10 Hours in One Day: Critical Updates in Commercial Transactions
213NZA20: The 10 CPD Hours in One Day Auckland programme returns for the 8th consecutive year and has been developed specifically with commercial lawyers in mind. You will examine employment issues in the sale or purchase of a business, receive critical updates on real property, trusts, anti-money laundering, tax and cyber protection. You will also hone your skills in contract and agreement drafting, negotiation and franchising disputes.
Description
Attend and earn 10 CPD Hours
Session 1
Recent Developments in Insolvency, Property and Trusts
Chair: Shelley Eden, Director, Gaze Burt
7.30am to 8.30am Update on Directors Duties
In September, Debut Homes v Cooper [2020] clarified what compensation under s301 can be awarded for breaches of ss135 and 136 Companies Act.
- Examine the decision regarding liquidators ability to recover for insolvent trading from directors even if during that trading period the net financial position of the company dramatically improved but it was ultimately still insolvent when it was liquidated
- Analyse the ramifications of this decision for companies and directors and what must happen for a near insolvent company to continue to trade.
Presented by Bret Gustafson, Barrister, FortyEight Shortland Barristers
8.30am to 9.30am Property Law Round up and Recent Developments
Receive a timely update on the latest developments in property law that need to know including an update on the Overseas Investment Act.
Presented by Amanda Spratt, Partner and Holly Hill, Partner, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
9.30am to 10.30am The New Trusts Act: What it Means for You and Your Clients
This will touch on the recent changes, including:
- Disclosure of information to beneficiaries
- Duration of trusts
- Trustees’ duties, delegation of powers, liabilities and indemnities,
- The appointment and removal of trustees
- The practical implications of those changes
Presented by Juliet Moses, Partner, TGT Legal
10.30am to 10.45am Morning Tea Break
Learning Objectives:
- Receive a timely update on director’s duties
- Examine the latest development in property law practice
- Consider recent and significant changes to the Trusts Act
Session 2
Update on Negotiation, Tax, AML Compliance, Cyber Resilience
Chair: Chris Linton, Consultant, Duncan Cotterill
10.45am to 11.45am Negotiation Skills Workshop: The Science Behind the Art
The ability to construct “win/win” outcomes is one of the key differentiators between a good lawyer and a great one. Drawing on the presenter's own experience in this area, this interactive workshop combines practical and effective exercises with elements of Harvard’s world leading negotiation program.
Presented by John Steadman, Senior Commercial Legal Partner, Chorus NZ Limited
11.45am to 12.45am Tax Update for All Lawyers
An update on topical tax issues and recent changes.
Presented by Greg James, Senior Partner - Tax Advisory, Findex
12.45 to 1.15pm Lunch Break
1.15pm to 2.15pm AML Audits and Compliance
A comprehensive update on the latest AML/CFT legal developments including the new Exemption Regulations and DIA guidance, and unexpected issues that are arising from independent audits.
Presented by Neil Russ, Director and Alexandra Tunnicliffe, Senior Associate, Russ + Associates
2.15pm to 3.15pm Cyber Resilience: Accepting That It’s 'When' Not 'If'
Gain practical tips to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the threats associated with cybercrime:
- The incidences of cybercrime continues to increase: The legal sector is particularly at risk given the type of information they hold
- Rather than focusing primarily on prevention of cyber incidents, ‘Cyber Resilience’ also emphasises the importance of recovery and response
Presented by Campbell McKenzie, Director, Incident Response Solutions, New Zealand
3.15pm to 3.30pm Afternoon Tea Break
Learning Objectives:
- Benefit from a practical session on negotiation skills
- Receive an important update on tax changes and their impact on commercial practice
- Receive guidance on the key AML compliance issues
- Gain valuable tips cyber protection and resilience
Session 3
Employment Issues, Contracts Skills and Franchising Update and Disputes
Chair: Patrick Learmonth, Partner, Stace Hammond Lawyers
3.30pm to 4.30pm Sale and Purchase of a Business: An Employment Perspective
Focus on employment law issues arising out of a Business SPA from an employment lawyer's perspective and what to watch out for, including:
- Sale of assets and shares
- Due diligence
- Vendor and purchaser considerations
- Consultation: good faith
- Categories of employees
- Redundancy vs Transfer Notice requirements
- Post settlement
Presented by Malcolm Couling, Senior Associate, Anderson Lloyd
4.30pm to 5.30pm Advising on Commercial Contracts: From Design to Execution
Gain practical guidance for designing and drafting user-friendly, fit-for-purpose and effective commercial contracts, including the following aspects:
- Document design and purpose
- Key terms and areas of tension
- Business vs consumer terms
- Updates and developments
Presented by Sarah Gibbs, Senior Associate, Hesketh Henry
5.30pm to 6.30pm Franchise Law Update
- Upcoming legislation changes
- Common franchise disputes including restraint of trade, termination, renewals and holding over
Presented by Deirdre Watson, Barrister
Learning Objectives:
- Reflect on the employment issues associated with the sale of a business
- Consider the key components of commercial agreements
- Be updated on the latest developments in franchising
Presenters
Shelley Eden, Director, Gaze Burt
Shelley leads the employment team at Gaze Burt. She has over 20 years' experience in employment law, representing clients at every level and dealing with every type of employment issue. Shelley brings technical expertise but also commercial pragmatism and pro-activity to her role, which is particularly appreciated by her employer clients. Shelley is a strong presenter and enjoys helping businesses to satisfactorily resolve employment issues and to have an engaged, productive workforce. She often works closely with the HR team in client businesses, to help achieve this. She has also developed a practice in employment investigations – helping employers to understand what is happening in their workplaces and manage accordingly. Shelley’s recognised experience and strong advocacy skills have also made her a highly effective advocate for employees facing dismissal, redundancy, disciplinary action, discrimination or workplace abuse.
Bret Gustafson, Barrister, FortyEight Shortland Barristers
Bret Gustafson has practised as a court lawyer for the last 27 years. He was a litigation partner at Kensington Swan from 2000 to 2009. In April 2009 he moved from practice as a barrister and solicitor to practice as a barrister sole and has chambers at Level 31 of the Vero Centre in Shortland Street Auckland. Bret has appeared as senior counsel in the Privy Council and in two Supreme Court cases, winning all three. In the last two years Bret has been instructed on 4 appeals to the Court of Appeal and has won 3 of those appeals. Bret regularly advises on commercial disputes including shareholder disputes, PPSA issues and banking and insolvency law. He appears regularly in mediations, arbitrations and in the High Court on injunction applications and trials.
Amanda Spratt, Partner, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Amanda advises clients on a range of property matters including complex acquisitions and disposals, commercial and retail leasing and property finance. She has a particular focus on overseas investment issues and receiverships and a strong interest in rural and farming law. She has completed a number of farm and vineyard disposals and acts for a major dairy processing company on a range of property-related matters. Amanda also has a construction law and environmental compliance background which provides her with a comprehensive understanding of all stages of property development.
Holly Hill, Partner, MinterEllisonRuddWatts
A commercial property expert, Holly is based in MinterEllisonRuddWatts’ Wellington office. Holly works on a range of commercial property transactions and developments, including significant residential developments across New Zealand. She regularly advises public and private sector clients on the application of various social and affordable housing policies and initiatives. Holly also has a strong interest in commercial leasing matters, along with a wealth of experience acting on property acquisition and divestment projects. She advises on a number of public and private sector client’s, providing both long-term strategic and day-to-day advice on matters arising under their national property portfolios. Her expertise also extend to building compliance issues, property aspects of M&A transactions, and property finance transactions.
Juliet Moses, Partner, TGT Legal
Juliet Moses is a partner at TGT Legal, a boutique law firm based in Auckland specialising in trusts and personal asset planning. She is a regular presenter of seminars and author of articles on issues arising in those areas. She has spoken at [Legalwise], New Zealand Law Society and Auckland District Law Society conferences, and at STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) events. Juliet is the chair of the STEP education committee. Through over 20 years of practice as a lawyer, Juliet has learned from her clients and gained invaluable experience and insights about people, relationships, approaches to wealth and its management, and structuring. She provides advice and opinions on legal issues relating to trusts as well as on estate planning, relationship property, estates and wills. She assists with the establishment, administration and restructuring of trusts, including family trusts, superannuation schemes and charities. She regularly works with trustees, beneficiaries and other stakeholders, advising them on their rights and obligations. Much of her work is assisting clients to plan for and deal with life events such as the beginning or ending of relationships, the birth of children, death of loved ones, the purchase of a family home or the sale of a business.
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 also regularly speaks and writes on legal topics. He has previously written aspects of the Open Polytechnic’s legal executive course and taught aspects of the professional legal studies course at the College of Law since 2011 including the In-House practice elective. John has just completed writing the syllabus for the College of Law’s LLM (Applied Law) in-house programme.
Chris Linton, Consultant, Duncan Cotterill
Chris Linton specialises in corporate/commercial and technology law, and advises public and private sector entities in New Zealand and offshore. Her expertise includes technology projects (from strategy, procurement and implementation through to dispute resolution), M&A, joint ventures, strategic alliances, venture capital and gaming (and related regulatory advice). Before joining Duncan Cotterill, Chris was a partner at another national law firm in Wellington for eight years and at a specialist commercial law firm in Auckland for ten years. She also worked in London with leading global firm, Linklaters doing cross border M&A, joint ventures and financing.
Greg James, Senior Partner - Tax Advisory, Findex
Greg has over 20 years of tax structuring and consulting experience, including 12 years providing advice to New Zealand businesses and 8 years practicing tax in China, Hong Kong and New York. Prior to joining Crowe Horwath, Greg held various senior positions with another large accounting firm. He prides himself on being able to communicate intricate tax law and regulations, into easy to understand and practical advice, continually adding value to his clients. Greg specialises in providing advice to: Private equity funds; Indirect taxes (GST and payroll tax); International groups; Entrepreneurs and Property developers and investors
Neil Russ, Director, Russ + Associates
Neil founded Russ + Associates as a specialist law firm in 2019, providing tax and AML/CFT advice and independent AML/CFT audits. Neil has over 30 years’ experience in England and New Zealand, including 25 years as a tax partner in a national law firm. Russ + Associates regularly works with other law firms and accounting practices to provide their tax and AML/CFT needs, including tax investigations, binding and non-binding ruling applications, tax risk reviews and AML/CFT ministerial exemptions and audits. Neil specialises in corporate and international income tax issues, as well as transactional advice. Neil also has extensive experience in relation to GST matters. In addition to his tax expertise Neil has a multi-jurisdictional background in banking, capital markets and derivatives transactions. Neil is Convenor of the NZ Law Society Tax Law Committee, and a member of the AML/CFT Industry Advisory Group. He is frequently dealing with Inland Revenue and Treasury officials on proposed tax law changes, and with DIA and Ministry of Justice officials on AML/CFT matters. When not in the office, Neil enjoys outdoor sports, travel, and spending time with family.
Alexandra Tunnicliffe, Senior Associate, Russ + Associates
Alexandra is a senior associate at Russ + Associates, specialising in tax and AML/CFT matters. Alexandra has particular expertise in assisting with binding rulings, tax investigations and tax disputes, AML/CFT Ministerial exemption applications and audits, GST advice, and FATCA, AEOI/CRS. Alexandra provides advice to a range of clients including multinational and large New Zealand corporations, banks, private equity firms, government departments and private individuals. She regularly assists clients with AML/CFT compliance, binding ruling applications, disputes and tax audits, tax due diligence reviews, and more general matters, such as restructurings, real estate and leasing transactions, providing legal opinions, and general corporate taxation issues. Alexandra has both public and private sector taxation experience, having worked previously as a senior solicitor at Buddle Findlay, at KPMG, and in the legal team at Inland Revenue.
Campbell McKenzie, Director, Incident Response Solutions, New Zealand
Campbell is the Founder and Director of Incident Response Solutions Limited, providing forensic, cyber security and crisis management services. Campbell was previously a Director at PwC New Zealand (12 years) and led PwC's national "forensic technology" practice, and the Auckland "cyber security" practice, a combined team of 11 expert staff. Prior to PwC, Campbell was a founding member of NZ Police's Electronic Crime Laboratory (4.5 years) and as an expert witness, he specialises in electronic investigations, cybercrime incident response and eDiscovery matters. He is recognised by the District and High Courts of New Zealand as a forensic technology expert and has also been appointed as an independent expert by the High Court.
Patrick Learmonth, Partner, Stace Hammond Lawyers
Patrick has well founded experience in a wide range of commercial and trust matters and his clients range from private, to national to the multi-national. Patrick practices in the areas of corporate structures, governance and commercial, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, distribution and network arrangements, Trusts and Trustees, intellectual property, franchising, e-commerce, advertising and marketing. Professional Associations Patrick is affiliated with include: the New Zealand Law Society Standards Committee (Complaints), the Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ) (Member, convener of the complaints committee, scrutineer), New Zealand Law Society, Auckland District Law Society, Estate & Tax Planning Council of New Zealand.
Malcolm Couling, Senior Associate, Anderson Lloyd
Malcolm is a Senior Associate in Anderson Lloyd's employment team. He specialises in employment and health and safety and has particular expertise resolving disputes through mediation and negotiation, which often requires a more lateral and creative approach. He advises and represents employers from public and private sectors as well as senior employees on all aspects of employment law, including for example strategic advice on restructuring, contract negotiations, restraint of trade issues, performance and disciplinary matters, including investigations, work place stress and medical incapacity and Holidays Act compliance. Advises on health and safety regulator matters including WorkSafe prosecutions and has represented businesses and the employees where there have been serious accidents (including deaths) involving falls from heights. He also advises extensively on employment due diligence matters in high level commercial transactions. Malcolm is a two term Board of Trustee member for Kaikorai Primary School.
Sarah Gibbs, Senior Associate, Hesketh Henry
Sarah’s principal area of practice is corporate and commercial law. She has broad experience advising on a wide range of corporate and commercial law issues. Sarah regularly advises on drafting and negotiating various commercial contracts such as licence and distribution agreements, terms of trade, manufacturing and supply agreements as well as bespoke user-friendly template documents. She also advises in relation to mergers and acquisitions, joint venture and shareholder arrangements, corporate governance, finance and security arrangements and compliance with various legislation, including consumer law, the Companies Act 1993 and the Overseas Investment Act 2005. The Legal 500 Asia Pacific Directory 2020 includes Sarah as a “recommended lawyer” Sarah brings a pragmatic approach to legal issues with a focus on client rapport and delivering practical and effective commercial outcomes.
Deirdre Watson, Barrister
Deirdre has practised as a Barrister for over 25 years in commercial and civil litigation, with a specialty in franchise law and franchise disputes. She is a frequent speaker and writer of articles on franchise law topics. She lectures at Auckland University on franchise law. She has acted for many well-known New Zealand franchisors as well as numerous franchisees. She is a past Vice Chair and Board Member of the Franchise Association of New Zealand.
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)