The Monash Law e-Briefing 3rd edition November 2014

November 3, 2014

3rd Edition November 2014

50th Anniversary: Connecting our alumni locally and globally

Welcome to the third edition of The Monash Law e-Briefing, in what continues to be a celebratory and eventful year for the Law Faculty community.

We’ve now had four 50th anniversary celebrations globally, our Gala Dinner in Melbourne and alumni dinners in Hong Kong, London and Singapore.

We are also planning for a celebration in Malaysia before the end of 2014.

In September we held a dinner in London with a number of Law alumni currently working or completing postgraduate studies in the UK.

Guests were very appreciative of being able to attend this alumni dinner in London and help the Faculty celebrate this significant anniversary. They recognise the value of being part of the Faculty’s growing global presence and network.

We also held a Law alumni dinner in Singapore in October. Guests thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to reminisce and benefit from each other’s diverse industry knowledge and experience. The enriching discussion exemplified the broad and valuable skill set of Monash Law graduates.

Dean Prof Bryan Horrigan with Law alumni in Singapore (L-R: Ms Michelle Landy, the Dean, Mr Dinesh Menon, Mr Low Chee Wah and Mr Ivan Ang)

In addition to celebrating the Faculty’s 50th anniversary, these dinners have been great opportunities for our international Law alumni to connect and engage with each other and the Faculty.

Our recent initiatives including the Faculty’s new partnership arrangements with Oxford, Cambridge and King’s College London aim to build upon and strengthen our global reach and community. So too do the new Hong Kong student scholarship and internship initiatives launched by our Hong Kong alumni advisory chapter at their 50th anniversary celebration earlier this year.

It has been exciting to hear from alumni around the world about their successes and contributions to a diverse range of sectors including legal, corporate, academic, government and community.

We are committed and working hard to create more opportunities for alumni to engage and connect locally and globally.

We encourage you to visit the alumni section of our website where you can find out how to become more involved and engaged with the Faculty and also read about alumni achievements, privileges and benefits.

Law Faculty celebrates 50 years with gala dinner

The Grand Hyatt Melbourne came to life as the Law Faculty celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala dinner with over 400 attendees. Read more

Watch 50th Gala Dinner video and
Reflections on the first 50 years video

Research centre on commercial law and regulatory studies

The Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies (CLARS) is a research centre that incorporates the previous Commercial Law Group and Centre for Regulatory Studies.

Read more or visit the CLARS website

Law alumna takes out top distinguished alumni award

The Hon Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC

The Honourable Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC (BJuris 1973, LLB 1974, LLM 1983, HonLLD 2004) was awarded University Distinguished Alumni of the Year, the highest alumni award presented by Monash University. Read more

Fellowships honour exceptional Law alumni

Monash University recently acknowledged the extraordinary contributions and achievements of industry leaders with awards of Fellowships to outstanding alumni.

Fellowship recipients included the following Law alumni:

The Honourable Justice Jennifer Coate (BA 1979, LLB 1984)

The Honourable Justice Pamela Tate (LLB(Hons) 1988)

Mr Graham Allan (BEc 1975, LLB(Hons) 1978)

Ms Karen Wood (LLB(Hons) 1985)

Honourable Justice Stephen Gageler presents the 20th Lucinda Lecture

In our 50th anniversary year, the Faculty was honoured to have the Honourable Justice Stephen Gageler of the High Court of Australia deliver the 20th Lucinda Lecture at our Clayton Campus on 15 September.

Read more or watch the 20th Lucinda Lecture video

The Hon Justice Stephen Gageler

Back row: Prof. The Hon. Peter Gray AM, Dr Vicky Priskich, Prof. HP Lee, Acting Dean Prof. Marilyn Pittard, Prof. Peter Johnson
Front row: The Hon. Michael Black AC, The Hon. Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC, The Hon. Justice Stephen Gagelar, The Hon. Chief Justice Diana Bryant AO

Victoria’s Chief Justice delivers the Annual Newman lecture

2014 Newman Lecture speakers (L-R): Professor Bryan Horrigan, The Honourable Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC, Emeritus Professor Gabrielle McMullen AM FRACI, Dr Simon Caterson.

Victoria’s Chief Justice and Monash Law alumna, the Honourable Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC, recently attended Mannix College and delivered the annual Newman Lecture, exploring the meaning of justice. Read more or view a transcript of the lecture.

Victorian Ombudsman and Law alumna presents the 2014 Costello Lecture

LR: Mr Brian Walters QC, Ms Deborah Glass OBE, Victorian Ombudsman, Prof Marilyn Pittard, Associate Dean (International and Engagement), Rev Tim Costello AO, CEO World Vision Audstralia

Ms Deborah Glass OBE (Victorian Ombudsman and Law alumna) gave the annual Costello Lecture address in the Faculty’s 50^th anniversary year, reflecting on fairness and the role of her office in ensuring fairness for the community.

Read more or watch the Costello Lecture address

Monash and Harvard Law School collaborate on new subject

In an exciting new initiative, the Monash Law Faculty will be offering the subject Copyright X: Monash in conjunction with the Harvard Law School. This innovative collaboration begins in January 2015 as an elective for JD and Masters students. Read more

The lasting legacy of Lawrie McCredie

A new book has been published about the extraordinary life of Lawrie McCredie CBE AM, who served for more than 30 years in the Faculty of Law.

Proceeds from the sale of Blind Optimist: The Life of Lawrie McCredie CEB, AM will go to the Faculty’s Lawrie McCredie Student Support Program. Read more

Faculty welcomes Distinguished Jurist in Residence and launches new Distinguished Professional in Residence Program

The Hon Peter Gray AM

The Faculty warmly welcomes Professor the Honourable Peter Gray AM, retired judge of the Federal Court of Australia, as the Distinguished Jurist in Residence.

The Faculty has also launched a Distinguished Professional in Residence Program. Read more

New professional mentoring program for Juris Doctor students

A new professional mentoring program has proven a great success in providing JD students with greater insights into the legal profession and valuable networking opportunities.

Want to become a mentor? Get involved by contacting the Juris Doctor Law Students' Society at jd.mentoring@monashlss.com

Read more

Dr Becky Batagol honoured for outstanding contribution to student learning

Dr Becky Batagol

Dr Becky Batagol was one of four Monash staff recognised by the Federal Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) at the recent Victorian Australian Awards for University Teaching.

Dr Batagol was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Read more

Law alumnus appointed Australia Day Ambassador

Monash Law alumnus and barrister William Lye has been appointed an Australia Day Ambassador for 2015.

Monash JD student, Kathy Milne, won first prize in the Connecting with Law short film competition. Her film explored the topical issue of the ethics of using social media as a lawyer.

Conference puts Victoria’s Human Rights Charter in the spotlight

The Monash Law Faculty in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Victoria, Judicial College of Victoria, Victoria Law Foundation and the Human Rights Law Centre held a two day conference examining the development of human rights law in Victoria - Human Rights Under the Charter: The Development of Human Rights Law in Victoria.

The conference was held on 7-8 August 2014 at the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Monash University Law Chambers.

This was the first international conference to present a thorough judicial and academic analysis of Victoria’s human rights jurisprudence and marked a significant milestone in the development of this jurisprudence.

Keynote speakers included the Honourable Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE CBE QC and the Honourable Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC.

Watch videos from the presentations

Monash dominates national law student essay competition

Monash law students have won first, second and tied third prize in the Australian Law Students' Association’s National Essay competition 2014. Read more

Welcome to our newest graduates

L-R: Associate Prof David Lindsay, Ainee Adam, Prof HP Lee

Our most recent Law graduates were welcomed to the Monash Law alumni community at a Graduation Ceremony held on 24 October. Ms Louise Johnson, CEO of the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority and a Law alumna, delivered the alumni address.

October 2014 graduates, we wish you all the very best for the future and encourage you to stay in touch with us by keeping your contact details updated.

Expert legal commentary: Liability To Investors For Negligent Credit Ratings

Professor Rowan Russell Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University

Traditionally: no liability for rating agencies

One cause of the global financial crisis was the failure of complicated derivative products based on “unsafe” home loans principally in the USA but also elsewhere. These products were often marketed with the benefit of an AAA rating by one of the major rating agencies. In many cases, upon a post facto review, these ratings were issued negligently. Can rating agencies, which issued these ratings, be liable to investors?

Expert legal commentary: The TIPP method for negotiating with difficult people

George H. Golvan QC Bjuris 1968, LLB 1970

“Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.”: Don Vito Corleone – The Godfather.

I propose a useful acronym, which I call TIPP, which identifies, in my opinion, the most important strategies to remember when negotiating with difficult people.

The goal is to try to shift a difficult negotiator from an aggressive competitive approach to a rational problem solving approach.

TIPP stands for: Time, Interests, Persuasion and Persistence.

Professor Bob Baxt AO Emeritus Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and former Dean of the Monash Law Faculty (1980-88)

When the Australian Parliament enacted s 51AA Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (the TPA), and introduced a remedy based on ‘unconscionable conduct’, it was felt by many that Parliament was merely creating a statutory regime to parallel the approach taken by the courts. The High Court of Australia had seemed to adequately sum up the common law approach to unconscionable conduct in Commercial Bank of Australia Limited v Amadio (1983) 151 CLR 447.

Monash Law academics in the media

Our Monash Law Faculty academics have been consistently contributing to topical legal discussions.

To find out more, visit our website.

Celebrating alumni achievements

Queen’s Birthday Honours

We wish to congratulate the following alumni and former staff for their Queen’s Birthday Honours, recognising their significant contributions to Australian society:

Mr Rowland Ball, Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)
(Former senior lecturer, Monash Law Faculty)
Honour received for service to the law, to tertiary education, and to professional organisations.

Dr Lesley Boston, Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
(Hon LLD 2014)
Honour received for distinguished service to education as an advocate for improved opportunities for young women, to innovative and best practice pedagogy, and to professional development.

Dr Megan Clark, Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)
(Hon LLD 2013)
Honour received for eminent service to scientific research and development through fostering innovation, to science administration through strategic leadership roles, and to the development of public policy for technological sciences.

For more alumni achievements visit the alumni section of our website.

Faculty staff news

New appointments
The Faculty is delighted to announce the following new academic appointments:

Dr Kate Seear, (Academic Director, Springvale Monash Legal Service and Senior Lecturer)
Janina Boughey (Lecturer)
Dr Deborah Whitehall (Lecturer)
Lisa Burton (Lecturer)
Dr Weiping He (Lecturer)
Sangeetha Pillai (Lecturer)

Promotions
The Faculty is also very pleased to announce the following promotions:

Matthew Groves (Professor)
Tania Penovic (Senior Lecturer)
Dr Lisa Spagnolo (Senior Lecturer)

25 Years of Service to Monash University by Law Staff

Three Monash Law Faculty staff members were recognised and awarded medals at the University’s 25 Year Service Award ceremony held on 10 July 2014:

SACS Leadership Awards

Congratulations to Professor Sarah Joseph who was awarded the SACS Leadership Award for the category of Executive Not for Profit. Professor Joseph was awarded $7,500 from SACS Consulting, as the winner in this category, to be put towards fostering the development of Leadership.

Professor Sarah Joseph with her SACS Leadership Award cheque

Stay connected and get involved

We provide a range of opportunities for alumni to remain engaged and for the legal industry to become involved with the Monash Law Faculty.

For more information, visit the alumni section of our website or contact our Alumni Relations Manager Elana Pose.

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