2026 Senior Practitioner Commercial Litigation Masterclasses

SENIOR PRACTITIONER COMMERCIAL LITIGATION MASTERCLASSES: 

As part of our ongoing commitment to strengthening professional development across the Western Australian legal profession, The Piddington Society, with the support of Curtin Law School, will present the Senior Practitioner Commercial Litigation Masterclasses in the second half of 2026.

This advanced programme has been designed for experienced commercial litigators (5 plus years PAE) and comprises a series of four intensive seminar exercises delivered over approximately two and a half months. Each session will run for 1.5 hours in the early evening and will focus on complex, fact-driven problems reflective of modern commercial disputes.

The programme has been developed by the Hon Graeme Murphy SC and Chris Zelestis KC to enhance advocacy, analytical reasoning, pleading and strategic litigation skills at a senior level.

Participants will receive detailed written problems in advance of each workshop and are strongly encouraged to review the materials beforehand to maximise the benefit of the sessions.

Each seminar will be delivered by either the Hon Graeme Murphy SC or Mr Zelestis KC, supported by junior counsel, Ann Spencer and James Nagle of Francis Burt Chambers, and Clara Wren and Tom Webb of Quayside. At each session, participants will receive access credentials to unlock electronic template solutions, including sample pleadings addressing three of the problems and, for the fourth, a sample written outline of submissions.

THE DETAIL: 

Across the four sessions, held from 4.30pm to 6.00pm participants will work through: 

a) a commercial contract dispute (Thursday 6 August);
b) a common law negligence and vicarious liability problem (Thursday 20 August);
c) a statutory misleading and deceptive conduct claim (Thursday 3 September); and
d) an equitable interest in land and associated caveat dispute (Thursday 15 October).

LOCATION: 

Curtin Law School Moot Court Room 207

FORMAT: 

Each workshop will be conducted by 2 presenters, each of whome will share their insights into the technique of legal analysis. 

The last workshop will end with collegiality and therefore have a later finishing time. 

CPD POINTS:  

Participants will be eligible for 6 CPD points in total, across the four sessions. 1 point in CA2 Professional Skills and 0.5 points in CA4 for each session. If you miss any sessions, you will not be allocated points for that session. 

Note: Practitioner ID numbers are issued by the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia. Information from the Board is available here. We require these to issue CPD certificates. If you do not want a CPD certificate, please put '00000' in the box on the booking form.

Cancellations:
For cancellation and refund details, please see our Cancellation and Refund Policy.

This program is delivered by The Piddington Society, an accredited CPD Provider approved by the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia. CPD schemes in other Australian jurisdictions do not accredit or pre-approve providers or courses. As a result, practitioners outside Western Australia must self-assess this activity against the CPD rules in their home jurisdiction and determine whether it meets their professional development obligations. Certificates of completion are issued to assist with record-keeping, but the final decision as to compliance rests with the individual practitioner and their local regulator. Participants should also note that some jurisdictions impose caps on certain delivery modes (e.g. South Australia limits 5 units per CPD year for web-based/recorded programs).

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