Substantive Law

Join Madgwicks' Special Counsel Tim Greenall and Senior Associate Sasha Roberts explain the impact of COVID-19 on employment law.

Chaired by Tax Partner Philip Diviny, this session will cover:
-             What you need to know about the JobKeeper payment
-             New stand down powers under Fair Work
-             Variations to Modern Awards
-             Impact on Enterprise Agreements
-             Working from home – the new workplace

Please note this event has sold out - if you would like to receive a receive a recording of the live broadcast please contact ausevents@accglobal.com. 

Directors are subject to key duties in carrying out their role. Knowing about those duties and how to effectively discharge them is at the heart of good corporate governance.  In this seminar we will consider the key statutory duties of directors and gain an understanding of the consequences of breaching those duties, by looking at how the court has dealt with particular cases in recent years.  

Edward Muston SC will also take a look into Directors personal liability in the following areas: taxation and superannuation debts, work health and safety law breaches, and environmental law breaches.

Employers are increasingly faced with the challenges of keeping employees “safe” in terms of their mental health and also dealing with the consequences of employees’ mental health challenges in regard to performance and conduct.

With increased penalties in many jurisdictions and model legislation highlighting director and officer individual responsibility, the issues are more important than ever. In the current climate of vast numbers of employees working from home and in a heightened state of anxiety about world events and job security, employers face a very difficult task.

Join Piper Alderman's Erin McCarthy and their national employment relations team for webinar dealing with these issues and in particular:

The law:

• Work health and safety obligations to minimise or eliminate risks to mental health in the workplace;
• When and how the workplace extends to the home, and managing the unusual risks of remote working;
• Assessing capacity and when an employee may not be mentally “fit” for the inherent requirements of the job;
• The interplay between mental health and performance/misconduct concerns – what the Fair Work Commission has said about procedural fairness and mental health;
• Compensability of stress claims under the various state and territory workers compensation schemes; and
• Industrial manslaughter and deaths by suicide where there may be workplace risks to mental health

The practical issues:

• Signs to look out for that an employee may have compromised mental health
• Having difficult conversations with employees who have mental health issues or may be under significant stress and anxiety
• When you may be ‘on notice’ of a risk but not have recognised it;
• Managing mental health while employees are working remotely including domestic violence; and
• What will you point to as a measure implemented to manage mental health risks?

Businesses are operating in an increasingly complex and high stakes regulatory environment. With the ACCC’s role expanding and penalties increasing, scrutiny has never been more intense.  At the same time, many of the provisions of the ­Competition and Consumer Law Act require thought and some sophistication to ensure compliance. 

Join our competition experts Susan Jones and Jeremy Jose for a live webinar that will provide an update on current issues in competition law including:

• the ACCC’s enforcement activity and priorities;
• concerted practices (including information sharing, industry associations and pricing algorithms); and
• gun jumping.

This webinar will also provide you with some practical suggestions for assessing and mitigating competition law risk within your organisation.

If your company/organisation is deemed to be a competitor of the host organisation for this event, you may be excluded from attending this event. If you believe there may be a conflict or are uncertain, please enquire with ACC Australia.

NSW Members - this event will also be run as a face to face event later in the year.

Beyond Compliance: Coronavirus, ESG, and the Redefining of Risk Management

The outbreak of the coronavirus has upended business worldwide and created an entirely new risk paradigm for companies with an international profile.

Prior to COVID-19, firms were already contending with unfamiliar regulatory, ESG, technological, and geopolitical challenges. Today, as firms plan for an even more uncertain future, what are the key reputational, stakeholder, and political risk issues that should be top of mind for corporate counsel? 

Veracity Worldwide Asia-Pacific Director, Benjamin Weiss, will survey the new frontier of risk and offer strategies to help you and your business navigate them.

The global pandemic and shutdown is the gravest challenge to Australian business. Issues of recent days will play out over the coming years. Amidst tremendous uncertainty, careful consideration must now be taken and cool heads must prevail.

Contracts and business relationships will be tested, in many cases beyond their limits.

Piper Alderman is guiding its clients through issues such as contracts, employment, corporate recovery and insolvency all of which hold deep and long-term consequences.

Join Piper Alderman's webinar as they provide practical insights and real world solutions in the areas of:

Tim Lange – Employment & Workplace Issues: stand-downs, termination, redundancy and working from home;

Ted Williams – Contract Law: contract reliefs and risks in terms of delay, force majeure, changes in law, delay, termination events and how contracting parties might frame discussions to ensure delivery and achieve workable commercial outcomes;

Michael Lhuede – Insolvency and Director Responsibilities: Review of the Parliament’s COVID 19 Emergency Response Measures, residual director responsibilities, debt moratoriums and voluntary administration;

Andrew Rankin – Issues for public companies, including ASX-listed companies.

Please join us for our March 25 CLE Zoom meeting. Topic Update: The sponsor will also be covering the COVID-19 Relief Act. 

Join Zoom Meeting: 12:00 – 1:30p.m. 1 CLE Credit applied for.
https://accinhouse.zoom.us/j/9445444329

Meeting ID: 944 544 4329

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As employers head into 2020, the labor and employment landscape is in a state of flux. On the federal level, the Trump administration has been busy reversing or revising many of the Obama administration's signature agency rules and decisions, especially in the areas of wage and hour and labor relations.  On the state level, the Florida Legislature is currently considering legislation that could dramatically impact the workplace, such as paid family leave, and protections for medical marijuana use and sexual orientation.  Adding to this, in November 2020 the electorate will be voting on the minimum wage ballot initiative known as Amendment 2 which could significantly increase the cost of doing business. This presentation will tell you everything that you need to know about these actual and potential labor and employment law changes facing employers in 2020, and what you can/should do in response to them.

AGENDA:

• 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. - Registration/Breakfast
• 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - Session I (Blank Rome)
• 9:10 a.m. to 10:10 a.m. - Session II (Reed Smith)
• 10:20 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. - Session III (Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Shiller)
• 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Lunch Served
• 12:40 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. - Session IV (Baker Hostetler)
• 1:50 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. - Session V (Obermayer)
• 3:00 p.m. - Conclusion

Session I—How to Limit the Possibility That Your Contract Ends Up Under the Litigation Microscope

Every day in-house counsel draft agreements that may have inherent risks that they may not aware of.  There are new laws, rules and regulations across different jurisdictions. There are ambiguities or loopholes that even in the most well-intentioned contract provisions can cause reputational or financial harm.  In this presentation, two expert commercial litigators from Blank Rome and a General Counsel will discuss various way to mitigate drafting risks so your company does not end up in court.

Session II—Out of the Shadows: Strategies for Addressing Common, But Seldom Discussed, Mass Tort Litigation Irritants

Discovery abuse abounds in mass tort litigation.  We discuss two aspects that often fly under the radar.  Expert depositions are routine in high-stakes litigation, but the process is disrupted by exorbitant fee demands by opposing experts, often exceeding $1,000 per hour.  This session will teach how to resist and overcome such demands.  Third parties are also targets of discovery abuse in complex litigation, receiving extravagant document subpoenas, compliance with which would disrupt their document retention policies.  This session will also address how non-parties can quash or narrow such fishing expeditions. Third Party Payor litigation also follows mass tort litigation as night follows day, and we will discuss recent trends and developments.

Session III—Who Can Bind the Company? Litigating Authority Issues

As businesses become larger and more decentralized, and as the use of senior-sounding employee titles becomes more prevalent (e.g., Senior Vice President; Managing Director), it is increasingly important to monitor how employees’ authority to act on behalf of the business is presented to third parties.  This presentation will provide an overview of the doctrines of (1) apparent authority of agents and (2) ratification of agents’ conduct.  It will then describe how businesses can minimize the risk that an agent without actual authority can bind the business, and it will detail litigation strategies on how to prevail on this fact-intensive issue before trial.

Session IV—In Case You Haven’t Heard, Diversity Matters. Now What?

There have been a slew of articles and presentations lately on why diversity in the legal field matters.  In addition to discussing why having diverse outside counsel is good for business, this presentation will focus on how in-house counsel can make the goal of creating diverse teams a reality.  It will include practical tips for identifying diverse talent, developing a pipeline of diverse lawyers for future matters and ensuring teams provide meaningful opportunities to diverse lawyers.  It will also focus on having diverse litigation teams all the way through trial and what that means for judges and juries.

Session V—How to Avoid a 30(b)(6) Disaster: Smart Strategies for Witness Selection and Education

During this presentation, we will discuss how to select the appropriate 30(b)(6) witness to best represent the entity at a deposition, and how avoid consequences for failure to present and/or prepare a corporate representative.

The number of data breaches is increasing every year. The question is no longer if your organization will have a breach, but when.

Join Greg Fliszar and Danielle Sapega, members of Cozen O’Connor Health Law Practice, for a webinar discussing the various cybersecurity threats and challenges companies face in today’s environment, with a focus on HIPAA and healthcare cybersecurity. Greg and Danielle will also focus on mitigating risk, breach response, and recent enforcement trends by both federal and state agencies.

Register below.  Login information will be provided after registration.

AGENDA:

• 11:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. — Registration/Meet & Greet
• 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. — Program

Check back soon for program details.