All change for annual conference

I am really delighted to tell you all about this year’s ILG annual event. The ILG committee works tirelessly to help members get the very best in relevant educational events all year round. We work with our fantastic sponsors to offer you CPD that is relevant, timely and interesting. We want your CPD to be presented by enthusiasts who know their subjects and care about you, the in-house solicitor.

As you know, all this culminates in our annual grand finale which this year will take place on 29 October 2010. For the first time it will be in two locations. The conference will take place at the John McIntyre Centre in Edinburgh University Pollock Halls Campus. You can get a number 14 bus from Princes Street which will take you almost to the door, or a taxi from Waverley Station will cost around £7. It’s an early start – 9am registration – so accommodation is available at the Salisbury Green Hotel on the campus, or the Travelodge on St Mary’s Street in the Old Town, to ensure you and your staff can attend from afar. The dinner will take place in the Royal College of Physicians on Queen Street and will commence with a drinks reception at 7pm.

This year’s programme differs in that we will be offering a partially streamed programme, the aim being to better serve our local government and commerce & industry sections – for details see the panel.

As always we are tremendously grateful to our six sponsors:

Brodies, DLA Piper, Pinsent Masons, Burness, McGrigors, and Shepherd and Wedderburn. Thanks to their generosity we will yet again be able to offer one of the best value CPD and networking opportunities in the UK. What is more, it’s a chance to meet old friends and new, to learn, and last but not least to thank your wonderful staff for all their hard work and effort over the last year. I look forward to seeing you there.

This year’s programme

The conference opens at 9.30 with a welcome from Janet Hood, followed by the keynote address, this year from Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC with the title “Right First Time”.

There follow the presentations brought to you by the sponsor firms, beginning with Craig Connal QC of McGrigors on “Judicial Review: Explosive device… or damp squib”. This will confront the latest issues surrounding judicial review and consider where the remedy has reached today. He also looks more closely at the current debate over when judicial review has to be commenced.

After the coffee break comes the first streamed session, a choice of presentations by Shepherd and Wedderburn on outsourcing, reviewing first principles around good outsourcing and key issues that often make the difference. Liz McRobb, Lynne Scott and Julia Kennedy will deliver different perspectives for commerce and industry, and local government.

David Goodbrand and Colin Hulme of Burness then speak on “IT Contracts: Top tips on how to avoid the legal pitfalls”.

To take us up to lunch, Cameron Ritchie gives the Law Society of Scotland Vice President’s address, which is followed by the business of the ILG Annual General Meeting.

After lunch come two further streamed sessions. The first, from DLA Piper, features “Crisis Communication – Dealing with the unknown”, with Jason Wassell giving the commerce and industry perspective and Eden Black leading the local government session.

The topic covers everything from BP in the Gulf to swine flu, and the lessons for when it all goes wrong and people are looking to you for advice.

Pinsent Masons then offer a further choice, with Yvonne Dunn presenting on “Managing Social Media”, including risk management, privacy, user expectations, and the role of the in-house team; while David Nash speaks on “Avoiding Challenges under the Remedies Directive”.

For the final session Brodies have taken the title “Does youth really have no age?” Tony Hadden and Martha Quinn, employment and pensions specialists, look at the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations and the key decisions since their introduction, as well as the coalition Government’s proposed removal of the default retirement age.

The conference closes at 4.30pm.

COSTS

Conference:

ILG member: £50 + VAT;

non-member: £70 + VAT;

student/trainee: £40 + VAT.

Dinner:

ILG member: £55 + VAT;

non-member: £70 + VAT;

student/trainee: £40 + VAT.

Conference & Dinner:

ILG member: £95 + VAT;

non-member: £130 + VAT.

• Further information and booking form at www.lawscot.org.uk/update/Event.aspx?e=525