In-House Counsel Conference 2021
213NZA16: This jam-packed Conference is specifically designed to give in-house counsel the latest updates in the key specialist areas including contract, consumer, employment and work health and safety law. Join a leading panel of experts as they equip you with the essential skills on how to better partner with regulatory and compliance teams, what a strong IP strategy looks like, how productivity and collaboration can be improved through technology and ways to ensure ethical best practice.
Description
Attend and earn 7 CPD hours
Session 1
Critical Legal and Ethical Updates for In-House Lawyers
Chair: Philippa White, General Counsel, Paymark
9.00am to 9.05am Opening Comments by the Chair
9.05am to 9.50am Key Updates in Contract Law and Strategies to Mitigate Contractual Risk
- Checking legal compliance and an overview on updates in New Zealand contract law
- Common pitfalls and how in-house counsel can minimise risk
- The risk clauses: liability and indemnity
- How to get your stakeholders to think about workarounds when dealing with a ‘non-negotiable contract’
Presented by Dr Maria A Pozza, Senior Legal Counsel, NZ Post
9.50am to 10.35am New Zealand Competition and Consumer Law: Upcoming Changes and How Best to Prepare
- Overview of the upcoming changes to competition and consumer law
- Expansion of the unfair contract terms regime to small business contracts
- The proposed prohibition on unconscionable conduct
- The criminalisation of cartel conduct
- New taking advantage of market power prohibition
- Removal of the IP exception
- What in-house counsel need to look out for and how best to prepare
Presented by Bradley Aburn, Senior Associate, Russell McVeagh
10.35am to 10.50am Morning Tea
10.50am to 11.35am Employment Law: The Latest Issues In-House Lawyers Need to Know
- Preparing for and engaging in mediation to resolve employment claims
- Refresher on drafting and entering into settlement agreements
- Trend on remedies and costs awarded in the employment jurisdiction
Presented by Ethelred Chey, Senior Associate, Jennifer Mills & Associates
11.35am to 12.25pm Health and Safety at Work: Recent Significant Cases
- Update on Health and Safety prosecutions
- Understanding the approach to sentencing
- Latest decisions on reparations and consequential loss
- Levels of fines and the impact of financial capacity and guilty pleas
- Multiple PCBUs and apportionment of fines
- Court ordered enforceable undertakings
Presented by Kirsty McDonald, Partner, Duncan Cotterill
12.25pm to 1.15pm Ethical Considerations for In-House Counsel in 2021
- What are the real issues confronting in-house lawyers in 2021?
- How to be commercial and ethical at the same time
- What to do when you recognise a conflict
- Privilege and professional conduct issues for in-house lawyers
- Changes to the Lawyers’ conduct rules: discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying and other unacceptable conduct
Presented by John Steadman, Senior Commercial Legal Partner, Chorus NZ Limited
Learning Objectives:
- Receive valuable guidance on how to minimise contractual risk
- Be updated on changes to consumer laws
- Consider the latest issues and trends in employment law
- Reflect on recent significant health and safety cases
- Benefit from essential practice guidance on responding to the unique ethical issues faced by in-house lawyers
Session 2
Collaborating Across Disciplines to Achieve Better Business Outcomes
Chair: Mike Travis, General Counsel, Harmoney
2.00pm to 3.00pm The Intersection of the In-House Lawyer’s Role with Regulatory and Compliance Functions
- The role of the in-house legal team vs regulatory and compliance functions
- Practical strategies on how in-house lawyers can better partner with regulatory and compliance teams
- Useful tips for in-house lawyers on what effective regulatory and compliance frameworks look like
Presented by Louise Unger, Legal, Risk & Compliance Consultant
3.00pm to 3.15pm Afternoon Tea
3.15pm to 4.15pm In-House Legal IP Management: Developing an IP Strategy and Getting Everyone in the Company on Board
- General best practice for managing trade marks, patents, registered designs, copyright, and confidential information
- Managing the IP budget and measuring the performance of the IP portfolio
- Developing an IP strategy and getting everyone in the company on board
- Updates on IP law and practice arising from new technology
Presented by Antonia Modkova, Director of Intellectual Property and Innovation, Soul Machines
4.15pm to 5.15pm Harnessing Legal Technology to Empower Your In-House Legal Team
- How to improve productivity and collaboration using your existing tech
- How to better utilise and integrate the technology you already have
- How you can DIY a legal tech system using your existing technology
- How using (the right) existing tech is the easiest business case you'll have to make
Presented by Alan Potter, Co-Founder and Head of Product, Sortify.tm
Learning Objectives:
- Receive practical strategies and useful tips on how in-house lawyers can better partner with regulatory and compliance teams
- Consider best practice IP management and reflect on recent developments
- Gain valuable tips on improving productivity and collaboration using existing technology
Presenters
Philippa White, General Counsel, Paymark
Philippa has been with Paymark since 2013. She was appointed to the General Counsel role in early 2017 and is responsible for advising the business on all legal matters. Philippa has been an in-house lawyer since 2007 and prior to her role at Paymark, she worked for the global pharmaceutical company, GSK.
Bradley Aburn, Senior Associate, Russell McVeagh
Bradley Aburn is a senior associate in Russell McVeagh's Competition/Antitrust and Consumer Law team. Bradley advises clients on the full range of competition and consumer law issues, including merger control issues, joint venture advice, cartel investigations, market power investigations, Fair Trading Act issues, and Commerce Commission prosecutions and appeals. Bradley returned to Russell McVeagh in 2019 after over five years working at Slaughter and May in both its London and Brussels offices. Bradley is also a committee member of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand.
Ethelred Chey, Senior Associate, Jennifer Mills & Associates
Ethelred is an employment law specialist. He has over 13 years of specialist experience gained from commercial law firms and in-house positions within the public and private sectors. Ethelred has assisted clients in all aspects of employment relations, including collective bargaining, restructuring, disciplinary matters, legislative compliance and dispute resolution. He is also qualified in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations. Ethelred has been able to utilise his broad experience of working directly with managers, HR and payroll to provide pragmatic advice, anticipate potential issues, explore solutions and improve outcomes in the workplace for his clients.
Kirsty McDonald, Partner, Duncan Cotterill
As an employment and health and safety partner based in our Auckland office, Kirsty focuses on providing strategic and pragmatic advice to clients. She covers the breadth of employment-related issues for clients across all industries, such as redundancies and restructuring, disciplinary and performance matters, personal grievances, industrial relations, restraints of trade, protection of confidential information, workplace investigations and the employment aspects arising from commercial transactions. Kirsty is an experienced advocate, representing clients in the Employment Relations Authority, the Employment Court and the District Court. She is also heavily involved in the health and safety space regularly acting for clients facing prosecution.
John Steadman, Senior Commercial Legal Partner, Chorus NZ Limited
John has 20 years’ experience in law. He spent 8 years in private practice in a variety of commercial and litigation roles before moving in-house to support the ICT business arm of Telecom New Zealand. John spent 8 years working for the Telecom/Spark in-house legal team in a variety of roles before moving into a commercial role for three years as the Head of Strategic Projects where he was responsible for the negotiation and contracting of $2b+ 4G network contracts, online media platforms Lightbox and Spark Sport and ran the 5G RFP and negotiations. He is an experienced technology and telecommunications lawyer and currently works for the Chorus legal team supporting the roll out of fibre across New Zealand. John has just completed writing the syllabus for the College of Law’s LLM (Applied Law) in-house programme.
Mike Travis, General Counsel, Harmoney
Mike has spent 15 years as an in-house legal counsel in New Zealand and overseas, working with technology businesses or within industries undergoing a digital reinvention. He is a commercial lawyer at heart, with an interest in transformation strategy, technology optimisation, and data-driven decision making.
Louise Unger, Legal, Risk & Compliance Consultant
Louise is a senior lawyer with risk & compliance expertise whose background has included working at LOD and Bank of New Zealand, where she led legal and risk & compliance teams, and several major NZ law firms. She is passionate about helping organisations solve their legal, risk & compliance challenges in practical and best fit ways, as well as creating environments that enable legal, risk & compliance professionals to have happy and meaningful careers.
Antonia Modkova, Director of Intellectual Property and Innovation, Soul Machines
Antonia is a patent attorney and lawyer with a BSc(Hons) in Computer Science, specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI). She is responsible for growing and managing the IP portfolio of Soul Machines, an AI company developing lifelike and emotionally responsive avatars as a user interface for AI platforms. She serves on the ADLS Law and Technology committee, and loves exploring how new technologies, particularly AI, will push the boundaries of our current laws and legal practice.
Dr Maria A Pozza, Senior Legal Counsel, NZ Post
Dr Maria Pozza is a Senior Legal Counsel at New Zealand Post and has been internationally recognised through various accolades and awards for her skill in international space and aerospace law, IT/Data and technology law. Dr Maria assists New Zealand Post’s international logistics-transport and digital divisions, and plays a key part in New Zealand Post’s legal compliance regime. Dr Maria’s book on Risk Management is due for publication in April 2021.
Alan Potter, Co-Founder and Head of Product, Sortify.tm
Alan is a co-founder and Head of Product at Sortify.tm Ltd and Trademark Planet. Alan was an IP and trademark lawyer/attorney from the early 1990s, including time as a partner in Simpson Grierson and AJ Park and co-founding a boutique IP firm, Potter IP. Potter IP created the technology in-house that would become Sortify.tm and Trademark Planet. Sortify.tm was spun out of Potter IP in 2017 and is now a legaltech company that improves trademark attorney productivity throughout the trademark process its trademark goods and services software suite. It also uses technology to offer trademark registration direct to consumers and corporates. Alan is a Notary Public and is also an editor of Kluwer's IP Manual, the world's most comprehensive IP practice and procedure publication.
Venue
Cliftons
Level 4/45 Queen Street
Auckland CBD
Auckland 1010
New Zealand
Parking
Parking is not included in your registration. Nearby options are:
- Downtown Carpark (4 min walk) Click here for rates
- Britomart Carpark (10 min walk) Click here for rates
Directions
CLOSEST TRAIN STATION - Britomart Station, 600m (5 min walk)
CLOSEST BUS STOP - Multiple stops on Queen St and Customs St (1 min walk)