At the Forefront of LGBT Family Law Issues

On Sunday, 8 and Monday, 9 October Tiyce & Lawyers was more than happy to provide our space in Darlinghurst to host the second annual Australian GLBT Family Law Institute Conference.

The conference coincided with the International Bar Association Conference which was being held in Darling Harbour. The IBA conference commenced on Sunday afternoon and we were lucky enough to have a number of different solicitors and barristers from around the globe attend our office and be involved in the forum style discussions which were moderated by Australian family law specialists.

We hosted legal practitioners from as far as Milan, Boston, London, Cape Town South Africa, as well as previous conference attendees from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The attendees were people who had been involved in cases or worked extensively in areas of particular interest in relation to the GLBT community, including specific issues such as:

Surrogacy;
De facto property settlement between two same sex parties;
Transgender issues in relation to treatment of teenagers;
Full Court and High Court cases which assessed the threshold issue of whether a same sex relationship had existed, amongst others

The discussions were enlightening and enjoyable. We all sat and discussed the issues and provided each other with personal experience and it was a privilege for us to be in a room so full of knowledge and experience.

The participants from different countries added particular insight in relation to where Australia was placed on a global scale in relation to development on these issues.

Given that the conference coincided with the ‘same sex marriage’ voluntary postal survey, many of the international participants were very interested in discussing that process.

We are looking forward to the conference next year when it will take place in Brisbane.