In Brief Issue #1165

County Court of Victoria

A ceremony to farewell his Honour Judge John Carmody as a judge of the County Court will be held in Court 3-3 of the County Court, 250 William Street, Melbourne on:

Monday, 23 September 2024 at 4:30pm

All counsel who are able to do so are asked to attend. The ceremony will also be livestreamed via Zoom here.

Bar Roll No: 816

It is with deep regret that the Bar informs members of the death of Dr Clifford Pannam KC.

Clifford signed the Bar Roll on 08 August 1967 and read with Bill Paterson QC. He was a member of the Victorian Bar for 52 years.

We extend our deepest sympathy to Clifford’s family and friends.

Bar Roll No: 1446

It is with deep regret that the Bar informs members of the death of P. David Drake.

David signed the Bar Roll on 23 November 1978 and read with Joseph Kaufman. He was a member of the Victorian Bar for 35 years.

We extend our deepest sympathy to David's family and friends.

A full obituary will be published in the coming days.

Join the Health and Wellbeing Committee for a heart-healthy lunch and panel discussion with the Heart Foundation. 

The Health and Wellbeing Committee invites you to join the Heart Foundation’s Professor Dion Stub (Cardiologist and Chair, Victorian Advisory Board) and his colleagues for an informative workshop designed to enhance your understanding of cardiac health and its connection to your lifestyle.

Learn about key factors that can impact your heart health and discover the importance of timely follow-up with a GP or specialist.

This workshop aims to help barristers maintain their wellbeing and longevity in the demanding legal profession.

1:00-2:00pm, Wednesday, 11 September 2024 in Bar Council Chamber and Online.

Click here to register.

Registration is now open for the CommBar 30^th Anniversary Dinner to be held at the Essoign Club on Wednesday, 9 October 2024 at 6:30pm for 7:00pm.

The guest of honour is the Honourable Chief Justice Ferguson, who will also be the after-dinner speaker, Also speaking at the dinner will be former CommBar President, Philip Crutchfield KC. In addition to CommBar members, members of judiciary have also been invited to attend. The evening promises to be one of great entertainment, fine fare and spirited collegiality.

Registration is priced at $170.00 per head, incl. GST for members of 5 years call or more and $155 per head for members under 5 years call.

To register, please click on the link here.

The Women Barristers’ Association (WBA) will be holding their Annual General Meeting on 12 September 2024, at 1:00pm, in the dhumba djerring Room, Level 1, Owen Dixon Chambers East.

The AGM is open for all members to attend and WBA also encourages new members to attend and join. 

At the AGM, the Committee for 2024/2025 will be elected and other business (including Convenor's report and accounts for the year) will be considered.

Nominations for the next Victorian Bar Pro Bono Awards are now open.

The next Victorian Bar Pro Bono Awards Ceremony will take place in March 2025, and nominations for the awards are open until November 2024.

If you are aware of barristers who are making an outstanding contribution representing parties on a pro bono basis, please consider making nominations throughout the nomination period.

For more information on the awards and to view last years winners, click here.

To nominate a barrister, click here.

All members of the Victorian Bar community, including staff of Bar and Clerks are welcome to join the choir. No obvious singing talent is required! You’ll find that the choir is friendly, and singing is fun and relaxing, which is a highlight of the week.

Term 3 dates: 16 July to 24 September 2024. 

Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm, Tuesdays.

Location: Level 11 East

Cost: $275 a term. 2024 Readers free.

Click here for the flyer. Pro rata subscriptions are available if you join mid term. For more information, contact the Bar office on 9225 7111 or reception@vicbar.com.au.

Pre COVID this annual event had been growing in popularity, competitiveness, and esteem. This year presents an opportunity for honour gained or honour upheld!

Bring your skill and tenacity or your vocal support to the Hawthorn Hockey Club on Thursday, 14 November at 6:30pm.

All are welcome to join this evening of social networking, sporting engagement and friendly competitiveness, with the winners once again taking home bragging rights.

RSVP’s are required (see below) for team allocations and, catering purposes nibbles will be provided and drinks at bar prices.

RSVP to Natasha.keenan@vicbar.com.au with:

Name of guests: 

Dietary Requirements: 

Team: Barristers or Solicitors

Participation: Player or Spectator

We look forward to seeing you there.

Studio 11 Melbourne – Exhibition by Michael LYE Amor Fati is currently open for viewing from 15 July – 20 September 2024.

Michael Lye is an Asian-Australian Artist based in Narrm/Melbourne. Working in digital, painting, printmaking, and installation fields, his work discusses race, philosophical, and scientific explorations using playfully abstract and minimalistic formations.

Either blissfully colourful or grotesquely visceral, Lye builds upon his own position as a multi-race artist to discuss background stereotypes towards minorities in society, whilst focusing on generational displacement and its consequential environmental impacts. This exhibition is founded on the exploration of spiritual and scientific explanations of our existence, breaking down the barrenness of humanity and the raw nature of reality. It reflects on the cold state of humanity, aiming to illustrate how humanity is in a constant state of flux, often driven by a destructive and selfish mindset.

The series juxtaposes desolate spaces, voids of human devastation, with a foreboding darkness of reality. These spaces transcend third-dimensional reality, delving into spiritual and scientific interpretations of the afterlife. Cold, monument-like forms serve as central elements, reflecting how humanity perceives life and death in brutalist terms. Inspired by wartime imagery, structures in this exhibition utilize radar, bunker, and crosshair iconography to symbolise both the emptiness and the beauty of human mortality.

By integrating elements of national flag construction, this exhibition challenges the concept of country borders. It urges humanity to strive for moral integrity and to recognise the importance of human life.

Dear Members,

The Club is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the Essoign Calcutta Luncheon.

Details of which are as follows:

Venue: The Essoign Club

Date: Friday, 1 November 2024

Time: 12:45pm onwards

Featuring: Race caller Rick McIntosh

For bookings please click here.

Click here to view the flyer.

Court Services Victoria has released an independent audit of work done in response to the recommendations Dr Helen Szoke made in the Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in Victorian Courts and VCAT report.

You can find the audit report here and our response here.

Consultation re proposed amendment of the Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Development Rules (Barristers) 2015 pursuant to section 427(5)(b) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law.

The Australian Bar Association invites comments and submissions on a proposal to amend Rule 9(1) of the Legal Profession Uniform Continuing Development Rules (Barristers) 2015 to add a further category of ‘(e) Equality and Wellbeing’.

Rule 9 currently provides:

9 Categories of CPD

• A barrister must, unless otherwise exempted, in each CPD year engage in CPD activities in each of the categories set out below—
• Ethics and Professional Responsibility,
• Practice Management and Business Skills,
• Substantive Law, Practice and Procedure, and Evidence,
• Barristers’ Skills.
• These categories are subject to any requirement of the designated local regulatory authority or legislation.

Submissions can be sent to the Australian Bar Association on or before 30 September 2024 by email to: ceo@austbar.asn.au

The additional category would be a mandatory CPD that would to be undertaken annually by every barrister covered by these rules. However, the need to accumulate 10 CPD points annually would not change.

This proposed category is intended to include ‘Anti-Discrimination, Harassment and Bullying’ but is broader in nature.

The current CPD schemes in both the Northern Territory and South Australian contain requirements to complete one CPD unit relating to ‘bullying, discrimination and harassment’. Clause 1(d) of the Northern Territory’s CPD scheme requires practitioners to complete one unit in ‘skills relating to identifying, addressing and preventing bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace (including, for example, responding to claims of sexual harassment and developing strategies for a safe workplace culture)’ each year. Clause 2.2 of the South Australian CPD scheme requires practitioners to complete one CPD unit ‘relating to bullying, discrimination and harassment’ each year.

The proposal is more closely reflects the current CPD Scheme in Tasmania. Clause 3.2(d) of the Law Society of Tasmania’s CPD scheme requires legal practitioners to complete one CPD unit relating to equality and wellbeing each year. Schedule 1 of the Scheme includes the following illustrative and non-exhaustive examples of CPD topics that relate to equality and wellbeing:

• staff welfare (including WHS, staff wellbeing and the law relating to discrimination, harassment, and bullying)
• awareness training
• family safety and family violence
• unconscious bias
• bystander training
• sexual harassment
• bullying
• mental health
• working with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• sex, gender and diversity and the law
• indigenous issues.

While not exhaustive, these examples would fall within the proposed ABA category.

Consideration was given to a limited category of ‘Anti-discrimination, harassment and bullying’, in the end the Council resolved to propose a broader category on the basis that:

• There is abundant academic research identifying a perpetrator’s poor mental health and lack of self-regulation as a contributing factor in his or her inappropriate behaviour;
• Inappropriate behaviour adversely impacts the wellbeing of both targets and bystanders;
• Inappropriate behaviour may arise from a lack of awareness or understanding of matters in respect of cultural or gender diversity; and
• A broad approach allows for a greater range of topics to be presented that, while not squarely addressing inappropriate behaviour, improves barrister civility and standards of practise by fostering self-awareness, empathy, and a respect for others.

It is considered that the proposed amendment will go some way to addressing issues of behaviour, civility and the culture of the Bar.

Melbourne Law School is pleased to present the following free public law lectures in September 2024:

2024 James Merralls Fellowship in Law Lecture (Melbourne and Sydney)

‘Constitutional Identity and the Right to Attachment’

Presented by Professor Nick Barber, Oxford University

What form should our relationship with the state take? Is the state like a team, where membership is grounded primarily in reasoned consent, or is it more like a family, where membership is grounded primarily in emotional attachment? The lecture examines the differences between these two, and argues that we have good reasons for wanting our relationship with the state to be underpinned by attachment. But whilst wanting to experience attachment is rational, it is not a disposition we can chose or can be reasoned into adopting. In consequence, states must rely on emotional strategies to ground attachment. The lecture ends by reflecting on the right to attachment, the limits that our reasons for wanting to experience attachment place on the emotional strategies states deploy.

This lecture will be delivered in Melbourne and Sydney. Please see below for further details on each location.

Sydney lecture:

Date & time: Tuesday, 10 September 2024 from 5:15 pm – 7:00 pm.

Location: QT Sydney, 49 Market Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Information and registration: Please click here.

2024 Sir Kenneth Bailey Memorial Lecture

‘International Law and the Multilateral System in Face of Climate Change and Threats to the Ocean’

Presented by Dr Nilufer Oral, Director, Centre of International Law, National University of Singapore

The world is facing multiple threats to the environment, among which climate change dominates. Australia and Oceania are especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, in particular, harm to the marine environment and sea level rise. Climate change is a collective threat that requires collective action. The question is whether international law and the current multilateral system can meet the challenges of climate change? Can the seemingly fractured and cacophonic world of the United Nations rise above the daily commotions of crisis and find solutions to pressing problems facing the world?

International cooperation is at the heart of the United Nations Charter as expressed in Article 1, paragraph 3 of the UN Charter. The lecture will discuss cases in which the multilateral system through international law has rallied to address threats to the marine environment, including sea level rise, focusing on the work of the United Nations International Law Commission on sea level rise, the advisory opinion request presented to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea by the Commission on Small Island States (COSIS) and that presented to the International Court of Justice by the General Assembly, at the initiative of Vanuatu.

Date & time: Thursday, 19 September 2024 from 6:00pm – 7:00pm.

Location: Lecture Theatre G08, Law Building, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton

Information and registration: Please click here.