Bond Law

Geoffrey Ebert is the Managing Partner of Finemore Walters & Story solicitors based in Bundaberg. The firm Finemore Walters & Story is a typical regional practice having 3 partners, 4 employed solicitors and a total workforce of approximately 35 people. Geoff commenced legal practice in a midsized Brisbane firm and after several years of practice in Brisbane city, relocated to Bundaberg approximately 20 years ago. Geoff is a member of the last generation of generalists who practice across a broad area of general services and enjoys the challenge of providing advice across nearly the whole spectrum of general legal services used by the public.In addition to day to day general practice, Geoff has a strong interest in legal management theory and has watched keenly the trends that have developed in the legal industry over the last 20 years. Outside of the law Geoff has a strong interest in most sports in particular, AFL and is currently an employee of the Brisbane Lions Football Club as a part-time development coach. Paul Lucas, aged 52, served in the Queensland Parliament for 16 years, 11 as a Minister including 4 years as Deputy Premier to Anna Bligh. He has served in a range of Portfolios far wider than most other Ministers, State or Federal. His portfolios included: Innovation and Information Economy; Energy; Transport and Main Roads; Infrastructure and Planning; Health, Attorney-General, Local Government and Planning and Special Minister of State. He holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Economics and in Laws, an MBA, and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. He is currently undertaking a Ph.D. at the University of Queensland on the 1970 Wilbur Smith South East Qld Public Transport Plan and infrastructure and public transport institutions established since then. He was a solicitor in private legal practice before election to Parliament. He is a Nationally Accredited Mediator (and member of the Australian Mediation Association); a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, holds an RG146 Superannuation qualification, and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport. He provides specialist lecturing and training to The University of Queensland in International Training at a Government level for countries such as China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. He lectures and tutors undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Queensland and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law and Business at Australian Catholic University. He is a Non-Executive Director of Airservices Australia and chairs its Board Environment Committee. He serves on the Board of the Australian College of Optometry. He has 4 adult children and his partner is Alison Smith – a Walkley finalist journalist (for her reporting of the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre). He enjoys music and reading and all forms of oblong football. He is a qualified and practising, rugby union referee. Charles Hartley qualified in the UK and began practice in 1993. He worked in a panel firm in London specialising in medical and insurance litigation for over 10 years before being admitted to practice in Australia in 2007. He has worked in both public and private practice in Brisbane. In his current role as Head of Legal Services Metro North Queensland Health Charles handles general healthcare matters including ethical issues, coronial inquests, responses to the HQCC/AHPRA and the Health Ombudsman. He also deals with litigation matters, consent and capacity issues and regularly delivers seminars. He was responsible for arranging a ground-breaking mock inquest which filled the RBWH lecture theatre with over 300 attendees.

Sara Smyth leads an interactive presentation on the myths and realities of cybercrime and the tactics used by cyber criminals.

Federal Magistrate Tom Altobelli started practising family law in 1984 and is now widely regarded as a leading expert in the field. Prior to his appointment to the Federal Magistrates Court in 2006, Judge Altobelli was Special Counsel to Watts McCray and also Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Western Sydney. His books on family law (Family Law: Theory Meets Practice, 1999 and Family Law in Australia: Principles and Practice, 2003) are widely used both by family lawyers and students of family law across Australia

Sartaj Gill gives an overview about life as a Lawyer at a Wall Street Law Firm and the type of business conducted; everything from corporate mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance, to litigation of white collar crime and commercial disputes. Mr. Gill is a member of Davis Polk’s Corporate Department, advising borrowers as well as financial institutions on a wide range of domestic and international corporate finance transactions, with special emphasis on acquisition and other leveraged finance transactions

Mr James Nickless will aim to dispel some of the myths about legal practice and firm cultures, causing students to think honestly about the type of life/career they really want and provide some ideas on attracting the right type of employment opportunities. As a solicitor at MBA Lawyers, Mr. Nickless handles all aspects of dispute resolution including negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation. James has experience in various types of disputes in areas such as construction, body corporate, defamation, trade practices, international commercial disputes and general commercial litigation. He specialises in insolvency litigation and has acted for creditors, including Australia's leading banks, in complex matters of corporate insolvency and individual bankruptcy. James has also advised receivers and liquidators in relation to their duties and has conducted litigation on behalf of receivers and liquidators

Azaria Chamberlain was an Australian baby girl who was killed by a dingo on a family camping trip to Uluru in the Northern Territory. Her body was never found. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo, but Lindy was tried for murder and spent more than three years in prison. She was released when a piece of Azaria's clothing was found in a dingo lair. New inquests were opened. In 2012, 32 years after Azaria's death, the Chamberlains' version of events was confirmed by a coroner. Glen Cranny examines Lindy Chamberlain case, involving as it does interesting issues of law, scientific evidence and public perceptions of the justice system. Glen Cranny has specialised in criminal defence work since 1995 and is today recognised as one of the most prominent criminal lawyers in Queensland. Over the last decade he has been actively involved in presenting and organising papers and seminars on criminal law, for bodies such as the Queensland Law Society, LawAsia, and the Queensland College of Law. In 2010 Mr. Cranny was appointed as a Senior Counsellor of the Queensland Law Society

Justice John Doyle proposes to explain why he believes that, during the time of the next generation of legal practitioners, those now being admitted to practice, civil litigation as we know it in the higher courts will come to an end. It might survive in the Magistrates Court. Criminal litigation in the higher courts will continue, although the factors that will cause the demise of civil litigation will cause substantial changes in the conduct of criminal litigation. This probably sounds like a gloomy prognostication of the kind to which judicial officers become prone as they approach retirement. He has heard and read many judicial retirement speeches. A common genre in retirement speeches involves reflecting on a golden age early in the judicial officer’s legal career, a golden age when all was well with the profession and with the administration of justice. This is followed by a catalogue of regrets about things as they are at the time of the judicial officer’s retirement, followed by a call to those who remain to ensure that things do not get worse. The regrets about how things are come from a familiar catalogue. The catalogue includes cases take too long; the law has become too complicated; solicitors and advocates fail to focus on the real issues; the public and the media no longer respect the judicial office; the practice of the law has become a business, instead of a profession; the cursed photocopier; litigation is buried in snow drifts of paper; recent graduates in law are all theory and nothing practical, and so on. The tendency of such speeches is toward a conclusion that the administration of justice is on a downhill slope. There is usually a call to the judiciary to re-assert itself, and to maintain standards