Insolvency seminars for law groups

Last week was a busy week for educating and meeting solicitors in Sydney and Melbourne.

Lots of solicitors are interested in finding out more about the new safe harbour from insolvent trading (section 588GA Corporations Act). So the firm is giving presentations on the new safe harbour for law and accounting discussion groups in NSW and Victoria to help educate other professionals.

Ben Sewell, Firm Principal, gave our “hot topic” seminar last week for the City of Sydney Law Society (NSW) and the Easter Solicitor’s Law Association (VIC) over successive nights. In total there was about 150 solicitors combined at both events to hear “Licence to trade insolvent, The new safe harbour for directors”.

The key questions for the seminar were:
• Tell us about the insolvent trading prohibition
• How can lawyers become safe harbour advisers
• What a restructuring plan looks like
• What gets in the way (not filing tax returns or paying entitlements)

A big thanks goes to the organisers of the events: Con Ktenas (President of the City of Sydney Law Society) and Zubair Mian (President of Eastern Solicitor’s Law Association)

Ben’s comments about the two events were:

City of Sydney Law Society (CSLS) event: Some great questions from the audience. The question about whether subsections 588GA(1)(a) and (b) are conflicting comes to mind. One limb requires a director to “start” to develop a course of action whilst the second limb presupposes a course of action is already developed. Terrific – I’ll write a paper about it!

Easter Solicitor’s Law Association (ESLA) event: Pity I missed the dinner because they served it while I spoke (Colombo’s Restaurant, Balwyn). I would have liked to try the oysters!