10 CPD points. One day. Online from anywhere. Get CPD compliant in one day with a comprehensive program covering your compulsory areas alongside practical legal updates. Hear from an exceptional line-up of legal expertise, bringing their experience and insights to the issues that matter in everyday practice. From hot topics in family law and property transfers from estates to essential property practice updates, explore practical challenges and traps to watch for. Gain fresh perspectives on lawyers’ exposure to costs orders, navigating difficult client instructions and preparing for mediation. Delve into trusts, business structuring and restructuring, contract drafting pitfalls and WHS risks and liabilities. Join from wherever you are for a day of valuable insights, or just the sessions you need, to help you advise clients and manage matters with confidence.

Presenters

John Chamberlain, Managing Parter, Lexmerca Lawyers
John is one of Canberra’s most talented property lawyers, with 22 years’ experience in residential and commercial property law. John began his legal career working in various areas of criminal, family, commercial, property, estate-planning and personal-injury law. After two years of all-round training, he focused his career on property law. In 2007, John was poached by a national firm where he spent seven years practicing property law, commercial law, and estate planning. In 2014 John co-founded Lexmerca Lawyers, where he is committed to providing quality, prompt and valuable service to his clients and referrers. He has experience providing advice to first-home buyers, families, builders, developers, businesses, commercial landlords and tenants, government departments, individuals and couples in estate-planning matters. John’s particular areas of expertise include: property structuring; planning; conveyancing; deeds; trusts (discretionary, unit and hybrid); joint-venture agreements; shareholders agreements; franchise agreements; leases; agreements for lease; put and call-option deeds; and finance documents (mortgages, guarantees and tri-partite agreements). Since 2018, John has always been either ‘Recommended’ or ‘Leading’ in Doyle’s Guide, for property and real estate lawyers. John has previously served as the Chair of the ACT Law Society Property Committee and continues to hold an active position on that Committee. As well as being on the front foot of developments in property law, John was responsible for making submissions and representations to government on proposed changes to legislation and practice in property law.

Maxine Feletti, Partner, Sparke Helmore Lawyers
Maxine Feletti is a safety, risk and disputes lawyer with significant experience acting for both Australian Government and private sector clients. Her primary areas of expertise are common law and statutory claims arising from workplace accidents, work health and safety (WHS), asbestos litigation, transport related coronial inquiries, various insurance and indemnity matters and statutory interpretation more generally. Maxine has extensive advocacy and dispute resolution experience and has appeared in various State and Territory courts, tribunals, mediations, arbitrations and settlement conferences. She also has extensive legal compliance audit experience, especially in the context of WHS. Maxine holds a lead auditor in WHS management systems qualification, to complement her existing audit experience and capability.

Stipe Vuleta, Managing Director, Chamberlains Law Firm 
Stipe Vuleta is the Managing Director of Chamberlains Law Firm and the head of its Insolvency & Restructuring and Strategic Advisory practices. Stipe regularly advises directors, insolvency practitioners, and secured creditors on complex restructuring, insolvency and commercial dispute matters across Australia. Over the course of his career, he has worked on a wide range of administrations, restructurings, bankruptcies and creditor recovery strategies, including matters involving cross-border businesses and multinational groups. He is particularly well known for his work alongside insolvency practitioners on issues such as voidable transactions, public examinations and the practical use of the personal property securities register (PPSR), where a properly registered security interest can often make all the difference when a business runs into financial difficulty.

Christopher Erskine SC, Blackburn Chambers
Chris Erskine SC was admitted in 1982 and went to the bar in 1993, becoming a Senior Counsel in 2008. He practices in Canberra in all civil litigation, but especially litigation involving the government. He was one of the counsel for NSW in the largest civil litigation in the history of the ACT, the case arising from the 2003 bushfires, which ran from 2003 to 2014.


Richard McGilvray, Partner, McGilvray
Richard is a Partner of McGilvray. Richard's one goal is to meet his clients' legal and commercial needs. He invests time listening to his clients’ needs to build long term relationships and help with all matters of business. His expertise is in commercial disputes and litigation, property law, commercial law as well as building and construction law. Richard regularly appears in the Magistrates Court, the Supreme Court and the Federal Court. He also has experience at appellate level. Richard has a Masters of Commercial Law from the University of Melbourne, where he finished second in his class. Richard teaches Contract law at the ANU.


Gabrielle Sullivan, Principal, Sullivans Legal Co
Gabrielle Sullivan (B Ec, LLB) is the Principal at Sullivans Legal Co, Canberra. She is an accredited specialist in employment and industrial law and has been practising in this field for over 20 years. Gabrielle is Chair of the ACT Law Society’s Employment Law Committee. She has been a Doyles listed ‘Best Lawyer’ consecutively since 2021 and is a GAICD qualified company director.

Andrew Freer, Principal, KJB Law
Andrew Freer graduated from ANU with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws. After joining KJB Law in 1995, Andrew became a partner in 2000. Andrew has an extensive practice in Estate Planning, Estate Administration and Estate Litigation. Andrew has presented Professional Development Seminars for the ACT Law Society and Legalwise Seminars. Andrew grew up at Ungarie, in Central NSW. Andrew is a keen cyclist and has three children which explains his grey hair.

David Toole, Special Counsel, Lexmerca
David Toole is a highly regarded and experienced Canberra lawyer having been in practice in the ACT for over 20 years after practising in New South Wales for 6 years. In 2016 David completed a Masters in Wills and Estates with the College of Law (NSW). In addition to having extensive knowledge in the field of Estate Planning, David has a passion for assisting clients to put in place an effective estate plan. David has a good working relationship with a number of local accountant and financial planners. He utilises those connections to bring comprehensive and tax effective solutions for our estate planning clients. Building on his Property Law expertise, David is able to work closely with clients that are transitioning to retirement or aged care accommodation. David was the Deputy Chair and a Board Member of DUO Services Australia Limited before its recent merger. He is also an Associate Member Taxation Institute of Australia.

Dr Sage Leslie, Barrister, Blackburn Chambers
Before being called to the Bar in 2019, Sage was a solicitor in a prominent ACT legal firm which specialises in family law, wills and estate litigation, and was the Legal Associate to Deputy Chief Justice Faulks of the Family Court. Sage focuses on all aspects of family law, including complex parenting disputes, property settlements, adoption, surrogacy, and care and protection matters. She also practises in succession law, including disputes concerning the construction of wills, capacity, probate and family provision. Sage accepts family law briefs in all jurisdictions and regularly appears in matters throughout Australia. She is active in the ACT legal community, having served 3 terms on the Council for the ACT Law Society, and as President of the Canberra Region Family Law Professionals Association for 5 years. She has taught various course in the JD and GDLP program at the Australian National University.

Dr Natalie Cujes, Legal Academic, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, UNSW Canberra
Natalie is a legal academic at UNSW Canberra (at ADFA), an Emeritus Fellow of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK (Advance HE). She lectures in Business Law, Contract Law (Commercial Acumen), and Legal Risk Management at undergraduate and postgraduate levels within the School of Business. She has also taught at other academic institutions in the areas of Business Law, Contracts, Litigation/Dispute Resolution, and Competition and Consumer Law. Immediately prior to joining the School of Business on a full-time basis, she served as a Registrar of the Federal Court of Australia and the then Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, appointments she held for almost a decade. She was also appointed Secretary of the former Professional Conduct Board of the ACT Law Society for several years. She has served as an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Litigation and Dispute Resolution Section of the Law Council of Australia and currently serves as an appointed member of the Law Council's Federal Court of Australia Liaison Committee, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Liaison Committee, and the Australian Consumer Law Committee. She is admitted as a Barrister-at-Law of the Supreme Court of NSW and as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of the ACT and Victoria. In addition to her teaching role, she practises law and holds an appointment as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the University of Canberra.