JusticeNet CPD Intensive 2025: Each hour of your attendance directly supports JusticeNet's programs, allowing you to earn mandatory CPD points while making a meaningful difference in our community.

Join us for an engaging and impactful day of professional development.

Event details:

Date: Friday, February 21, 2025
Address: Flinders University City Campus, Festival Tower, Station Rd, Adelaide SA 5000
Format: Available in person or via Webinar
Special Door Prize: Full day ticket holders are automatically entered into a draw to win an original painting by acclaimed artist & JusticeNet's supporter Sonja Durmanovic.

Morning Tea and Lunch included for in-person attendees.

For those attending in-person, come to the Flinders entrance of One Festival Tower, opposite the SkyCity Casino. Take the escalators or lifts to level 1 where you will be greeted by a JusticeNet volunteer who will swipe you up to the level 14 in the Flinders elevators.

All Webinar ticket buyers will receive an email well in advance with details on how to attend each session. Please contact admin@justicenet.org.au if you have any questions or concerns.

Special door prize: Every full day attendee has a chance to win an original Sonja Durmanovic artwork:

Sonja Durmanovic - Pomegranate - 42 cm x 29.5 cm

Program details:

8:30 – 9:00am – Registration

8:45am - Welcome to Flinders from Dean Tania Leiman

Session 1: 09:00am - 10:00am

Courteous and effective correspondence.

Correspondence between parties and to the Court is an important part of the practice of the law for litigators. Too often it involves exaggeration, is intemperate in tone, or is unfocussed and lacking in clear purpose. The aim of this session is to invite reflection upon the style and content of written correspondence in a way that balances the achievement of clients’ objectives with professional courtesy.

Professional Skills

Presented by the Hon Justice Ben Doyle, Supreme Court of South Australia.

Session 2: 10:00am - 11:00am

Tips for preparing effective witness statements and affidavits, make sure your evidence is admissible!

Professional Skills

Presented by Mark Douglas and Ashlee Provis, Members of Murray Chambers.

11:00 - 11:30am - Morning Tea

Session 3: 11:30am - 12:30pm

Obligations on solicitors to prevent clients making decisions against their interests.

Clients with reduced mental capacity, cognitive challenges, or who are just naive and ill informed, will sometimes propose making serious decisions about their financial or other interests that are of real concern to their solicitors.
Whilst we assume that the client has capacity, and the initiable right, to make decisions for themselves, do solicitors have a duty to go beyond counselling against such decisions to seeking intervention to protect the client?
This session will look at some recent case law in Australia and consider whether there is a general duty of care that sits alongside the solicitor’s fiduciary and ethical duties to their client, that may justify proactive intervention to protect clients against exploitation or decisions that will have long term detrimental impacts.

Practical Legal Ethics

Presented by Margaret Castles, Senior Lecturer, Law School, University of Adelaide. Director Clinical Legal Education Program. Solicitor and Mediator.

Session 4: 12:30pm - 01:30pm

Keeping Pace: Timeless skills in an era of rapid change.

We are living in an era of rapid change: not only technological but also in the business model and workings of the legal sector. What does this mean for developing the professional skillsets of future lawyers? What does it mean for you and your business? How do we keep pace with the future while still practising in the present? Join this discussion as we take stock of the changes impacting the legal profession; the approaches taken to professional skills development in adjacent fields and jurisdictions; and consider our own skills. What are the skills that will remain timeless? What new skills do we need to develop?

Practice Management and Business Skills

Presented by Simone Daniells, LLB/LP (Hons), Associate Lecturer (Juris Doctor Dedicated Course Mentor) College of Business, Government and Law; volunteer lawyer at JusticeNet's Homeless Legal Clinic at Baptist Care SA.

01:30 - 02:15pm - Lunch

Session 5: 02:15pm - 03:15pm

Work of Commissioner’s office and her review into harassment in the legal profession.

This session will cover the work of Equal Opportunity SA, including the types of complaints dealt with and how they are addressed - an area of jurisdiction that may be unfamiliar to many, as well as information about the recently completed review into the legal profession.

Bullying, Discrimination and Harassment

Presented by Jodeen Carney, South Australia's Commissioner for Equal Opportunity.

Session 6: 03:15pm - 04:15pm

Positive Duty to Prevent Sexual Harassment - what (if anything) has changed?

Research undertaken by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) showed that most directors believe preventing sexual harassment in the workplace is a high priority issue for their boards. Since December 2023 there has been a positive duty to prevent Sexual Harassment: Sex Discrimination Act 1984 – section 47C. This translates into a changing landscape for this form of harassment, but it can be coupled with bullying and discrimination and/or victimisation) of course for complainants; this topic will focus on the new Positive Duty that now exists in the Australian landscape. What does this mean in practical terms for you as a legal practitioner/employer/colleague/bystander. What does this mean to the organisations that you support? What are the limits (if any) of this duty? Finally – a discussion of recent cases.

Bullying, Discrimination and Harassment

Presented by Paula Davies, Adelaide PHN General Counsel & Company Secretary, Member of the Child Safety & Wellbeing Panel with the Tasmanian Department of Health, Community Member of the Psychology Immediate Action Committee, NED for Flourish Australia and Blue Knot Foundation.

In the last FY, through our Pro Bono Connect service, we’ve facilitated an estimated $2,643,840 worth of pro bono work that would have otherwise gone unaided.

How do I become a JusticeNet member?

You can become a JusticeNet member online at https://justicenet.org.au/get-involved/membership