Expert evidence is no longer just an appendix to your case - it is your case. Together with both a seasoned litigator and a senior economist, dive into the strategic use of expert evidence to prove quantum of damages, exploring the fine line between persuasive opinion and inadmissible guesswork. Through analysis of recent decisions, you’ll gain insight into how courts are treating expert opinion — and where lawyers are getting it wrong.

Presenters

Luke Buchanan, Co-Founder and Principal, Buchanan Rees Dispute Lawyers
Luke has over 25 years' experience representing blue chip corporations and government clients in large, complex litigation and regulatory investigations, often with a value in the tens or hundreds of millions. Luke's experience spans disputes relating to the Corporations Act (including the provisions applying to financial services licensees), mergers and acquisitions, directors' duties, shareholders' rights, trustee and fiduciary duties, misleading or deceptive conduct, white-collar crime, termination of contracts (including the assessment of damages) and investigations by ASIC, APRA and ACCC. Luke is recognised in "The Best Lawyers in Australia" for Litigation (2014-2024) and Class Action Litigation (2015-2023); the 2022 winner of the International Advisory Experts (now known as Global Referral Group) award for Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyer of the Year in Australia; named by Acquisition International Magazine as Sydney's Leading Complex Litigation & Regulatory Lawyer of the Year for 2023; and a Global Law Experts (GLE) "Recommended Attorney" and the holder of the exclusive GLE Commercial Litigation law position in Australia. Prior to establishing Buchanan Rees Dispute Lawyers, Luke spent over 20 years (including 13 years as a partner) in Litigation & Dispute Resolution at a top-tier, national law firm.


Luke Wainscoat, Senior Economist, HoustonKemp
Luke has over fifteen years’ experience as a professional economist. He has provided advice to both private sector and government clients in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom on all the major competition issues including mergers, cartels, misuses of market power, anti-competitive agreements, exclusive dealing, access disputes and market studies. Luke has been engaged as an economic expert and given expert testimony in competition and damages matters in the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Victoria. Luke has provided economic advice on competition projects in relation to an extensive range of industries across the whole economy. Through this breadth of experience, Luke has honed a keen eye for understanding how a market works, and to identify the key issues and information that is relevant to the question at hand. Luke is an expert in assessing commercial damages, and has provided advice in relation to such matters in the coal, gas, pharmaceutical products and motor vehicle sectors. Luke has designed and applied a number of cutting edge quantitative techniques to calculate the loss that was incurred by an individual or firm based on determining the likely prices and/or quantities sold in a counterfactual world in which some event that caused the loss did not take place. On regulatory matters, Luke has undertaken a number of assignments concerning the appropriate form of economic regulation of infrastructure services in the electricity, gas, telecommunications, disability services and rail sectors.