here - Gordon & Jackson

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Michael Heaton QC
Michael practices in a broad range of areas in commercial law including contract, corporations, insolvency, trade
practices, insurance, property, professional negligence, equity and building and construction.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), a Fellow of the Australian Centre of International
Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) and a Member of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA). He is on
the ACICA Panel of Arbitrators and is an IAMA Registered Grade 1 Arbitrator.
Michael is an accredited adjudicator under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act.
Michael is a nationally accredited mediator and a Victorian Bar accredited advanced mediator. He is on the ACICA
Mediation Panel, the IAMA Mediation Panel and the Panel of Franchise Mediators under the Franchise Code.
He is a member of Chancery Chambers (www.chancery.com.au) and Melbourne TEC Chambers (MTECC)
(www.mtecc.com.au). He chairs the Victorian Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. He is currently on the
organising committee for the Australia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group conference to be held in March 2014 in
Melbourne.
Paul Duggan
Paul appears mainly in the Supreme Court, the County Court and VCAT (particularly its Retail Tenancies, Domestic
Building, Real Property and Civil Claims lists) but is also available for work in the federal and interstate jurisdictions.
Paul is a nationally accredited mediator.
He has a wide commercial practice and particular experience in disputes involving Retail leases; Commercial leases;
Partnerships; Franchises (acting both for franchisors and franchisees); Professional negligence; Farming enterprises
(such as supply and share farming disputes); Building - both commercial and domestic; Insurance; Corporate and
personal insolvency; Management and agency agreements; and Partition and sale of land.
Paul's blog can be found at http://pauldugganbarrister.com.
Before coming to the Bar, Paul had two careers: a total of 4 years as a solicitor at Dunhill Madden Butler and then
Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks; and 6 years as a journalist with publications including 'The Herald' and 'The Age'.
Paul's interests outside the law include skiing, farming, bushwalking and learning German from his four kids.
Hugo de Kock
Hugo practises predominately in commercial litigation. Recently he has acted for one of the directors of Opes Prime
Stockbroking following the company’s collapse in 2008 and is currently acting for the Department of Environment and
Primary Industries in the Kilmore East bushfire class action.
He has been a litigation lawyer for 10 years. He was a solicitor in Melbourne for a number of years, specialising in
commercial litigation, prior to joining the Bar. His expertise includes areas such as contract law, trade practices,
banking and finance, trusts, corporations (including breach of director’s duties), bankruptcy and insolvency, tort,
property and professional negligence.
Lydia Kinda
With legal expertise focussed in the areas of commercial disputes and mediation coupled with significant experience
working in non-legal roles in commercial enterprises, Lydia offers a unique mix of legal and commercial experience.
In her pre-Law career Lydia worked across a range of sectors including the Commonwealth Government, mining,
wholesale and retail, as a distribution agent as well as managing a computer software/hardware business. Lydia also
worked for a major Australian bank, and acted as Membership Secretary for a medical indemnity association while
she was studying Law.
Commencing work as a lawyer in 2001, Lydia found her breadth of pre-law commercial experience invaluable. Her
foreign language skills have been useful in international commercial disputes. Lydia’s interest in equity and trusts led
to her also developing a practice in wills and estates alongside that in commercial disputes.