your written advocacy
- Use your written advocacy to make your oral advocacy even more effective
Presented by Bill Ilkovski, Barrister, 8 Wentworth Chambers
10.30am to10.45am Morning Break
Professional Skills
10.45am to11.30am An Analysis of Affidavits: How to Draft for Excellence
- Writing for a purpose: why an affidavit?
- The mechanics of affidavit preparation
- How to comply with rules & eliminate objectionable material
- Tips & techniques
Presented by Darrell Kake, Partner, Longton Legal
Professional Skills
11.30am to 12.15pm Drafting Expert Evidence
- Relevance to an issue in proceedings
- Factual assumptions proven to make good the expert’s opinion
- Is the witness truly an expert? (requirements of s. 79(1) of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) and correlates, but also Honeysett)
- Case study: New Aim Pty Ltd v Leung [2022] FCA 722
Presented by Andrew Bailey, Barrister, Frederick Jordan Chambers
Professional Skills
12.15pm to 1.15pm Instructing Barristers and Drafting Briefs to Counsel
- The timing of instructions
- Tips for effective observations and communications with counsel
- The importance of delineating roles
- How to convey and manage expectations
- Client involvement
Presented by Vanessa Whittaker SC, Barrister, Banco Chambers
Presenters
Rebel Kenna
Rebel Kenna was admitted to practice as a solicitor in 2006. She specialised in commercial litigation, insolvency, consumer and insurance law and was a director and practice manager of a Sydney law practice. In 2011 she joined the Supreme Court of NSW as a Registrar where she regularly case manages lists and hears interlocutory applications in the Common Law, Equity, Court of Appeal and Court of Criminal Appeal divisions of the Court. Rebel has also been appointed by the Chief Justice as a mediator and regularly conducts mediations under the court annexed mediation scheme. In 2015 Rebel was appointed as Director and Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of NSW and has statutory responsibilities including the commencement of proceedings for contempt and the removal of practitioners for the local roll. Rebel is also the secretary of the Uniform Rules and Supreme Court Rules Committees.
Sonya Parsons
Sonya helps companies and organisations resolve their disputes as quickly and easily as possible. She has more than 18 years' experience in a broad range of litigation and has been nationally accredited as a mediator. She has a particular interest in matters of workplace fraud and corruption. She has managed confidential workplace investigations and represented clients at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Sonya also has particular expertise in matters involving historical child sexual abuse. Sonya advises a number of independent schools on a range of issues including bullying, discrimination, enrolment issues, negligence claims and disputes between parents.
Bill Ilkovski
Bill Ilkovski, having worked as a solicitor for 7 years, commenced as a barrister in October 2007. He read on 8th Floor Wentworth Chambers. He appears in all of the courts and most tribunals in New South Wales and in federal courts and tribunals as well. He also regularly appears in courts of other states and territories. The disputes work for which he has expertise is work that has a predominant commercial or trading element. This includes contracts disputes, property related disputes, building and construction disputes, or trade practices disputes in which he has acted for private individuals, corporations and governments.
Darrell Kake
Darrell is a partner at Longton Legal and has conducted court proceedings in NSW, QLD, VIC and the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea. Darrell is a NSW Law Society accredited specialist in commercial litigation and a member of the NSW Law Society’s Specialist Accreditation Commercial Litigation Advisory Committee. Before his return to NSW, Darrell was previously the equivalent in Queensland. Darrell is an adjunct lecturer in the College of Law’s specialist Masters of Law (LLM) in Commercial Litigation and was an officer in the Australian Army Reserve for over 20 years. Darrell has prepared many affidavits. He secretly believes that oral evidence is best as it most accurately reflects the observations of witnesses, however considers that careful drafting can significantly improve the quality of affidavit evidence.
Andrew Bailey
Andrew Bailey commenced practice at the Bar in August 2014 after 12 years in practice as a solicitor: initially in Queensland, but principally in New South Wales since 2003, with responsibility for the conduct of matters in Victoria. Andrew accepts briefs in most areas of practice: particularly administrative law, bankruptcy and insolvency, commercial, construction, and equity. In his time as a solicitor, he has had some familiarity with costs litigation on behalf of firms he has worked for. This has developed into a discrete area of Andrew's practice at the Bar. Having an undergraduate degree in psychology, Andrew maintains an academic interest in psychiatric injury as a discrete legal topic.
Vanessa Whittaker SC
Vanessa Whittaker SC is an experienced advocate who appears frequently throughout the superior courts of Australia in trials and appeals. Her practice areas encompass commercial law, insolvency and bankruptcy, insurance law, and professional liability. Her experience and expertise is widely acknowledged. Vanessa was awarded 2023 Lawyer of the Year for insolvency by Best Lawyers; she is ranked as a Band 2 Silk for insolvency by Chambers & Partners, where she is described as “sensational and very astute”; and is a recommended silk in the Doyles Guide for insolvency and commercial disputes.