MTECC Sponsors Society of Construction Law Conference in Perth
19/06/10 MTECCThe Society of Construction Law Australia was formed less than a year ago as an Australia wide organisation of professionals interested in the practice of construction law. It held its first conference in Perth on 18 and 19 June with the theme: "Construction and the law: life after the GFC". The welcome reception on 18 June, and the one day conference and dinner on 19 June were held at the Burswood Entertainment Complex.
The delegates to the conference were given a welcome to country by Marie Taylor, a member of the Nyungah People who are the traditional owners of the land around Perth. The conference was officially opened by the President of the WA Court of Appeal, the Honourable Justice Carmel McLure.
The Honourable Justice Peter Vickery, the Society's Patron chaired the first session in which two distinguished overseas speakers gave wide ranging talks on the global impact of the Global Financial Crisis: Adrian Hughes QC, current Chairman of the Society of Construction Law in the UK, and R Bruce Reynolds, a partner of Borden Ladner Gervais from Toronto Canada.
Sessions were held on dispute avoidance and resolution, and construction claims and remedies. Later parallel sessions on doing things differently, and project delivery were followed by a plenary session on future directions for construction law in Australia.
Melbourne TEC Chambers supported the conference financially by sponsoring the conference bags, and three of its members presented papers. David Levin QC presented a paper entitled "The choice of dispute resolution and its implications for proportionate liability claims". Toby Shnookal presented a paper jointly written with Donald Charrett on: "The internationalisation of contracting: Australian contractors in Asia and the role for FIDIC contracts domestically and in Asia. Donald Charrett presented a paper recently published in BDPS News: "Is contractual risk a zero-sum game?". All of these papers are available for download from the MTECC website under the Resources tab.
The conference attracted 86 registrants, including three from overseas. More than 50% of the registrants were from outside WA, with the largest interstate contingent from Victoria. The general consensus appeared to be that the conference was very professionally run, with a range of papers of high standard delivered at a high quality venue. Melbourne TEC Chambers was very pleased to have supported this successful conference, and to have the opportunity of further publicising the expertise, skills and availability of its members. This included providing each of the conference delegates with a copy of the MTECC brochure, in a conference bag which has MTECC's "brand" inside the flap.