Trial preparation tips: bench, bar and plaintiff firm in one room, 25 August

Justice Andrea Tsalamandris, David Seeman of Lennon's List and John Rule of Maurice Blackburn present at the ALA Victorian seminar. Places are limited.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance holds its Victorian seminar on trial preparation in Melbourne on 25 August 2026. The panel is the Hon Justice Andrea Tsalamandris of the Supreme Court of Victoria, David Seeman of Lennon's List, and John Rule, Principal at Maurice Blackburn. Lennon's List is sponsoring the seminar. Places were limited when last checked.

The composition of that panel is the reason to attend. Trial preparation is taught constantly and almost always from one vantage point at a time — counsel explaining what counsel needs, or a solicitor explaining what the brief should contain. Putting a trial judge in the same session changes the nature of the information available.

The question worth asking on the day

What does the bench actually read? Practitioners spend enormous effort on materials whose reception is entirely assumed. Court books, chronologies, outlines of submissions, the tender bundle — each is prepared to a standard set by convention and professional anxiety rather than by any published account of what assists the judge deciding the case.

A judge willing to answer that question directly is worth more than a dozen papers on advocacy technique.

Details

When: Tuesday 25 August 2026
Where: Melbourne
Panel: The Hon Justice Andrea Tsalamandris (Supreme Court of Victoria); David Seeman (Lennon's List); John Rule (Principal, Maurice Blackburn)
Sponsor: Lennon's List
Host: Australian Lawyers Alliance, Victorian branch
Capacity: Limited — register early

Junior litigators should be sent by their supervisors rather than left to find it. The skills discussed here are the ones that do not appear in any precedent bank.

Come with a question rather than a notebook. Panels of this composition produce their best material in response to specific problems — a document the judge does not want, a chronology format that helps or hinders, a decision about whether to call a witness whose evidence is only partly useful. General questions get general answers, and the value of having a sitting judge in the room is entirely in the particulars.