This October, over 700 delegates will attend the 15th National Family Law Conference in Hobart to examine and discuss many of the most pressing and thought-provoking issues in the area of family law.
The National Family Law Conference is the leading and largest regular legal event held in Australia and in 2012 includes a line-up of local and international speakers including the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Hon. Robert French AC; the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, the Hon. Diana Bryant AO; Chief Federal Magistrate John Pascoe AO CVO; The Right Hon. Lady Justice Jill Black DBE (UK), member of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales; Principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier (NZ); former Family Court of Australia Judge, the Hon. Richard Chisholm AM; Psychiatrist, Dr Sandra Hacker AO; and renowned demographer Mr Bernard Salt of KPMG.
The event’s program promises to cover a wide range of topics that will appeal to a gamut of family law specialists, with sessions focusing on practical aspects of family law, as well as some thought-provoking discussions about the future direction of family law in Australia. Topics to be covered at the event include social sciences and their impact on family law, dealing with clients affl icted with personality disorders and how the fundamental change in the relationships between men and women will aff ect family law in the future.
“We’re very excited at the quality of the speakers and the program we’ve assembled for the Conference,” said Chair of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, Mr Geoff Sinclair. “For the fi rst time in six years the Commonwealth Attorney-General will be attending and the event is a platform and forum for the Attorney-General, Chief Justice, and Chief Federal Magistrate to let the profession know what their visions are for the
coming years and what future developments are happening in family law.”
The Hon. Chief Justice Robert French AC of the High Court of Australia will deliver the Peter Nygh Memorial Lecture on the Conference’s opening day. The Lecture honours the Hon. Dr Peter Nygh AM, a leading international lawyer who was a former judge of the Family Court of Australia and an Australian delegate to the Hague Conference.
Following this important address, the Conference will move into the contemporary line-up of speakers and topics which have been designed around many of the most pressing, and at times controversial, topics in the family law sphere.
“We’re trying to get delegates to look outside the square,” Mr Sinclair said in relation to the program’s design. “Taking, for example, the issue of fi nancial agreements, there has been a lot of debate throughout Australia as to whether or not the laws, as they stand at the moment, are working or should be amended to stop some of the uncertainty that is happening.”
“Looking at the session involving Professor Alan Hayes, from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and the use of social science research, again, that’s getting practitioners to think practically about the topic as well as how they will tackle the task of getting the research into evidence,” Mr Sinclair said.
Mr Sinclair encouraged any practitioner that deals in family law to attend the event. “We’re catering not only for those very experienced practitioners but also for the less experienced practitioners,” he said. “For the fi rst time, Suzanne Delbridge-Bailey, who is from the Conference’s principle sponsor Forsythe Forensic Accounting, is putting on ‘refresher’ workshops on the basics of business valuation, taxation consequences of property settlements, and superannuation valuation. I am confi dent there will be a whole range of experiences that practitioners will benefi t from.”
“Any practitioner that’s dealing in family law should be attending,” Mr Sinclair added. “Not only will
delegates get the theory about the recent developments and trends in the area of family law from the heads of jurisdictions and leaders in their fi elds, but also practical tips to take away for use in their workplace to better practise in the area of family law. This is the forum that allows family law practitioners to pick up many practical tips across a wide range and variety of topics.”
Further information about the 15th National Family Law Conference in Hobart is available online.
DR SANDRA HACKER AO—PSYCHIATRIST You’re speaking on personality
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disorders and how they relate to family law cases—can you please expand on the issues you will examine in your plenary address?
I’m going to talk about dealing with diffi cult clients. Family lawyers deal with a whole range of people who are usually in a very unusual situation for them—they’re facing a crisis in their lives; they’re not comfortable or familiar with the legal process and they have never bumped into the law in their past. They’re entrusting their lives, money and children to a total stranger and it’s not surprising they’re quite anxious.
When we get anxious we play the records that we play for ourselves more loudly than usual. Who we are doesn’t change—we might make our minds up to be diff erent tomorrow, but it’s much harder than we think—and people become very stressed in these circumstances and they then often exaggerate their personality traits. Those things lead to a range of issues that may make the life of the lawyer attempting to deal with the client more complicated and more diffi cult.
MAR–MAY 2012
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