Inbrief

The NDIS Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is an important legal forum for people with disability seeking access to the scheme. The AAT currently hears about 900 cases a year in that division, and counsel play an important role in safeguarding the rights of applicants and helping to ensure that the correct and preferable decision is made. Join Senior Member Fiona Meagher of the AAT’s NDIS Division, Thomas Liu of 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers, and Christine Halls and Chris Herscovitch, both senior legal officers of the National Disability Insurance Agency, to discuss key issues that arise in cases in the AAT’s NDIS division, and how counsel can do more to assist the Tribunal in those cases. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions via Zoom.

The webinar is open to NSW Bar Association members and will be run by registration only. Numbers are limited. For further information, or to register for this event, please click here.

The interactive workshops will introduce strategies to cover the entire lifecycle of practice at the Bar including establishing a successful practice, practice management, accounting finance, balancing professional responsibilities, managing growth, and what it means to be a successful leader.

For more details about the Practice Management Essentials program and the costs involved, please click here.

Registrations are open to NSW barristers that currently hold a practising certificate and places in the program are strictly limited.

This webinar is open to NSW Bar Association members and will be run by registration only. Numbers are limited.

.

This practical session is targeted at barristers and in-house counsel and will ask the question "Is your company ready for the unannounced attendance of a corporate regulator or law enforcement authority exercising search & seizure powers?"

We all know that Australian corporate regulators including the ACCC, ASIC, APRA, AUSTRAC and the ATO have wide-ranging powers to compel the production of documents etc by way of notice. However, they also have extensive search and seizure powers which may be invoked without, or with very limited, prior notice: AKA “The Dawn Raid”.

Federal, state and territory law enforcement authorities and the ACC may exercise similar powers, either at the request of a regulator or where independently authorised, for example by way of search warrant. Is your company ready for the unannounced attendance of a corporate regulator or law enforcement authority exercising search & seizure powers?

Join panellists Kate Morgan SC, Patrick Knowles and Theo Dorizac, and moderator David Thomas SC, to discuss how to prepare for a "dawn raid", what to do when investigators arrive and what to do after the investigators have left.

This webinar is co-presented by the NSW Bar Association and the Australian Association of Corporate Counsel. The webinar is open to members of the NSW Bar and ACC and will be run by registration only. Numbers are limited. For further information, or to register for this event, please click here.

The interactive workshops will introduce strategies to cover the entire lifecycle of practice at the Bar including establishing a successful practice, practice management, accounting finance, balancing professional responsibilities, managing growth, and what it means to be a successful leader.

For more details about the Practice Management Essentials program and the costs involved, please click here.

Registrations are open to NSW barristers that currently hold a practising certificate and places in the program are strictly limited.

If you are providing a transcript excerpt please ensure that it is publicly available material (and there are otherwise no relevant privacy or confidentiality issues). Further if copyright permission from a transcript production company has not yet been obtained please contact us to discuss further.

The Executive government may exercise powers to affect the rights and interests of an individual. Where the power is statutory, the execution of a statute, the identification of the legal boundaries and the supervision of them is familiar and relatively well-defined.

Where there is no statutory basis for the exercise of power, this address seeks to identify the legal boundaries and the bases on which they may be supervised by the courts.

Please note that due to COVID this year's session will take place online. Details of how to watch the Oration will be provided closer to the date.

Members are advised that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

The Bar Association very much thanks the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW, the Hon T F Bathurst AC for supporting the creation of the Protocol and its adoption by the Supreme Court.

• Family Court of Australia;

• Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

Members are advised that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

Further information on the Escrow service can be found on the dedicated NAB webpage which can be found here. This includes, fact sheets, training videos and the terms and conditions.

For dedicated escrow customer service queries:

nab.escrow@nab.com.au

1800 312 791 (Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm AEST/AEDT)

Or speak to your NAB banker or contact the NAB Private Direct team:

nabprivatedirect@nab.com.au

02 9466 7198 (Mon-Fri 8:30am-6pm AEST/AEDT)

Recent and historical data discloses an alarming, systemic culture of sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying within the Australian legal profession, highlighted in the May 2019 International Bar Association report entitled Us Too? Bullying and Harassment in the Legal Profession (the IBA report). The opening words to the IBA report were ‘[t]he legal profession has a problem’, with one of the conclusions being that ‘bullying and sexual harassment are rife in Australian legal workplaces’.

In 2014 the Law Council of Australia National Attrition and Re-engagement Study Report (the NARS report) showed that 55% of all practising women barristers surveyed across Australia had experienced sexual harassment, and 80% had experienced bullying or intimidation.

The matters the subject of the statement issued on 22 June 2020 by the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of Australia, regarding former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, without commenting on the particulars of any individual case, again draw attention to this persistent problem.

The following is the response of the Legal Services Commissioner to conduct constituting sexual harassment, discrimination and/or workplace bullying in breach of rule 123 of the Legal Profession Uniform Conduct (Barristers) Rules 2015.

What role can the OLSC play in eliminating conduct in prima facie breach of Rule 123?

Rule 123 prohibits barristers engaging in conduct that constitutes sexual harassment, discrimination and/or workplace bullying, as defined in rule 125. The OLSC can investigate formal complaints (and can receive informal reports) of alleged breaches of the Conduct Rules, and is committed to the elimination of such conduct from the legal profession.

Who can make a complaint or report to the OLSC?

Any person can make a formal complaint, or informal (anonymous) report, about the alleged breach by a barrister of rule 123 of the Conduct Rules. Conduct of barristers’ chambers can also be reported.

What is the difference between a formal and informal complaint?

Formal complaints lead to investigation and may result in disciplinary action. While the Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW) does not allow formal complaints to be made anonymously, informal reporting of knowledge of an alleged breach of the Conduct Rules is anonymous and confidential. Data collected from informal reports will be mapped to identify clusters, which in turn will lead to approaches by the OLSC to Heads of Chambers to discuss systemic cultural issues pertaining to personal conduct.

What are the obstacles to eliminating sexual harassment, discrimination and/or workplace bullying?

Sexual harassment, discrimination and/or workplace bullying are grossly under reported. It is critical that all those with knowledge of such conduct make use of the formal or informal, anonymous mechanisms within the OLSC. The OLSC particularly encourages bystander witnesses to report, to assist in relieving the targeted person from bearing the heavy onus of doing so on every occasion themselves.

Bystander witnesses can report here.

Anonymous, confidential (informal) reports can be made here or by phoning the trained Personal Conduct Team on (02) 9377 1849 during business hours.

Those who are subject to, or targets of, conduct can make informal reports here.

Formal complaints can be made here.

The OLSC complaint making process is explained here.

A fact sheet about rule 123 of the Conduct Rules, and consequences of breach, is available here.

The room has extensive built-in book shelving, a large conference table and 7 chairs. The room uses Counsels Chambers’ network for internet and VoIP telephone.

The occupant benefits from a close connection to the other 6 licensees in the Annex and the Clerk and 6 senior counsel and 19 junior counsel members of 9 Selborne Chambers.

The floor’s practice areas include Equity, Banking and Finance, Building and Construction, Commercial, Insurance and Intellectual Property.

Expressions of Interest should be made directly to the Clerk, Ed Brown on 02 9233 5188 or clerk9@selbornechambers.com.au

All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Members are advised that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

Further information and registration details are available here.