The IMF Bentham and UNSW National Class Actions Conference Tuesday 25 September 2018 RACV City Club, Melbourne VIC Programme 9.05am 9.10am 9.15am 10.15am Welcome from IMF Bentham and UNSW (Matthew Kennedy, IMF Bentham) Introduction to Keynote Speaker (Andrew Saker, IMF Bentham) Keynote address by Sir Rupert Jackson Controlling the Costs of Class Actions Break for morning tea/coffee 10.30am 10.35am 11.35am Introduction to Presentation (Kristen Smith, IMF Bentham) Presentation by Professor Michael Legg of UNSW Law Finality and Fairness in Australian Class Actions Panel Discussion Cost Management in Class Actions Chair: Clive Bowman (IMF Bentham) Panellists: The Honourable Justice Michael Lee (Federal Court of Australia) Liz Harris (Costs Expert) Rachel Doyle SC (Barrister) Jonathan O Riordan (Claims Recovery Manager) 12.45pm Concluding remarks: Clive Bowman 1.00pm Light lunch 2.00pm Finish
About the presenters and hosts Sir Rupert Jackson Sir Rupert Jackson is a former Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Sir Rupert was called to the Bar in 1972 and became a Queens Counsel in 1987. He specialised in professional negligence, insurance and construction and appeared as counsel in domestic and international arbitrations, principally in London and Hong Kong. Sir Rupert has also acted as an arbitrator. Sir Rupert was appointed to the High Court in 1999 and served as judge in charge of the Technology and Construction Court from 2004 to 2007. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2008. In 2009 Sir Rupert commenced a comprehensive review of the civil litigation costs system in England and Wales, including reviewing the funding of civil litigation and the procedural rules, to make recommendations for promoting access to justice at proportionate costs. The ambitious and influential review resulted in significant and ground-breaking reforms, commonly referred to as the Jackson Reforms, to civil procedure and costs rules to promote access to justice at proportionate cost. His recommendations were introduced in 2013. Sir Rupert proposed further reforms and published a Supplemental Report in July 2017 for Government consideration. He has spoken widely on civil justice reform, managing costs in civil litigation and access to justice issues. Sir Rupert retired from the Court of Appeal in March 2018 and returned to chambers to practise as an international arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator. Sir Rupert: was co-author and general editor of Jackson and Powell on Professional Liability from 1982 to 1999 and has since been consultant editor. was Chairman of the Professional Negligence Bar Association between 1993 and 1995 and is now President of that Association. was an editor of the White Book (a manual of civil procedure, published annually, and used by judges and practitioners in civil procedure) between 2000-2010 and editorin-chief from 2010 to 2018. has been President of the Society of Construction Law since 2012. authored The Reform of Civil Litigation, published by Sweet & Maxwell in September 2016. The second edition entitled The Reform of Civil Justice, co-authored with Stephen Clark, was published in March 2018.
Professor Michael Legg UNSW Law, Director of IMF Bentham Class Actions Research Initiative Michael Legg is a Professor and the Director of the IMF Bentham Class Actions Research Initiative at UNSW Law. Michael s research interests include case management of complex civil litigation, regulatory litigation, class actions and litigation funding. He is the author of Case Management and Complex Civil Litigation (2011) published by Federation Press, co-author of Civil Procedure in New South Wales (3d ed 2016) published by Thomson Reuters and co-author of Australian Annotated Class Actions Legislation (2d ed 2018) published by LexisNexis. His research has been cited in judgments from the Federal Court of Australia, Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Supreme Court of Victoria, and in law reform reports by the Australian Law Reform Commission, Productivity Commission, NSW Law Reform Commission and Victorian Law Reform Commission. A complete list of publications is available here: http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/profile/michael-legg/publications Michael has 20 years of experience as a legal practitioner having worked with leading Australian and US law firms. He is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of NSW, Federal Court of Australia, High Court of Australia and in the State and Federal courts of New York. He holds law degrees from UNSW and the University of California, Berkeley. Michael is a member of the Law Council of Australia's Class Actions Committee, a member of the Law Society of NSW's Future Committee and a Board Member of the Australian Pro Bono Centre. The Honourable Justice Michael Lee Federal Court of Australia Justice Michael Lee was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia in March 2017. Prior to his appointment to the Bench, Justice Lee lead an illustrious career in private legal practice. Justice Lee commenced his legal career as a solicitor in 1989 with a firm that later became one of Australia's largest national partnerships. He became a senior associate of the firm in 1992 and was appointed its youngest partner in 1995. Justice Lee became a senior litigation partner and national practice group leader before joining the New South Wales Bar in 2002. As a barrister, his Honour developed a nationwide and eclectic practice in civil and criminal matters. He acted in a broad range of superior court matters at first instance and on appeal and took silk in 2011. Justice Lee is a graduate of the University of Sydney.
Rachel Doyle Senior Counsel, Barrister, List G Barristers Rachel Doyle SC is a trial and appellate advocate, specialising in Class Actions and Industrial Law. She has significant experience in common law proceedings, Royal Commissions and inquests and appears in commercial and public law matters. Rachel joined the Victorian Bar in 1996 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2009. Before joining the Bar, Rachel was associate to Sir Daryl Dawson of the High Court between July 1994 and February 1996. She has degrees in law and arts from Adelaide University. Liz Harris Principal Consultant, Ovid Consulting (Costs Expert) Liz Harris is principal consultant for Ovid Consulting. Liz s background is as a litigator specialising in disputes between lawyers and their clients. In this specialist practice, she has reviewed thousands of files and seen the way hundreds of lawyers manage legal work, developing insights into what works well, how costs blow out, and what are the best practices in managing work and therefore legal costs. Liz consults to government and corporate legal departments on best practices in legal department management. A main focus is legal spend management, utilising legal project management principles and developing clients as Informed Purchasers of legal services. She regularly presents workshops on legal spend management and legal project management in Australia, the UK and the USA. She is often engaged as an expert witness on legal cost and litigation management issues, including in shareholder and product liability class actions, and complex commercial litigation. Jonathan O Riordan Claims Recovery Manager Asia Pacific, Liberty International Underwriters Jonathan O Riordan is the Claims Recovery Manager - Asia Pacific for Liberty International Underwriters. He is a qualified lawyer who has practised in New South Wales and Victoria and has over 20 years of insurance experience. He has advised on and handled many large and complex claims across numerous lines of business including, Financial Lines, Property, Casualty, Accident & Health, Crisis and Marine. He joined Liberty in 2017 to establish a dedicated Recoveries Unit. Prior to joining Liberty, he worked for a number of International and Australian Insurers and Underwriters, as a Claims Recovery Specialist, General Counsel and Claims Manager. He has drafted policy wordings, advised on compliance issues and managed claims in all jurisdictions of Australia, New Zealand, Asia and various other parts of the world.
Andrew Saker Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Andrew Saker is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of IMF Bentham. He joined IMF Bentham in 2015 and has lead a transformational strategy to expand the company s geographic footprint, diversify its product and service offering and migrate its capital management approach towards becoming a fund manager investing in various fund structures. Andrew leads a global team of approximately 80 legal, financial and management professionals across 14 offices throughout Australia, Asia, North America and Europe. Under his stewardship, IMF Bentham has raised close to A$500 million, increased its investments from A$100 million to over A$270 million and increased its market capitalisation threefold. Prior to joining IMF Bentham, Andrew was a partner at a leading provider of corporate recovery, insolvency management and restructuring services throughout Australia and Asia for 16 years. During this period, he managed the Indonesian and Perth operations and assisted with billion-dollar cross-border restructuring assignments throughout the world including in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, China, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Europe, the US and Canada. Mr Saker has managed hundreds of large claims across a range of industries including mining, telecommunications, energy, aquaculture, property, manufacturing, infrastructure, banking and finance. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting and Finance. He is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and was an Official Liquidator of the Supreme and Federal Courts until his appointment at IMF. Clive Bowman Chief Executive Australia and Asia, IMF Bentham Clive Bowman is based in Sydney and is Chief Executive - Australia and Asia for IMF Bentham. Clive also heads IMF Bentham's case selection committee and investment managers committee. After working as a lawyer in large law firms in Sydney and London, Clive became involved in litigation funding in 1997 and has been with IMF since it listed on the ASX in October 2001. He was a director of IMF from 23 February 2011 to 5 January 2015. He has extensive experience in litigation and litigation funding with a particular focus on insolvency and large scale multi-party litigation. Clive has a degree in economics and an honours degree in law from the Australian National University. He also holds a graduate diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia and has completed the IPAA Advanced Insolvency course.
Matthew Kennedy Investment Manager, IMF Bentham Matthew Kennedy is an Investment Manager based in the Melbourne office of IMF Bentham, with responsibility for due diligence and managing funded cases. Matthew was admitted to legal practice in 2001 and joined the Victorian Bar in 2007. Matthew was a barrister for almost 7 years, and his general commercial practice included an expertise in equity and trust, insolvency and corporation law matters. Before joining the Bar, Matthew was a solicitor in the financial services group of a large firm, spent a year as an associate to a Federal Court judge and almost three years as an adviser to the Premier and Chief of Staff to a Minister in the Victorian State Government. Kristen Smith Investment Manager, IMF Bentham Kristen Smith is an Investment Manager in the Melbourne office of IMF Bentham with responsibility for due diligence and management of funded cases. Prior to joining IMF in November 2015, Kristen worked in Slater and Gordon s Commercial and Project Litigation team from 2008 with a practice focused on corporations law matters and financial services disputes. Kristen has extensive litigation experience and brings key skills to the project management aspects of complex litigation. Kristen has previously worked on a number of successful class action matters and large scale out-of-court settlement schemes with major Australian banks. Prior to joining Slater and Gordon, she worked at Dundas & Wilson (now CMS) in Scotland and as an Associate to the Supreme Court of Victoria s Associate Justice Efthim. In 2004 she was awarded the Victoria Law Foundation Chief Justice s Medal for Excellence and Community Service. She graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2005 with Bachelor degrees in Law (Honours) and Arts.