Many of you will have heard of the recent passing of Jennifer Newman, a long-standing, well-known and well-loved Tribunal member in NSW. Malcolm Schyvens, Chair of COAT National, delivered the following tribute to Jen at the COAT NSW Conference in October.

I am very honoured as Chair of the COAT National Executive, but more importantly, as a former colleague, to have been asked to briefly speak in memory of a much loved Tribunal Member who lost a battle with pancreatic cancer just a couple of weeks ago, Jennifer Newman, known to most of us as Jen
 

Jen grew up in Narromine NSW and was a proud Wiradjuri woman. I first met Jen when I joined the then Guardianship Tribunal of NSW in 2008. Jen had already been a Member for several years at that stage. She remained a Member through to the new incarnation, the Guardianship Division of NCAT of which I was previously Division Head.

It is safe to say that Jen was a very much loved and deeply respected Tribunal colleague. I know that her passing has had a deep impact on many. Along with many of you here today, I sat on many many hearings with Jen, often on road trips in country NSW. If I am being honest, I think I often listed Jen to sit with me as not only was she a superb Member who had an ability to communicate with anyone and make them feel at ease, but frankly, she was just such good company. Jen was one of the few people who could tell a yarn over lunch or dinner that seemed to go on forever but strangely never got boring – a rare talent. And then there was her laugh – a real genuine belly laugh.

Jen generously shared her knowledge and passion for First Nations Australians and never missed an opportunity to educate our community at large on indigenous issues. I for one confess that I was largely ignorant of much confronting our First Nations people or their culture until I moved to work in NSW and, quite frankly, worked with Jen. Each road trip, I would learn more and more from Jen. This passion for educating us all on such an important topic was something Jen did across so many COAT and other conferences.

Since I moved back to Tasmania about 3 years ago Jen would contact me each year just before the Dark Mofo nude swim held on the Winter Solstice threatening to fly down and make us both partake in that event together. Despite my horror at the very thought of it, I kind of wish I had now said yes!

Michael McDaniel, a member of the Kalari Clan of the Wiradjuri Nation, long term Tribunal Member and close friend of Jen, explained at Jen’s funeral the Wiradjuri philosophy of Yindyamara – to live with honour and respect. This is something Jen did in spades in her all too short life. May she rest in peace and may her partner Barney and their extended families find comfort in the time ahead.

COAT NSW is organizing a series of twilight seminars, titled AI Revolution in Law, concerning the impact of artificial intelligence and its practical application for tribunals and the legal profession.

The series consists of two seminars and the Whitmore Lecture, and aims to provide practical and relevant information about the ways in which AI is being used and will likely be used in legal practice generally. It also aims to flag issues that courts and tribunals will face with the increased use of AI, as well as opportunities for using AI within courts and tribunals.

The first seminar is titled Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Courts, Tribunals and Lawyers

Speaker: Caryn Sandler
Date: 19 February 2025 @ 5pm
Location: Personal Injury Commission, 1 Oxford St, Darlinghust

Caryn Sandler is a Partner and the Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer at Gilbert + Tobin. She leads the G+T Innovate team with responsibility for over 60 lawyers and business professionals working across Transformation, AI, Legal Technology, Legal Informatics, Legal Project Management and Knowledge Management. Together, they provide specialised services to support Gilbert + Tobin’s legal service delivery, innovating to deliver new tools and services benefiting Gilbert + Tobin and its clients.

A former practising corporate lawyer, Caryn brings 20 years of experience in legal, knowledge management, legal technology, change management, transformation and solution design to her role. Working with a variety of ASX 20 in-house clients, she explores opportunities for digitisation, capability development, process reengineering and automated service delivery.

Her team’s expertise and execution of successful innovative projects are recognised by the market. Caryn is listed Band 1 in Chambers NewLaw / Legal Transformation Consulting and was also listed as an ‘Influential Woman in Legal Tech’ by ILTA, both in 2024. Under her leadership, G+T was most recently awarded the overall title of ‘Most Innovative Law Firm in Asia-Pacific’ at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards 2024, as well as ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ at the Australasian Law Awards (3rd year in a row) and ‘Innovator of the Year (Company)’ at the Australian Law awards 2023.

Caryn is the Co-Chair of the Advisory Board to the Centre for Legal Innovation and is a director for various not-for-profit organisations.

An email will be sent to members in coming weeks with details of how to register for this exciting event.

The second seminar is titled: Artificial Intelligence: Practical Applications and Professional Impacts. Full details of this seminar are yet to be confirmed but a date has been scheduled for 26 March 2025, so please mark this in your calendars.

The 2025 COAT NSW Whitmore Lecture will be held on the evening of 21 May 2025. Professor Tania Sourdin, a distinguished academic and tribunal member, will be speaking on the subject of artificial intelligence as it pertains to the tribunal context. This will follow on from the twilight seminars referred to above.

Please mark the date in your calendar and keep the evening free. Invitations for the event will be sent in the new year.

The 2024 COAT NSW Conference took place on Friday 11 October 2024 at the Pullman Sydney Hyde Park. Around 133 people participated in the conference. The theme for the Conference was ‘Back together – back to basics’.

The conference opening address was delivered by The Honourable Paul Brereton, Commissioner for the National Anti-Corruption Commission, who spoke of the Commission’s role, functions, and powers, its achievements in its first full year of operation, and on how it strikes the balance between transparency and secrecy.

This was followed by an erudite presentation on natural justice in the Tribunal setting, delivered by The Honourable Justice Kristina Stern of the NSW Supreme Court. Her Honour took us through recent NSW appellate jurisprudence on procedural fairness, showcasing examples from the NCAT and Personal Injury Commission contexts, including how objectives of efficiency and informality are balanced with fairness and justice.

In a further plenary session, Professor Ludmilla Stern discussed key considerations when working with interpreters, explaining the complexities of the task faced by interpreters in tribunal proceedings and how tribunal members can help increase access to justice by working effectively with interpreters.

Following lunch, conference attendees broke into a series of concurrent sessions. The Honourable Justice Brian Preston, Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court, shared his insights on the craft of giving judgment, taking us through the importance of the purpose, structure and expression used to effectively communicate in a statement of reasons. At the same time, Dr Laurence Boulle AM,  Anne Sutherland and Steve Lancken engaged in a thoughtful dialogue about aspects of dispute resolution, including how best to allow participants to have a voice and be heard, questioning skills, dealing with participants who are stuck and making settlements stick.

Next up, a panel of experienced tribunal members (Malcolm Schyvens, President of Tasmanian Civil & Administrative Tribunal, Don Sword and Margaret Spencer of NCAT, Vanessa Robb from the Mental Health Review Tribunal and Dr Jon Fogarty of the NSW Medical Council) shared their experiences in multi-disciplinary panels, including working through some thought-provoking case studies. In the adjoining room, Theresa Baw of Frederick Jordan Chambers presented a scholarly update on the concept of materiality in judicial review of administrative decisions, covering recent High Court jurisprudence in the migration context and the broader application of the principles outside that context.

After a short break, the conference reconvened in a plenary session where Acting Superintendent Matthew York of the NSW Sheriff’s Office presented a sobering perspective on sovereign citizens in courts and tribunals – including how to identify various groups and actors and tips for dealing with them when they appear before you.

Overall, the conference was a great success and a credit to the quality of the speakers, the participation of all delegates, and the hard work of the conference organising committee.

Several of the papers or slides from the conference are now available on the conference website: https://conferences.com.au/2024-coat-nsw/.

5-6 June 2025 – Save the date

The 2025 COAT National Conference will be hosted as a hybrid event on June 5th and 6th in the city of Melbourne. Please reserve the dates of the 5th and 6th of June 2025 on your calendar and keep an eye out for further emails from the organising committee.

The Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) commenced operations on 14 October 2024, at which time all matters that were before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal were automatically transferred to the ART.

You can read more about this change in the Attorney-General’s media release here: https://ministers.ag.gov.au/media-centre/first-day-administrative-review-tribunal-14-10-2024

You can also read the speech given by the ART’s President Justice Emilios Kyrou at the inaugural ceremonial sitting of the ART on 14 October 2024 here: https://www.art.gov.au/help-and-resources/information-researchers/speeches-and-papers/presidents-speech-inaugural-ceremonial-sitting-administrative-review-tribunal.

There have recently been leadership changes in a number of tribunals operating in NSW.

Administrative Review Tribunal

The Attorney-General has assigned each of the following ART members as Jurisdictional Area Leaders for the ART:

• Hon Justice Emilios Kyrou AO – Jurisdictional Area Leader for the Intelligence and Security Jurisdictional Area
• Deputy President Simone Burford – Jurisdictional Area Leader for Protection
• Deputy President Kruna Dordevic – Jurisdictional Area Leader for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and for Social Security
• Deputy President Gina Lazanas – Jurisdictional Area Leader for Taxation and Business, the Veterans and Workers’ Compensation, and the General Jurisdictional Area
• Deputy President Kathryn Millar – Jurisdictional Area Leader for Migration.

Mr Peter Britten-Jones, the Treasurer for COAT National, has been appointed as a Deputy President of the ART.

Mr Michael Hawkins AM has been appointed the inaugural Chief Executive Officer and Principal Registrar of the ART.

NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal – Deputy President and Division Head

Gregory Sarginson has been appointed as Deputy President and Head of the Consumer and Commercial Division of the NCAT, and commenced in this role on 16 September 2024.

NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal

The following Deputy Presidents have recently been appointed to the MHRT:

• Magistrate Erin Kennedy – Full time Deputy President, Civil Division
• Magistrate Michael Crompton – Full time Deputy President, Forensic Division
• Magistrate Harriet Graham – Part time Deputy President
• The Hon. Justice Dennis Cowdroy OAM – Part time Deputy President

If you have announcements from other Tribunals that you’d like to share in a future newsletter, please write to us at: nswchapter@coat.asn.au.