This presentation will focus on the legal and practical issues which legal advisors and their clients should consider when addressing the topic of business succession planning for private businesses. In particular, this session will cover the following key topics:

• The value of an effective and well drafted buy/sell agreement for multi-owner businesses.
• Key terms of a buy/sell agreement.
• Funding issues and structuring insurance arrangements.
• Issues with superannuation policy ownership.
• Tax implications arising from buy/sell arrangements.
• Other stakeholder agreements (such as shareholder agreements, partnership agreements and unitholder agreements).
• Employment / management succession plans.
• Intergenerational family succession planning.

At the most basic level, an employment relationship is a contractual relationship between an employee, who promises to perform duties for an employer, and an employer, who agrees to remunerate the employee for that service.  An employment contract may be verbal or in writing, and when in writing it can be constituted by one document or a series of communications.  It is best practice to have a comprehensive, written contract of employment in place for all employees, but unfortunately not all employment contracts are created equal.

In this presentation, we will cover:

• what should be included in a written contract in relation to an employee's duties, types of employment, hours of work and location;
• how an employee's remuneration and other financial and non-financial benefits should be dealt with in the contract;
• why it is important to include effective confidentiality restrictions and intellectual property protections;
• how to deal with the termination of the employment relationship and related issues;
• how to prepare and draft effective post-termination restrictions; and;
• how an employment contract interrelates with relevant modern awards, enterprise agreements, the National Employment Standards, and company policies and procedures.

This recorded webinar was originally captured during the Specialist Accreditation conference 2021 - Wills & Estates stream. 

This session looks at the challenges of conducting a “succession” case across jurisdictional boundaries, including:

• Succession law in context
• What is a “succession” case?
• The field of operation of “succession law”
• Succession law’s two ways of thinking about property
• Different phases of estate administration
• Orders for a joint hearing or a determination of separate questions
• Costs as a factor in the conduct of a “succession” case

This recorded webinar was originally captured during the Specialist Accreditation conference 2021 - Wills & Estates stream. 

This session will look at the following capacity issues:

• Client capacity as it relates to Wills and Powers of Attorney
• Best Practice for instruction taking, case law examples (what to do and what not to do)
• What to do when capacity is in doubt

This session was recorded on 18 February 2022 as part of the Top tips for trademark lawyers - mandatory rule 6.1 live webinar.

Combining online and face to face practice - This session will explore how we can blend the online and face-to-face worlds for a perfect mix when it comes to client service. 

At the heart of large construction and engineering projects are the risk allocation arrangements. As part of that, principals usually require contractors to provide performance bonds/guarantees. There was a growing trend in the case law that these performance bonds were prima facie to be regarded as risk allocation devices such that when a dispute broke out, the party providing the bond was the one to be out of pocket until the dispute was resolved. 

This constituted an obstacle to those who provided these bonds in obtaining interim injunctions restraining calls on them. Eye watering amounts are involved in these types of cases with bonds often denominated in the scores of millions of dollars so the approach to construction has serious real world impact. However, the NSW Court of Appeal may have signalled a step back from that position in Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd v Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd [2017] NSWCA 291; (2017) 96 NSWLR 329, namely that the correct way to approach the true construction of clauses providing for such bonds is on general principles relating to the construction of commercial contracts. 

This is an approach that now appears to have been taken up by at least one other intermediate appellate court, namely JKC Australia Lng Pty Ltd v CH2M Hill Companies Ltd [No 2] [2020] WASCA 112. Kawasaki also considered the impact of an arbitration clause on what interim relief (if any) a court ought provide. This presentation will take a brief look at where we have come from in this regard, where we are now and what the future trend in this area is likely to be.

Charles Colquhoun, Barrister, Tenth Floor Chambers

Bradley Smith, Barrister, Tenth Floor Chambers

1. Introduction – why is it important to know about frustration and force majeure?
2. Force majeure
3. Doctrine of Frustration

Court proceedings have been transformed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This seminar will begin with a synopsis of the current Commercial List approach to online hearings and case management during the pandemic.

The seminar will also address the key practical aspects of Commercial List proceedings, from filing a list statement; procedural case management; the operation of Practice Note SC Eq 11; preparing a court book; objections; preparing for hearing; and of course running the hearing. The presenters will also analyse a recent decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal concerning the principles of contractual construction (as they apply in commercial cases).

David Sulan, Barrister, Banco Chambers

Ryan Jameson, Barrister, Banco Chambers

Competition law and legal professional privilege - This session will cover competition law framework, the role of in-house counsel in the organisation’s enterprise risk framework, and will consider common challenges and the dos and don’ts for in-house lawyers, as well as provide practical examples. The session will also briefly discuss the basics of legal professional privilege and common issues seen in an in-house legal context.  

Practitioners should inform themselves of Rule 6.1 of the Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Professional Development (Solicitors) Rules 2015 which sets out the requirements for the four (4) mandatory CPD areas for NSW legal practitioners – (a) ethics and professional responsibility; (b) practice management and business skills; (c) professional skills; and (d) substantive law. It is the responsibility of each legal practitioner to self-assess as to whether a particular educational activity extends their knowledge and skills in areas that are relevant to their practice needs or professional development. If so, then the practitioner may claim one (1) "unit” for each hour of attendance, refreshment breaks not included.

This recorded webinar was originally part of the Elder Law, Wills & Estates one day intensive 2021.

Topics include:

• Electronic Witnessing of estate planning documents 
• The traditional methods
• The new measures 
• Practical application of the new measures

This recorded webinar was originally captured during the Specialist Accreditation conference 2021 - Business Law stream. 

This session will look at an overview of Australian Consumer Law and briefly look at related legislation including industry codes and the Contracts Review Act.

This course is designed for all lawyers wishing to refresh their contract law knowledge.

Learning Outcomes: 

This one hour course is designed to make sure you are aware of:

• Terms implied by common Law (Part A)
• Terms implied by Statute (Part B)
• Illegal, void and unfair terms (Part C)
• The penalty doctrine (Part D)