Presenters

Michael Osborne, Principal Lawyer, Osbornes Lawyers
Michael Osborne is the principal of Osbornes Lawyers and has been in private practice for nearly 30 years. Osbornes Lawyers is a speciality legal practice focusing on commercial and business law, with particular expertise in real property. Michael is an accredited property specialist, chair of the Advisory Committee for the Law Society of New South Wales for the specialist accreditation scheme in property, a member of the Property Committee of the Law Society. Michael has extensive practical experience in most aspects of property law, including options, sales, acquisitions, strata and community title, and commercial and retail leasing. He particularly specialises in property development - structuring and documenting the acquisition and sale of the site and the associated work: joint venture or shareholder agreements, building contracts, development management agreements, financing and security, leasing, advice on stamp duty and GST, and off the plan sales. In the period 2011 to 2013, Michael served as a member and alternate chair of the Minister for Fair Trading's Experts' Committee on retirement village contracts to draft the standard retirement village contract. That document is now comprised in schedule 2 of the Retirement Villages Regulation 2009.


Carmel Lee, Barrister, 6 St James Hall Chambers
Carmel Lee is a leading commercial and equity barrister based in Sydney specialising in contractual disputes, private international law (conflict of laws), succession law and property law. In property law Carmel is reguarly briefed in matters involving: caveat, easement and contractual disputes, co-ownership and S66G applications, equitable interests in land including disputed and oral agreements, farming disputes, joint venture developments, and breach of contract issues. Prior to being called to the bar in 2012, Carmel was a Deputy Registrar of the NSW Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeal and Tipstaff to a number of judges in the NSW Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. Previous to this she was a solicitor in private practice and worked at the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office. Carmel has lectured in Conflict of Laws, Advocacy, Strategic Litigation, Evidence Law and Legal Ethics at Sydney University, University of New South Wales, and University of Technology Sydney. Carmel was awarded the Lawyers Weekly “Barrister of the Year” award in the Women in Law Awards in 2022 and “Barrister of the Year” in the Australian Law Awards in 2023.