BDLA CPD Event (3 points)

One of the ways the BDLA is keen to bring the local profession back together is through quality in-person CPD events that don’t cost senior counsel rates!

To that end, we are very pleased to announce that the first CPD event for this year will take place on the afternoon of Thursday, 25 March 2021, just in time for the CPD doomsday clock reset, with a brilliant group of presenters.

Given social distancing restrictions we weren’t able to get the usual Technology Park venue, but have instead managed to lock in the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility at Morshead Park.

The afternoon will cover all of the non-substantive mandatory areas; Practice Management; Professional Skills; and Ethics. Even if you have already satisfied your CPD requirements, you can get a head start and carry these units over until the next CPD year!

THE SPEAKERS:

Pat Barry is a barrister at State Chambers, Sydney and Howard Zelling Chambers, Adelaide. For over 15 years Pat has practiced in work health and safety law in all States and Territories as well as the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. Pat’s safety practice focuses principally on defending corporate entities and individuals before courts around Australia. Before coming to the bar Pat was a senior associate at Freehills and K&L Gates. Pat is recognised among the leading Workplace Safety Law Barristers for the State of South Australia in Doyle’s Guide 2017, 2018 and 2019. Pat has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Newcastle and is currently reading for his Master of Historical Studies at The University of Oxford. But most importantly, Pat is a Trentham boy made good and a part-time Ballarat local.

The Hon Clyde Croft AM SC is a member of the Victorian Bar, was a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria from 2009 until 2019 and is a pioneer in commercial arbitration in Australia. He is the Patron of the new Victorian Commercial Arbitration Scheme (VCAS), which is designed to create a quick, non-nonsense, cost-effective way for parties to resolve civil disputes in Victoria without going through the exhaustive rigours of Court. His Honour strongly believes that the VCAS has an important role to play in the regions, particularly as access to courts and tribunals is so limited at present. On a more local note, Professor Croft is also a former Secretary of our very own Ballarat Tramway Preservation Society!

Robert Heath QC will be known to the numerous local practitioners who brief him. For those who don’t know him, he is a Queen’s Counsel with a commercial practice who has a particular fondness for cases that are long, complex, and would make most of us need a lie down. Like Professor Croft, he also has a strong interest in arbitration and is heavily involved with VCAS. Robert is also the Chair of the Football Victoria Appeal Tribunal and is the honorary lawyer to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria Inc. And continuing on our local theme, he is an old Ballarat Grammarian.