Contract Law Conference: Advanced Drafting and Risk Allocation
Step into the future of contract law at our Annual Contract Law Conference! We invite you to elevate your skills in precise contract drafting under the guidance of Australia's top contract law experts. Explore innovative techniques for liability management, IP protection, and risk reduction. Delve into the importance of insurance, efficient cybersecurity practices, and approaches to prevent conflicts. 243N28
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Description
Attend and earn 7 CPD units in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Session 1
Contracting Life Made Easier: Drafting Techniques and Practice Points
Chair: Josephine Brook, Special Counsel, Pinsent Masons
9.00am to 9.45am Using Contracts to Cap and Avoid Liability for Uncommercial Risks
- Why capping or excluding liability can be a reasonable thing to do
- Why your contract counterparty might accept a liability cap
- How to use contracts to cap or exclude liability: legal do’s and don’ts
- Negotiating exclusion and limitation clauses
Presented by Owen Hayford, Principal, Infralegal, Leading Front End Construction, Infrastructure & Major Projects Lawyers, Doyle’s Guide 2023
9.45am to 10.30am Cyber Risk Allocation in Contracts
- What are likely cyber risks?
- Cyber security governance
- Moving from insurance to assurance
- Contracts where cyber risk should be considered
- Cyber risk minimisation
- Supply chain management
- Misuse of standard clauses and audit checklists
- Understanding standards – ISO27001, Essential Eight, CSCAU, NIST
- Dealing with the international nature of third party risks and liability
Presented by Professor John Swinson, BA LLB LLM, The University of Queensland; Leading Intellectual Property Lawyer, Doyle's Guide 2023, Best Lawyers 2023, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Best Lawyers 2023, Commercial Law; Best Lawyers 2023, Information Technology Law; Best Lawyers 2023, Intellectual Property Law; Best Lawyers 2023, Privacy and Data Security Law.
10.30am to 10.45am Morning Tea
10.45am to 11.30am Crucial IP and Confidentiality Provisions to Incorporate in Your Agreements
- What do you mean by IP, and what are the rules of ownership at law?
- What warranties are recommended?
- What to look for when reviewing a confidentiality clause?
Presented by Dianne Beer, Special Counsel, Thomson Greer
11.30am to 12.15pm Drafting to Manage Insolvency Risks
- Key insolvency concepts to keep in mind
- Key contracting risks
- Drafting to manage risk and improve recoverability
Presented by Julian O’Sullivan, Barrister,13 Wentworth Chambers
12.15pm to 1.15pm Time's up! Drafting Termination Clauses
The ability to draft effective termination clauses is a crucially important tool for commercial lawyers to possess. The key drafting techniques and practice points – which apply in all areas of front-end commercial legal practice – have been scrutinised by the High Court and provide practitioners with useful guidance on drafting effective termination clauses. This session covers:
- Lessons from the High Court in Shevill v Builders Licensing Board and Gumland v Duffy Bros on:
- the way termination clauses are drafted
- the types of drafting that are and are not effective
- The conceptual foundation that a contract-drafter must have to ensure that the effect of a proposed termination clause is understood
- How to ascertain whether the clause will have the intended effect
- The ipso facto moratorium, the doctrine of good faith and unfair contract terms legislation - drafting techniques and practice points
Presented by Alex Ottaway, Special Counsel, HWL Ebsworth
Session 2
Tactics for Conflict Prevention in Contracts
Chair: Amanda Comelli, Partner, Brown Wright Stein Lawyers
2.00pm to 2.45pm How Can Unfair Contract Terms Risk Be Addressed? Changes to the Contract Law and Latest Developments in Regulatory Action
- New regime versus old regime: A recap on where we are and what is different under the new regime: What does the increased reach of the new regime mean for you?
Presented by Ayman Guirguis, Partner, K&L Gates; Best Lawyers 2024, Competition Law
2.45pm to 3.30pm Waiver: Giving an Inch or Taking a Mile?
- Waiver distinguished from variation, election and estoppel
- Types of waiver and recent cases on waiver
- Non-waiver clauses
Presented by Robert Carey, Barrister, 7 Wentworth Selborne
3.30pm to 3.45pm Afternoon Tea
3.45pm to 4.30pm Indemnities and Insurance in Contracts: Hints and Tips
- Contractual devices to avoid or minimise liability
- Effective indemnity clauses
- Key insurance provisions, duty of disclosure and notification of claims
- Interaction between insurance and indemnities
Presented by Raymond Giblett, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia and Tim Chan ANZIIF CIP, Senior Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia, Rising Star Insurance, Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2022, 2023
4.30pm to 5.15pm Getting Contracts to Perform So as Not to Have a Dispute
Presented by Steven Brown, Chairman, Etienne Lawyers; Accredited Specialist in Business Law
Presenters
Owen Hayford
Owen has over 25 years experience advising on contracts, with a focus on infrastructure projects. Owen commenced his legal career at Clayton Utz, where he became a senior partner. He also led the infrastructure teams at PwC Legal and DLA Piper before graduating from the Big Firm model to establish Infralegal. Infralegal’s business model allows Owen to specialise in providing strategic legal and commercial advice without the overheads and constraints associated with the BigLaw business model. Owen has drafted and negotiated more clauses that limit or exclude liability than he cares to remember. He brings technical understanding to this topic, seasoned with commerciality.
Robert Carey
Robert came to the bar in 2011. Prior to that he practiced as a solicitor, both in Australia and in England. Robert has a broad commercial practice. He has extensive experience in advising and appearing for insured and insurer clients, as well as a range of intermediaries, in relation to disputes concerning all classes of insurance including professional indemnity, financial lines, directors and officers’ liability, general liability, property and business interruption, and reinsurance. He also regularly appears and advises clients in relation to disputes involving all areas of equity, real property, corporations law, banking, bankruptcy and insolvency, as well as general contractual disputes and building and construction matters. Robert’s clients have included Underwriters at Lloyd’s and various other London based insurers, QBE, XL Catlin, Allianz, Zurich, Chubb, Marsh, InterRisk Australia, Leighton Holdings and ALDI Foods. Robert also regularly appears before administrative tribunals including the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the New South Wales Civil & Administrative Tribunal and has appeared in arbitrations conducted under the rules of various local and international arbitration organisations.
Dianne Beer
Dianne Beer is a highly experienced lawyer with a practice that covers intellectual property advice and commercialisation, trade mark advice and litigation, technology procurement and deployment, data, privacy, copyright, AI and agreements concerning intellectual property rights. Her diverse client base includes governments, international and Australian businesses in a range of industries including entertainment, education, technology, healthcare, consumer goods and not for profit organisations. She is a Past President of the Licensing Executives' Society for Australia and New Zealand, which is the peak professional body for experts in licensing Technology and intellectual property.
Julian O'Sullivan
Julian O'Sullivan of 13 Wentworth Chambers was admitted to practice as a solicitor in March 1996. He worked in the dispute resolution group of Mallesons Stephen Jaques. In 2001 he joined the London office of Linklaters & Alliance as a member of its Intellectual Property, IT and Communications Group. Since being called to the Bar in 2003, Mr O'Sullivan has practised in the fields of commercial and corporate, banking and insolvency, competition and trade practices, intellectual property, aviation and professional negligence.
Alex Ottaway
Alex is a Special Counsel in the Sydney Construction and Infrastructure group of HWL Ebsworth Lawyers. He has over 12 years’ experience as a solicitor specialising in the resolution of disputes involving construction and infrastructure projects. He advises and acts for participants in diverse industries such as infrastructure, industrial plants, resources, energy, advanced manufacturing and housing. He has practised in Sydney and in London.
Amanda Comelli
Amanda Comelli is a Law Society of NSW Accredited Specialist in Business Law and currently sits on the Law Society's Specialist Accreditation Advisory Committee for Business Law. With more than 10 years' experience as a business lawyer, Amanda provides commercial and corporate law, tax law and estate planning advice to businesses and business owners. She is also a founder of the Women in Tax Discussion Group, which is hosted monthly by Brown Wright Stein, as a forum for female tax professionals to meet and discuss recent key changes in tax law in a relaxed and supportive environment. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys travel, fitness, and spending time with her family. She has also represented Australia in several international karate tournaments!
Ayman Guirguis
Ayman Guirguis heads up the Competition and Consumer Law team at K&L Gates in Australia. He advises on all aspects and issues of competition including the implications of mergers, joint ventures and supply chain issues; defending clients alleged to be parties to cartels or other anticompetitive arrangements; and consumer law issues including responding to ACCC investigations and defending prosecutions commenced by the ACCC. Ayman was formerly a senior officer of the ACCC. Ayman is named as a leading individual for Competition/Antitrust in Chambers Global and Best Lawyers.
Professor John Swinson
John is course coordinator for Privacy Law and Business in a Borderless World. John also teaches cybersecurity law, Internet law, information technology law, copyright law, and AI law. John Swinson is a former barrister and former partner of a major international law firm and has 30 years of law firm experience in NY and Australia, with principle focus on technology law and intellectual property law. Currently, he is principal of boutique law firm Pie Legal. After graduating from UQ with computer science and law degrees, John continued to Harvard Law School as a Fulbright and Frank Knox Scholar where he received a Masters of Law. Barak Obama was a member of his graduating class. John passed the NY bar examination and practiced technology law as an attorney in NY State. John is a past President of the Australian Fulbright Alumni Association and was Chair of the auDA Policy Review Panel to introduce the new .au domain name space in Australia. Since 2000, John has been an arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO, which is a United Nations organisation based in Geneva) under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP). John has decided over 680 domain name disputes.
Raymond Giblett
Ray Giblett is a partner in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Sydney office and an insurance lawyer with over 25 years' experience. Ray is recognised as one of Australia's leading insurance lawyers in Chambers Asia Pacific, Legal 500, Best Lawyers (2013 Sydney Insurance Lawyer of the Year) and Euromoney's guide to the World's Leading Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyers. He is known for both his expertise and commerciality. Ray has extensive experience in both non-contentious and contentious insurance matters, advising across the full spectrum of insurance issues, Ray is the Chair (Asia Pacific) of the AIDA Financial Lines & Cyber Working Party and the Editor of the Insurance Law Journal. Ray is also a member of the Australian Insurance Law Association (committee member), Australian Professional Indemnity Group and the Reinsurance Discussion Group.
Tim Chan
Tim Chan is a corporate risk and insurance lawyer based in Sydney. He works with corporates, banks, insurers and new ventures on risk allocation and insurance issues, including for major infrastructure projects. He regularly advises companies and boards on the adequacy of their insurance cover, insurance provisions in contracts and the development of new insurance products. Tim regularly acts for policyholders and insurers in relation to large scale or complex insurance claims. Tim is a recommended lawyer for insurance in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific (Rising Star) and is an ANZIIF certified insurance professional.
Steven Brown
Steven Brown is a highly experienced and dedicated lawyer. Steven is Chairman of Etienne Lawyers based in Sydney’s prestigious Martin Place. Steven has extensive knowledge in all aspects of business and commercial law, as evidenced by his vast list of published works, both books and articles in academic journals. Since being admitted to practice as a solicitor in 1983, Steven has continued to undertake specialist studies and gain qualifications and knowledge in areas of Finance, Business and Real Estate, just to name a few. With Steven at the helm, Etienne Lawyers provides comprehensive legal services to large, medium and small businesses. Covering the full range of commercial law needs, Etienne stands out through its incredibly practical approach to service provision and through the fantastic business results its clients enjoy.
Venue
Cliftons - Margaret St
Level 13, 60 Margaret St
Sydney 2000
NSW
Australia
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