Our acclaimed Government Practice program is back, featuring 10 crucial topics tailored for government lawyers. Delve into CPD compulsory units, privacy, integrity, and administrative law updates. Engage in discussions covering WHS, model litigant obligations, privacy impact assessments, and workplace law changes. Earn all CPD points in one essential day, elevating your mastery in these critical areas of law. Attend to stay ahead in evolving legal landscapes crucial for effective government representation. 

Presenters

Ms. Katherine Armytage, Partner, Maddocks
Katherine Armytage is a partner in the Maddocks Canberra office, where she has a vibrant practice in information law, particularly in the areas of privacy and data protection. Katherine has provided detailed advice on the operation and application of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and has undertaken numerous privacy impact assessments (PIAs) for Australian Government and other clients. Katherine is a self-confessed ‘privacy nerd’, and actually enjoys identifying and examining information flows associated with complex Australian Government projects, identifying privacy and other legal risks and existing mitigations, and developing creative and practical solutions to help her clients minimise those risks. Katherine has recently been involved in some very interesting privacy and data governance matters – from PIAs for complex new legislation (the Digital ID Bill 2023), to working through eligible data breaches involving loss of highly sensitive personal information, to helping with the establishment and operation of complex data sharing arrangements.


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.


Mr. Andrew Allan, Partner, HWL Ebsworth
Andrew is a Partner in the HWL Ebsworth National Insurance Group, based in Canberra. Andrew is an expert dispute resolution lawyer and works primarily in the context of common law-based insurance schemes and administrative benefit and review schemes. Andrew’s clients include private insurers (including medical indemnity insurers), the Commonwealth Government, and the ACT Government. Andrew has extensive experience in personal injury claims, commercial disputes, asbestos-related disease claims, investigations, complaints processes, coronial inquests, and advising on indemnity issues. Andrew was recognised as ‘Lawyer of the Year’ for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Canberra in the 2023 edition of Best LawyersTM Australia. He was recognised as ‘Lawyer of the Year’ for Insurance work in Canberra in the 2022 edition. He has also been recognised in the same publication for Government Practice (2017 – 2024), Insurance (2019 – 2024) and Dispute Resolution (2020 - 2024).


Dr. Jason Donnelly, Barrister, Latham Chambers
Dr. Jason Donnelly is a leading national barrister and academic (a university lecturer) in the area of migration law in Australia. Dr. Donnelly has advised and appeared in various significant cases in both the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Federal Court of Australia, published in various leading journal articles, provided expert evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, been cited extensively in a Commonwealth Parliamentary Report and is the founding author and Course Convenor of the Graduate Diploma in Australian Migration Law at Western Sydney University (WSU).


William Ward, Partner, Mills Oakley
Will Ward is accredited by the NSW Law Society as a specialist in employment and industrial relations law and is a Special Counsel in our employment, workplace relations and safety team. With over 17 years of experience in employment and workplace relations Will has advised clients in almost all industries as well as the public sector. Will's knowledge and expertise in the area is further bolstered by the fact that he was a university lecturer in employment, human resource management and industrial relations for 5 years prior to practicing as a lawyer for the last 12 years. As a result, Will has a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw upon in advising and achieving results for clients in all aspects of employment and workplace relations law.


Ms. Alexandra Wedutenko, Partner, Sparke Helmore Lawyers
A leading Government and ICT lawyer as voted by Best Lawyers Australia and Chambers Asia-Pacific, Alexandra Wedutenko has an enviable reputation for her success in strategic procurement data protection and governance. Specialising in complex services agreements in a regulated environment, ICT, select sourcing and business process sourcing, Alexandra has acted for a range of private sector and government clients. She acts for and understands the requirements of clients in industries where security and availability of supply are critical. In this regard Alexandra regularly advises on risk identification and management, data protection and cyber security issues.


Ms. Farhana Islam, Special Counsel, Maddocks
Farhana is a highly experienced government lawyer who advises Australian Government and State and Territory government agencies on administrative law, regulatory law and decision making, statutory interpretation, data and privacy. With over 10 years’ experience as an in-house counsel, including at the Senior Executive level, Farhana has a deep understanding of the sector and is able to infuse her legal advice with a unique perspective. Farhana has undertaken numerous high profile privacy impact assessments, including recently on the national disability data asset and the Digital ID Bill, has provided advice on complex dating sharing arrangements involving multi parties and helped entities develop robust privacy policies, privacy management plans and data breach response plans.


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.


Natalie Butler, Partner, Mills Oakley
Natalie has significant government sector experience. She’s advised government and quasi-government clients on a broad range of public law and regulatory matters. With nineteen years experience as a privacy practitioner, she’s particularly knowledgeable about data privacy compliance, privacy risk management and data governance. She’s most recently applied her information law expertise to digital transformation projects, helping clients to maximise the value of data assets in ways that are legally and ethically sound. Natalie champions a privacy-by-design ethos to policy design, customer experience, service strategies and technical solutions. She’s also an advocate for embracing a genuine multi-disciplinary approach to legal advising, risk management and compliance to enhance the longevity, and value, of legal risk strategies and solutions. Natalie has worked closely with a number of government clients, especially those from the social services and health portfolios.


John Bird, Barrister, Blackburn Chambers
John has a diverse practice built on more than 15 years’ experience in global and national law firms. He is listed in Best Lawyers of Australia (2022, 2021 editions) for Government Practice. He is recommended in Doyles Guide 2019-2021 for commercial litigation. John’s practice focuses on commercial litigation and public law (Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory). In the Commonwealth sphere, he has acted for a wide variety of Ministers and agencies under multiple statutory schemes canvassing both merits and judicial review of administrative action, complex commercial disputes, and civil claims (including Comcover and Dust Disease Tribunal matters). In the Territory, he has acted in planning matters, property (including strata and commercial leasing) disputes, contract and equitable claims, and building and construction litigation (including Security of Payment legislation and the statutory warranties in the ACT Building Act).


Sonja Gasser, Principal Solicitor, ACT Government Solicitor
Sonja works for the ACT Government Solicitor acting as Practice Leader Regulation and Employment – which involves supervising advices and litigation in administrative law areas of planning, revenue, licencing, and environment – and previously led the Information Privacy and Access practice area. Sonja was a finalist in the 2023 ACT Women’s Lawyer of the Year Awards in the category of Government and won the ACT Public Service Award for Excellence in the Leadership category. Sonja is committed to volunteering, having previously worked her way up into management in Community Legal Centres federally and in Victoria, and within the ACT State Emergency Service. She received an award for ACT Volunteer of the Year for Emergency Service. She has been involved in establishing a number of community groups and continues to volunteer on the board of number of community groups.


Prue Bindon, Barrister, Key Chambers
Prue accepts briefs in a variety of areas including appeals, administrative, commercial, constitutional, coronial, discrimination, employment and industrial, human rights, professional discipline, and work health and safety law. She accepts briefs across jurisdictions and is also a member of 6 St James Hall Chambers in Sydney. Before joining the Bar, Prue worked for national and international law firms in Australia and Hong Kong, including King & Wood Mallesons and Linklaters. Prue graduated from the Australian National University in 2002 with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Law. She went on to work as the associate to the Honourable Dyson Heydon AC QC on the High Court of Australia. She later undertook further study at Oxford University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) with Distinction and the Herbert Hart Prize in Jurisprudence. She has been an associate lecturer at the ANU law school for a number of years. Prue is a member of the ACT Bar Council, board member of the Legal Aid Commission ACT, Chair of the ACT Bar Equal Opportunity Committee, member of the Law Council of Australia Equal Opportunity Committee, and member of the Women Lawyers Association ACT policy committee (for which she previously served as President).


Ines Kallweit, Principal Solicitor & Notary Public, KHQ Lawyers
Ines Kallweit leads the Wills & Estates team at KHQ Lawyers. She is an Accredited Specialist in Wills & Estates (with the Law Institute of Victoria) and Notary Public. She is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners. Ines advises clients in all areas of estate planning, estate administration and estate litigation. Ines’ practice ranges from estate planning, the preparation of Wills and powers of attorney to complex estate administration and estate litigation. Her broad knowledge in this area and solutions-focused approach allows her to assist clients with the preparation of comprehensive estate plans and the administration of complex estates. Her estate litigation work involves both defending estates and representing individuals in resolution of disputes involving Wills, property, estate and guardianship matters. Ines’ expertise includes succession planning and asset structuring, advice in relation to and preparation of powers of attorney, appointment of medical treatment decision makers and advanced care directives. She also looks after applications for grants of probate and letters of administration, guardianship & administration matters (including VCAT appearances), will and trust disputes, family provision claims (seeking further provision from deceased estates) and resealing international & interstate grants of probate. Her expertise also includes charitable gifts & cy-prés applications, and complex estate administration (including as court appointed administrator). Ines also has a keen interest in promoting legal education. She has a Master of Teaching and is a former adjunct lecturer at the College of Law. She speaks for various professional development providers including the Law Institute of Victoria, Leo Cussen Institute and Television Education Network. Ines is a native German speaker. Ines is widely regarded as one of the country’s leading practitioners in this area of law, and has been recognised as a preeminent Wills & Estates Litigation Lawyer for Victoria in Doyles Guide for seven consecutive years (2015-2022).