Advanced Evidence and Advocacy Master Class
Learn evidence & advocacy skills from some of the best. Understand the trends in court’s approach to preliminary (pre-action) discovery. Gain an in-depth understanding of expert evidence from admissibility through to the mechanics behind briefing experts. Review implied waiver of privilege & inadvertent disclosure. Finally, improve your written and oral advocacy, develop winning advocacy skills for interlocutory & urgent applications and review key ethical when running mediations. 233N22
Description
Attend and earn 7 CPD units including:
2 units in Substantive Law
2 units in Ethics & Professional Responsibility
3 units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
*The conference will be directly followed by a Networking Drinks Reception for the in-person delegates
Session 1
An Evidence Intensive
Chair: Kim O’Connell, Partner, King & Wood Mallesons
9.00am to 10.00am Preliminary (or Pre-Action) Discovery: The Court’s Extraordinary Power to Permit Fishing
- Tips and tricks when making or resisting a preliminary discovery application, having regard to the jurisdictional prerequisites and the Court’s overarching discretion in rule 7.23 of the Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth) and rule 5.3 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW)
- The scope of preliminary discovery, tips and tricks when making or resisting an application
- Protecting confidentiality when giving preliminary discovery
- Costs orders in the context of preliminary discovery
Presented by Cynthia Cochrane SC, 5 Wentworth Chambers
10.00am to 11.00am Admissibility of Expert Evidence: Beyond the Established Principles
- Fields of expertise
- Pushing the frontiers of ‘specialised knowledge’
- Standards of professional conduct: navigating the minefield
- States of mind and norms of practice: the why, when and how of expert evidence
- Hearsay foundation for expert knowledge and opinion: significance, scope and limits
- Statement of reasoning: drawing the line of sufficiency
- Collaborative preparation of expert reports: parameters of admissibility
- Joint Expert Reports: What are the rules of admissibility?
- Discretions to exclude technically admissible expert evidence
- Interplay between admissibility and ethical limits of expert report preparation
- Objections to expert evidence: strategies and the critical dilemmas
Presented by Gregory Burton SC and Hugh Stowe, Barrister, 5 Wentworth Chambers
11.00am to 11.15am Morning Tea
Professional Skills
11.15am to 12.15pm Mechanics for Working with Experts, Consultants, & Other Third Parties
- When to get an expert, how to find one, defining their role, and working alongside them
- Drafting instructions, what to say and what not to say
- Use of technology and document management when working with experts
- The different roles of an expert: fact finder, independent expert (opinion evidence), financial data analyst
- Multidisciplinary teams and multiple experts: data, technology & disputes
- Briefing experts, expert reports, the joint expert process and joint reports, and expert evidence
- Giving evidence online, an expert’s perspective
Presented by Anh Nguyen, Partner and Emily Low, Associate Director, KordaMentha
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
12.15pm to 1.15pm Advanced Insight on Implied Waiver of Privilege and Inadvertent Disclosure: Challenges for Practitioners
- Scope of legal professional privilege
- Implied waiver: the grey areas and how to avoid unforeseen pitfalls
- Inadvertent disclosure and what to do when there is an inadvertent disclosure
- Challenges posed by electronic documents and large volume discovery
- Analysis of recent cases
Presented by Jeremy Morris SC, Barrister, 13th Floor St James Hall
Session 2
Mastering Your Advocacy Skills: Insights from the Experts
Chair:
Professional Skills
2.00pm to 3.00pm Refining Your Written and Oral Persuasive Skills
- What is advocacy? Why is it important?
- The keys to effective preparation and presentation
- Implementing theory: practical tips to build confidence and fluency
Presented by Julie Granger, Barrister, 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers
Professional Skills
3.00pm to 4.00pm Interlocutory and Urgent Applications Advocacy
- How to lay the groundwork
- Ex parte or short service?
- How to articulate the cause of action
- Evidence and submissions
- Interlocutory orders and final relief
Presented by Phoebe Arcus, Barrister, 5 Wentworth Chambers
4.00pm to 4.15pm Afternoon Tea
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
4.15pm to 5.15pm Advocacy in Mediation: Good Faith, Misrepresentations and Other Issues
- What you can (and cannot) say in a mediation
- The obligation of good faith: What it means?
- Consequences of bad behaviour
Presented by Campbell Bridge SC, 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers
Presenters
Cynthia Cochrane SC
Cochrane SC specialises in patent cases and commercial cases, including competition law. She appears regularly in the Federal Court and the Patent Office. She has High Court experience spanning more than 15 years, recently addressing a six-member bench for Aristocrat in Aristocrat v Commissioner [2022] HCA 29. Cochrane SC also appears in the NSW Supreme Court, including the NSW Court of Appeal, and conducts ACCC examinations. Cochrane SC has extensive experience in preliminary (or pre-action) discovery applications, including having appeared before the Full Federal Court and the High Court in the seminal case on the topic, Pfizer v Samsung Bioepis [2017] FCAFC 193; (2017) 257 FCR 62. Cochrane SC is recognised in Chambers Asia-Pacific, Best Lawyers, Doyles and Legal 500. Before coming to the NSW Bar in 2005, Cochrane SC was a solicitor at Allens (articled to Prof Bob Baxt AO in competition law) and before then an investment banker at Macquarie Bank in Corporate Advisory. She taught economics and finance at the University of Melbourne.
Gregory Burton SC
Gregory Burton SC practices primarily in commercial/equity matters, at trial and appellate levels, from 5 Wentworth Chambers, with a focus on corporations, finance and securities, insolvency, insurance, trusts, property (intellectual, personal, real) and succession/family provision. He took silk in 2004. He is also a long-standing mediator and arbitrator, expert determiner, and domain name dispute determiner for auDA. He edits and co-authors a banking and finance law journal and text, and has authored and edited books, articles and commentary, and speaks, on aspects of commercial law/equity, public law, evidence and practice/ethics and ADR. He is Procurator (church counsel) for the Presbyterian Church of Australia, federally and in some States, chairs and has chaired or been a member of dispute or discipline panels for various organizations and holds a part-time tribunal appointment (primary and appellate).
Hugh Stowe
Hugh Stowe is a member of 5th Floor Wentworth Chambers and has been at the bar for 10 years. He practices in equity and commercial litigation, with specialization in insolvency and corporations law matters. He has an undergraduate degree from Sydney University, and a Master of Laws from Cambridge. Before coming to the Bar, he practiced at Freehills and Mallesons, and was the Associate to the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia. He has also lectured in law in the University of Durham, in the UK, in subjects including administrative law. While at the Bar, he served for 3 years as legal adviser of the Disciplinary Tribunal of the ASX, in which capacity he sat in on disciplinary proceedings before that Tribunal. He has also served for 4 years on a Professional Conduct Committee at the Bar, being a committee involved in disciplinary proceedings against barristers. Has written papers and delivered seminars on various topics, including bias, expert evidence, legal professional privilege, corporations law, the ethics of witness preparation, restraint of trade.
Anh Nguyen
Anh specializes in providing forensic accounting, financial advice and valuation services to clients. He has over a decade of professional experience working with clients on forensic accounting, quantification of damages, class actions and commercial disputes involving valuation and tax issues. Anh has been engaged as an expert witness and consulting expert for matters in the Supreme Court of NSW, the Supreme Court of Victoria and the NSW Land and Environment Court. He has also been involved with the preparation of expert witness reports submitted in various Supreme Courts across Australia and the Federal Court of Australia. He is also a co-author of the Forensic Accounting chapter in Expert Evidence a leading Australian textbook on expert witnesses and a Business Valuation Specialist with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He also has a range of experience across financial investigations, and fraud risk management, including an overseas secondment to a global oil and gas company.
Emily Low
Emily Low is an Associate Director in the Forensic group at KordaMentha. She has over eight years’ experience, including a two year secondment to Western Australia. Emily has worked on a number of high profile disputes and investigations across Australia. Her experience involves accounting and fraud investigations, asset tracing and funds flow analysis, economic loss assessments, data analysis and forensic reviews. She has assisted in the preparation of expert witness reports submitted in various Australian Supreme Courts and the Federal Court of Australia, and for the purposes of Arbitration and Adjudication proceedings.
Jeremy Morris SC
Jeremy Morris was called to the Bar in 1995. He previously worked for 4.5 years at Abbott Tout Russell Kennedy, initially as a commercial solicitor, then in commercial litigation. Since he came to the Bar, he has had a varied practice including appearances at inquests, criminal proceedings, common law personal injury cases, medical negligence cases, commercial cases, tax debt recovery proceedings and disciplinary proceedings for solicitors and medical practitioners. He spent two years on a New South Wales Bar Association Professional Conduct Committee and is a current member of Bar Council. He regularly lectures for the New South Wales Bar Association to barristers seeking to sit the Bar examinations. He also acts as tutor in the Bar Association Practice Course. He is part-way through a Masters of Tax Law at the University of Sydney.
Julie Granger
Julie was admitted to the Bar in 2015, after spending over 10 years as a commercial litigator at Clayton Utz, where she worked on a variety of large and smaller matters across a number of jurisdictions and industries. She accepts briefs in all areas of law, but has special expertise in complex and high-value disputes relating to commercial contracts, professional negligence, breach of trust, and breach of statutory and fiduciary duties. She has particular experience in disputes and regulatory matters relating to the Superannuation sector. Julie is a member of Council of Southern Cross University and served a number of years on the University’s Law School Advisory Committee. Julie has recently been included in Doyles Guide’s Emerging Construction & Infrastructure Junior Counsel New South Wales 2017.
Phoebe Arcus
Phoebe Arcus is a Barrister at 5 Wentworth Chambers, specialising in intellectual property (including patent, trade mark, copyright, design and domain name disputes), corporate law and trade practices and is recognised as a leading junior counsel in intellectual property in numerous legal ranking guides, such as Chambers & Partners, the Doyle’s Guide and Best Lawyers, among others. Phoebe is a member of the Intellectual Property Committee, Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and a member of the Wellbeing Committee of the New South Wales Bar Association. Prior to the bar, Phoebe worked as a solicitor for King & Wood, Mallesons, Sydney and as an Associate to Hon. Justice Bennett SC AC AO of the Federal Court of Australia. She is also admitted in the United States (New York) and is a current member of the New York Bar Association.
Campbell Bridge SC
Campbell Bridge SC was admitted to the NSW Bar in July 1977 and appointed Senior Counsel in 1998. His practice has predominately involved complex commercial, product liability, public liability and professional indemnity cases both as a mediator and counsel. He has acted in major inquests and as Counsel Assisting in a Royal Commission. Campbell has acted as a mediator in several hundred major mediations in both Australia and Asia. He has spoken at numerous international conferences in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia on negotiation, culture and mediation of commercial and professional liability disputes in Australia and Asia. He has also taught on aspects of mediation, negotiation, culture and professional negligence disputes at the Dispute Resolution in Asia LLM course at Sydney University, the Indonesian Mediation Centre, and the Melbourne Law Masters Program. He is on the panel of Arbitrators of BANI (Indonesia National Board of Arbitration). He is an Accredited Mediator under the National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS) of Australia and is as a Mediator and Arbitrator by the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He is a guest international mediator of the Pusat Mediasi Nasional (Indonesian Mediation Centre).
Venue
Legalwise Seminars - Pitt Street
Level 11 70 Pitt Street
Sydney 2000 NSW
Australia
Parking information:
Parking not included in you registration. Here are some options below.
Secure Park 20 Bond Street - click here for rates
Wilson Park 1 O'Connell Street - click here for rates
Wilson Park 31 Bond Street - click here for rates
Directions:
Nearby Public Transport:
Train Stations - Wynyard 400m OR Martin Place 500m
Bus Interchange - Clarence Street 450m
Ferry - Circular Quay 1.2km