Litigation Conference: Evidence, Skills and CPD
Issues covered include: client legal privilege, avoiding waiver, inadvertent waiver, lay witness statements, traditional mediation, hybrid mediation, ADR, admissible expert evidence, persuasive expert evidence, legal ethics, ethical duties, risk management, written advocacy, written submissions, improve your advocacy
Description
A stellar line-up of some of Adelaide’s finest litigators spend a morning exploring practical insights through an intensive evidence masterclass that will unlock the strategies necessary to raise your litigation skills to their peak. Then stay for the afternoon session where you can gain your CPD required units through carefully curated sessions designed specifically with the litigator in mind.
Attend and earn 7 CPD units including:
1 unit in Practical Legal Ethics
1 unit in Practice Management or Business Skills
5 units in Professional Skills
This conference was recorded in SA on 14 March 2019
Session 1
Evidence Masterclass
Chair: Kristie Molloy, Barrister, Legoe Chambers
9.00am to 10.00am: Protecting Client Legal Privilege and Avoiding Inadvertent Waiver
- Refresher on elements of client legal privilege
- Maintaining and proving privilege: practical tips
- Avoiding waiver: sidestepping the pitfalls
Presented by Matthew Selley, Partner, Iles Selley Lawyers; Preeminent Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2018
10.00am to 11.00am: 5 Golden Rules of Lay Witness Statements
- The role and purpose of the lay witness
- What is a lay witness statement?
- When a lay witness can testify regarding opinion
- Does legal professional privilege apply to lay witness statements?
- Recanting of lay witness statements
- Content of a lay witness statement
- Examples of good and bad witness statements
- Preparation of the witness for cross examination
Presented by Paul Bullock, Barrister, Jeffcott Chambers
11.00am to 11.15am Morning Tea
11.15am to 12.15pm: Evidential Issues in Traditional and Hybrid Mediations: Tips and Traps for your Practice
- The future of litigation and the role of lawyers
- Traditional and non-traditional type of mediation
- Hybrid ADR as an alternative to litigation
Presented Stephen Walsh QC, Edmund Barton Chambers
12.15pm to 1.15pm: Admissible and Persuasive Expert Evidence: Identifying Problem Areas
- Advanced strategies for preparing witnesses and taking statements
- The role of the expert in court, arbitration and expert determination
- How much you need to know before you formally instruct your expert
- Why instructions to experts are crucial to the veracity of their report
- Identifying the problem areas
- Effectively and efficiently testing evidence
- Maximising the admissibility and probative value of their report
- The fine line between pre-trial conferences and coaching
- The usual bases for objecting to expert evidence
- Ensuring you don’t become a witness and preserving confidentiality
Prepared by Richard Ross-Smith, Barrister, Anthony Mason Chambers
Presented by Robert A Cameron, Barrister, Bar Chambers
1.05pm to 1.15pm Final Q&A and Closing Comments by the Chair
Session 2
CPD Required Units for Litigators
Chair: Wendy Jones, Partner – Commercial Litigation, Fisher Jeffries; Recommended Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide, 2018
Practical Legal Ethics
2.00pm to 3.00pm: Doing the Right Thing: Legal Ethics, Now and Into the Future
- Ethical duties owed to the court, the client, and to third parties
- Duties of skill and care: the court, the client and third parties
- Avoiding all conflicts of interest
- Briefing counsel and the cab-rank rule
- Approaches to ethical problems
- Regulatory (‘the automaton’)
- Economic (‘the market technocrat’)
- Principled (‘the ethicist’)
- The ‘This Day Tonight’ test
- The future of legal ethics
- Anticipated changes to the legal profession: Are the Susskinds right?
- Influence of and interacting with AI, AGI, and ASI: listening to Cassandra
- Ethics and blockchain ‘trust’: A sow’s ear into a nylon purse?
Presented by Professor Neville Rochow SC, Barrister and Associate Professor of Law, Adelaide Law School (Adjunct)
Practice Management or Business Skills
3.00pm to 4.00pm: Risk Management in a Litigation Practice
- Handling large numbers of similar files
- Balancing critical time limits
- Managing client expectations as to costs
- Dealing with conflicts of interest between multiple files
- Data management and cyber security
Presented by James Marsh, Partner – Commercial Litigation, Fisher Jeffries; Recommended Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2018
4.00pm to 4.15pm Afternoon Tea
Professional Skills
4.15pm to 5.15pm: Persuasive Written Advocacy: Tips to Adopt, Traps to Avoid
- When saying less means saying more
- How written submissions can improve your advocacy in court
- Practical tips on structuring your written submissions to ensure maximum impact on the reader
Presented by Robert A Cameron, Barrister, Bar Chambers