Make every stage of your NCAT matter count. Hear directly from Senior NCAT Members experienced barristers appearing in NCAT and gain practical guidance to help you prepare, advocate and achieve more effective outcomes for your client. Whether you are negotiating an outcome, drafting consent orders, dealing with costs or appearing at hearing, effective NCAT advocacy demands both sound preparation and practical judgment. Strengthen your approach to pre-hearing negotiations and conciliation, learn how to draft workable and enforceable orders, gain a clearer understanding of the costs regime in the Consumer and Commercial Division, and refine your use of pleadings, submissions, evidence and persuasion before the Tribunal. Build confidence in your NCAT practice with practical strategies you can apply from initial negotiations through to the hearing.

Presenters

Matthew McGirr, Barrister, Eight Wentworth Chambers
Matthew is a highly regarded junior counsel, with a wide-ranging practice primarily focussed on commercial law, common law (including intentional torts), superannuation, property law, construction, strata, and general equity. Matthew regularly appears in all Federal and State courts and tribunals. Matthew will accept briefs in all areas of law. Prior to being called to the bar, Matthew was a solicitor for over 7 years. Immediately prior to the bar, Matthew was a Senior Solicitor at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), where he advised APRA in relation to several high profile contentious and non-contentious matters. Prior to APRA, Matthew practised at law firms Herbert Smith Freehills and Gilbert + Tobin. During this period, Matthew acted for some of Australia’s leading companies, including Westpac, CBA, Bupa, Telstra, JP Morgan Australia. Matthew has also worked as a policy adviser and lawyer at the Australian Institute of Company Directors, where he worked closely with governments, directors, and stakeholders important legal policy issues, including the insolvency safe harbour reforms.


Mark Robinson SC, Macquarie Street Chambers
Mark is a Sydney Senior Counsel practising in administrative law and general law at Macquarie Street Chambers. He is the author of New South Wales Administrative Law, a two-volume looseleaf service, published by Thomson Reuters which covers the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Supreme Court judicial review, freedom of information and privacy. He is the Title Editor of the two Administrative Law volumes of Laws of Australia, also published by Thomson Reuters. For seven years he was a part-time Judicial Member of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal of New South Wales in the General Division – hearing matters concerning privacy and freedom of information. He also served on the Law Council of Australia's Administrative Law Committee for about twenty years, ending in 2010. Mark was junior counsel in the High Court of Australia in 1986 for the British Attorney-General in the famous Spycatcher Case, against the late spy and author, Mr Peter Wright. In 2002, Mark acted for 6,700 refugee plaintiffs and won one of the largest administrative law class-actions in history in the High Court of Australia. The case concerned systemic denial of natural justice in the Refugee Review Tribunal.


Allison Benson, Principal, Benson Legal
Allison has represented clients at all levels of court proceedings — including the Court of Appeal and before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). Her litigation background spans contractual claims, interpreting lot property and common property, by-law interpretation, common property maintenance, repairs and loss claims, unit entitlement re- allocations, compulsory management matters, management rights disputes, building defect matters and levy recovery. Since the 2015 strata law reforms she has also been active in strata renewal work, guiding owners corporations and lot owners through this complex process. Allison's approach is pragmatic and straightforward — focused on her clients' needs and the cost-effective resolution of every matter. Allison is a Fellow of the Australian College of Strata Lawyers and regularly writes and presents on strata law.


Mandy Tibbey, Barrister, 8 Wentworth Chambers
Mandy has practised at the NSW Bar since 2004 and prior to that, as a solicitor. She is experienced in a range of equity, commercial and administrative law matters such as family provision, wills and probate, general equity, trusts, commercial and property-related claims, discrimination, consumer law and disciplinary matters. She appears in the Supreme Court of NSW, Federal Court of Australia, Federal Circuit Court, Administrative Appeals Tribunal, ICAC and other courts and tribunals as required. Mandy is a Part-Time Senior Legal Member with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, appointed to the Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division and Appeals. She is a trained and experienced Mediator, a Member of the Mediation Panels for the Supreme Court of NSW and District Court of NSW and a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner. Mandy is a contributing author to Thomsons NSW Civil Procedure and the popular Thomsons Civil Law Procedure Handbook. She is often asked to present legal education seminars to the profession, has been a Member of the NSW Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee and Professional Conduct Committee, past Chair of the Women Barristers Forum and is a member Advisory Board of the Sir Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History.

Tiffany Davy, Barrister, Coram Chambers
Tiffany was called to the Bar in 2010 and admitted as an Australian Lawyer in 2004, gaining qualifications including a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Law (BA/LLB) and a Bachelor of Divinity (BDiv). Tiffany has extensive experience appearing in all jurisdictions involving administrative law, white-collar crime, corporate and commercial disputes and regulatory matters including in the Federal Court of Australia, the Supreme and District Courts of NSW, the AAT and NCAT. She has recently been appointed as a Senior Member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Tiffany has worked primarily within areas of the law such as Administrative Law including State and Federal Tax, Commercial Litigation, Regulatory, Equity, Crime, and work as an Independent Children’s Lawyer.