Substantive Law

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has recently concluded its inquiry into the effectiveness of Australia’s corporate insolvency laws in protecting and maximising value for the benefit of all interested parties and the economy.

The Committee’s report, which was released on 12 July 2023, found that Australia’s insolvency laws are “overly complex”, might not reflect modern business practices, are not keeping pace with the Australian and global economy and have been subject to piecemeal reforms. 

This CPD event, hosted by Gilbert + Tobin’s market leading Restructuring + Insolvency team in conjunction with ACC Australia, will explore the Committee’s key recommendations, including:

• a comprehensive review of Australia’s corporate and personal insolvency laws be commissioned by the Government (which would be the most sweeping review of Australia’s insolvency laws since the Harmer Report in 1988); and
• other near term actions to address broadly recognised failings in the current law including in relation to safe harbour, the treatment of trusts under insolvency laws and the role of ASIC and the ATO.

Networking and buffet lunch: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm

Presentation: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

We invite you to our third webinar on the topic Legislation overload? Tips and Traps for Interpretating and Applying New Laws.

The number of bills passed into law in any given year is on the rise. More than ever, lawyers are required to read and interpret new laws in order to understand their implications on a person or business, often with little guidance or established precedent to refer to. In this session Partner, Anne Petterd and Special Counsel, Sally Pierce will provide a recap on the statutory rules and principles relevant to interpreting and applying new laws.

We invite you to our second webinar on the topic Termination: How to not get it wrong!

In this session Partner, Ryan Grant and Special Counsel, Simone Blackadder will provide an update on the current state of the law and take you through various tips and traps to validly terminate a contract.

We invite you to our first webinar on Wednesday 30 August on the topic: Negotiating and Drafting Effective Indemnities.

Indemnities are one of the most negotiated clauses in many commercial contracts, however the rationale for their use and their effect is often not well understood. The drafting of each indemnity is critical and the devil is in the detail.

In this session Partner, Toby Patten and Senior Associate, Rakhee Dullabh will step through the key features of contractual indemnities and provide a practical checklist of tips and traps to help draft effective indemnities that properly reflect the risk allocation agreed between commercial parties.

When a cyber-attack or data breach hits your organisation, the pressure to react immediately is acute and there will be limited time to think or plan.  A comprehensive, approved plan and regular cyber drills involving your board and key personnel are critical to your organisation’s effective response. 

LK Principal, Brooke Hall-Carney, will lead an interactive cyber drill focused on core legal considerations to test your readiness to respond in the event of a cyber incident.  Brooke will discuss some of the critical issues that your organisation and its board will need to address, including insurance, payment of ransom, communication, notification, damage to brand, director’s duties and what happens after the event.  

With legislative reform increasing the personal risk of executives and Boards, our cyber drill will allow you to assess your organisation’s ability to respond and recover. 

The rise of renewable energy and decarbonisation projects has led to a concomitant demand for vast areas of land. The areas required, coupled with the geography of where these types of projects are typically situated, give rise to native title issues and /or enliven Aboriginal heritage regulation and a consideration of cultural values. 

In each case, traditional owners are a key stakeholder in the approvals processes and their cooperation is important for two reasons. First, and most obviously, a cooperative stakeholder in a regulatory context reduces approvals timeframes. Perhaps more importantly, how one engages with traditional owners can impact proponents in an ESG context - compliance with legislation is not, in all cases, sufficient to fulfil ESG requirements.

This webinar, hosted by Gilbert + Tobin in conjunction with ACC Australia, will cover the legal framework for engaging with First Nations counterparties and explore how it really works, including:

• a brief summary of the legislative framework;
• how that differs from international conventions and the Equator Principles;
• what dealing with First Nations groups looks like in reality (what is the structure / decision making process of the group); and
• approaches that work well, and ones that don’t.

ACC Australia and Gadens welcome you to attend a webinar on the recent changes to the unfair contract terms regime, which will have a significant impact on the way businesses contract with other parties. This session will provide you with an overview of the upcoming changes and provide practical commercial guidance for legal counsels to mitigate risks within their businesses. 

Hosted by Adam Walker (Partner), Eve Lillas (Senior Associate) and Joseph Abi-Hanna (Senior Associate) from Gadens, the presentation will focus on:

• a recap of the unfair contract terms regime;
• an overview of the amendments to the unfair contract terms regime, which come into effect on 10 November 2023;
• enforcement trends in relation to contraventions of the unfair contract term regimes;
• top 'unfair' terms to look out for;
• examples of how to amend terms that may be considered unfair; and
• practical tips and takeaways for legal counsels.

The session will include an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of the Gadens' team.

We are delighted to announce the second ACC Australia and Thomson Reuters’  Employment Law for In-House Counsel Conference which will be held on the 31 August 2023 in the Marble Ballroom at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sydney.

Employment law continues to be one of the biggest issues facing general counsel.  This year the conference brings to the table the latest contentious issues for In-house Council and will look at the following topics from multiple angles:

• Enterprise bargaining in 2023, 
• Proactive measures, respect in the workplace, 
• Understanding changes in the Modern Award/Professional Award and their implications for your organisation, 
• Navigating common HR challenges, 
• Recent Fair Work Act amendments, 
• Managing never-ending and ever-changing work volumes of in-house teams,  
• And more! 

As 2023 unfolds, the market for M+A remains robust. In-house legal teams need to understand the key elements of a public M+A deal, so that they are prepared for the receipt or initiation of a merger proposal by their company.

This webinar, hosted by Gilbert + Tobin’s M+A team in conjunction with ACC Australia, will explore the essential components of a public M+A deal. It will cover:

• deal structures – scheme of arrangement vs takeover;
• pre-deal arrangements;
• implementation agreements (including common points of negotiation); and
• recent trends and issues in public M+A.

Gilbert + Tobin are also hosting a webinar on Thursday 17 August 2023 on Be Prepared: Responding to a Control Transaction Approach, which members might be interested in attending. Click here for more details.