AIIP Conference 2024: Come back for your hat

ADVERTORIAL

“Having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat”.

With these words Federal Court judge Michael Lee delivered judgment in April in proceedings commenced by Bruce Lehrmann, the former Liberal Party staffer and accused Parliament House rapist who claimed he’d been defamed.

In uttering those memorable words Justice Lee was observing that having had criminal proceedings against him abandoned, Lehrmann probably should have thanked his lucky stars and attempted to distance himself from the sordid saga, rather than embark on a risky and high profile defamation claim, one that backfired spectacularly when his honour found that on the balance of probabilities, a rape had taken place.

Whilst Lehrmann is appealing that decision, next month AIIP members will have the opportunity to hear from the utterer of this headline-making sentence himself when Justice Lee attends the AIIP’s full day Conference as keynote speaker.

While the topic of the judge’s talk remains secret, in an environment of accelerating rates of insolvency and agitation for wholesale reform it’s bound to be insightful and given the calibre of the presenter, certain to entertain.

The AIIP’s one day “Mini Conference” 2024 kicks off on the morning of Thursday, August 22 with an economic update from Macquarie Bank private client director Ben Forrester.

As well as sponsoring the Conference, Macquarie Bank is also hosting the event at its new headquarters at No. 1 Elizabeth Street Sydney.

The ATO’s acting deputy commissioner of lodgements and payments Jillian Kitto is next with an update on the tax office’s recovery efforts and the remainder of the morning is turned over to one of the hottest topics in the current environment, Small Business Restructurings (SBR).

Associate lecturer from the Queensland University of Technology Amanda Bull will present findings from her survey on SBRs, conducted earlier this year.

Immediately afterwards, a panel comprising ATO senior insolvency advisor Gary Busby, SBR specialist and registered liquidator Jarvis Archer from Business Reset and Freedom Loans’ Mark Roberts will discuss what’s happening in the SBR space and take the conference through to lunch.

Afterwards, Justice Lee is expected to speak for an hour. There there’ll be a series of “TED” talks.

CPA Australia’s Ram Subramanian will cover what practitioners need to know in respect of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, there’ll be an update on all things regulatory from ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke and then Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Bilson will talk about the conditions prevailing in the small business space.

Next up will be Denise Hall from conference sponsor Xcllusive Business Sale, who’ll identify what types of businesses are being sold in the current market and the conference will wrap up with a panel of legal experts comprising Professor of Corporate Law Jason Harris, barristers Ralphed Notley and Michelle Castle and solicitor Natasha McHattan discussing the latest cases of relevance for insolvency practitioners.

But of course, no conference is finished before the official diner, the venue for which is upmarket South American eatery Morena, where you’re guaranteed to go back for seconds.