Annual conference
24 Mar 05
Law Society announces speakers and record number of sponsors for annual conference
Up to 600 delegates are expected to attend The Law Society of Scotland's Annual Conference 2005, which has attracted a record number of sponsors.
The ‘Property Matters’ Conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on April 22, is being supported by 11 companies with The Royal Bank of Scotland as main sponsor.
The associate sponsors are: DM Hall, First Scottish Searching Services, First Title, LexisNexis Butterworths, Lonelypixel, Marsh, Registers of Scotland, Search Legal, TFB plc and Voice Technologies.
Law Society of Scotland events co-ordinator Vivien Henderson said: “This year will be the biggest Annual Conference we have held since the 50th Anniversary event in 1999 and the sheer breadth of topics that it covers means there has been a huge amount of interest from Society members working right across the profession.
"While this has helped attract increased sponsorship, we have also worked hard to create tailored packages which work effectively for the individual companies and help them reach their desired audience.”
The conference is running five concurrent, full-day programmes, with over 40 speakers, which have been designed to provide maximum opportunity for solicitors working right across the legal spectrum to access specialist knowledge. These are: The New Age of Conveyancing, Rural Property, Matrimonial Property, Intellectual property and Matrimonial Property.
Ms Henderson said: “Property is something which affects almost everyone working in the legal profession – from home ownership issues to protecting that ‘big idea’ – and we have coordinated an event which has attracted a number of highly distinguished speakers who will be able to offer their insight and expertise to those attending this year’s event.”
Highlights of the conference will include a talk on title conditions from Professor Robert Rennie, who has quite literally written the book on conveyancing for solicitors, Professor Kenneth Reid, who will deliver the closing keynote speech on conveyancing in the 21st century, and Professor George Gretton, who will discuss the issues arising from ownership of heritable property as part of the Matrimonial Property session.
Other guest speakers include: Rob Garner from Scottish Natural Heritage on the new Scottish Outdoor Access Code, John King from Registers of Scotland on the use of technology in conveyancing – i.e. buying and selling online, Carol Duncan, head of Family Law in the Scottish Executive’s Justice Department on the Family Law Bill and Paul Sheehan, Head of Rights and Commercial Affairs at SMG TV productions and Ginger TV on intellectual property in television.