Settling litigation remains one of the most efficient and client-focused ways to resolve disputes — but success depends on a watertight process, strategic timing, and a tailored approach. Gain a comprehensive toolkit for drafting, negotiating, and documenting settlement offers and agreements, with practical guidance designed to enhance your effectiveness and confidence in achieving resolution.
Thursday, 20 November 2025
Chair:
Matthew Harvey KC FCIArb Barrister, Arbitrator, Mediator, Matthew Harvey KC FCIArb, Owen Dixon Chambers West, Fourth Floor Selborne Chambers Leading Senior Counsel, Transport Barristers, Doyle's Guide 2025
Professional Skills
1.15pm to 2.15pm Settling Commercial Disputes: Tips, Traps, and Strategy
This session will focus on strategic and practical considerations when approaching the settlement of disputes. We will touch on:
- The preparation of effective Calderbank offers
- Drafting settlement agreements
- Settling multi-party proceedings and claims where insurance coverage is disputed
- Additional considerations when settling cross-border disputes
- Ethical rules which apply to legal practitioners during settlement negotiations
Presented by Doug Johnson, Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD unit in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Presenters
Matthew Harvey KC FCIArb, Owen Dixon Chambers WestMatthew Harvey's principal practice areas are shipping, international sale of goods, arbitration, conflict of laws, corporations, and corporate insolvency. He is recognised as one of Australia's leading barristers in the areas of shipping and maritime law and insolvency and reorganisation law. He is listed in Chambers Asia Pacific (2016), Who's Who Legal (2016) and Best Lawyers (2016). Matthew is also recognised as Leading Junior Counsel in the areas of Insolvency and Transport in the 2015/2016 Doyle's Guide of Leading Victorian Barristers. He is the immediate past President of the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand. He appears regularly in the Supreme Court, Federal Court, Court of Appeal and in international and domestic arbitrations. He has appeared in the High Court and the Supreme Courts of various States.
Doug Johnson, Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers
Doug is a barrister at Francis Burt Chambers. He maintains a broad commercial litigation and arbitration practice, with particular expertise in the areas of construction and engineering, insurance, and professional liability disputes. He is often instructed on highly technical cases involving complex factual and expert evidence. Clients value Doug’s accessibility and collaborative approach, both as sole counsel and when led as part of a team of barristers. Doug recently received the Tom Yuncken Australian Construction Lawyer award for 2023, where his referees emphasised his work ethic, creative thinking, and technical knowledge. Before being called to the bar, Doug worked in the dispute resolution teams at Jones Day and King & Wood Mallesons. He also practiced insurance litigation at Moray & Agnew.
This seminar is part of a series
Litigators Toolkit: From Mediation through Settling Litigation, Urgent Applications
Designed specifically with your busy schedule in mind, the Litigators Toolkit Over Lunch series brings together some of Australia’s biggest voices in litigation to provide practical, focused guidance on today’s most pressing issues. Across four targeted one-hour sessions, gain expert insights on negotiation, mediation, arbitration, evidence, urgent applications, and settlement strategy - all tailored to fit your schedule without demanding too much time.
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
If you register for the full series as a live online product after the date of an individual session, you will be sent the recording for the sessions that have passed. Alternatively, you can register for individual sessions by following the links below.
View series listing
