Presenters

Ian Davidson SC, Barrister, Eight Selborne Chambers
Ian Davidson is a Senior Counsel who practises primarily in Equity, Commercial, Administrative, Wills & Probate and Alternative Dispute Resolution. After graduating from ANU with a B Ec and LLB (1st class Honours and University Medal), Ian was Associate to Sir Anthony Mason from 1980 to 1981. He was awarded the R.G Menzies Scholarship to Harvard Law School (LLM 1982). After working with law firms in Boston and Washington DC and being admitted to the New York Bar, Ian practised as a solicitor in Sydney before being called to the NSW Bar where he has practiced from Eight Selborne Chambers (www.eightselborne.com.au) since 1991. Ian has chaired the NSW Bar Association’s Succession and Protective Law Committee since 2024 and from 2015-2018 was Chair of that Bar’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, a director of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration and a member of the NSW Supreme Court ADR Steering Committee. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the Banking & Financial Services Law Association and serves on the Financial Services Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia.


Gerard Basha, Partner, Bartier Perry
Gerard’s distinguished career is built on a foundation of dual Bachelors in Economics and Law from Macquarie University, a Master of Laws, and a current thesis in Succession Law from Sydney University. He is an Accredited Specialist in Wills and Estates Law, holding a Master of Applied Laws from the College of Law. His leadership is reflected as a Notary Public, Chair of the NSW Wills and Estates Law Accredited Specialists Practice Group, and a Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner with a STEP Advanced Certificate in Trust Disputes. Furthermore, he is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Notaries and completed the AICD Foundations of Directors Course. With over 38 years of experience, Gerard is a recognized leader in his field. His principal practice areas encompass wills, estate and business succession planning, capacity and mental health issues, powers of attorney, enduring guardian appointments, probate and estate administration, contested estate litigation, and equity and trusts. Gerard acts as an expert witness in Succession Law contested Court matters and also acts as a tutor and Court appointed administrator in contested Court matters as well as a Court appointed trustee for sale. He regularly presents and chairs seminars in succession law and trusts law. He has been a guest lecturer at the College of Law in the Master of Applied Law, Wills and Estate course. Since 2015, Doyle’s Guide has recognised Gerard as a leading wills, estates & succession planning lawyer and a leading wills & estates litigation lawyer.  Best Lawyers since 2025 have recognised Gerard in the area of trusts and estates. Gerard is undertaking, on a part-time basis, a PhD on the scope of inheritance law in modern Australia.