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Legalwise Seminars - Not As Wise As They Think! OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B Real Estate Lawyer and Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria Lawyers Real Estate What is going on at Legalwise Seminars? They now have an unqualified non-lawyer conveyancer as Chairperson of their upcoming conveyancing seminar. What's more, they expect lawyers to pay to attend! 
We received this brochure from Legalwise seminars, inviting us to part with $300 to participate in a seminar chaired by Ms. Pauline Barrow in her capacity as President of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers (Victoria Division)(AICVIC). Now, in our opinion, AICVIC is a strange organisation. Its membership is restricted to non-lawyers, when only lawyers are permitted to provide legal advice and to perform the legal work associated with conveyancing matters in Victoria. As AICVIC members are prohibited from involvement in the legal work associated with conveyancing transactions, there appears to be little they can offer the legal profession. AICVIC also asserts that there is no need for consumers to use a lawyer in conveyancing transactions. So, what we have is a situation where the President of an organisation that suggests to consumers that the lawyer should be displaced from the conveyancing transaction by an unqualified conveyancer is to chair a lawyer's training seminar. Does this mean that we can expect Enzo Raimondo of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) whose organisation encourages its members to displace lawyers at the contract stage of a real estate transaction, to chair seminars on real estate contacts? Will Legalwise have the publishers of Australian Legal Will Kits chair the seminars on Wills & Estates? Legalwise, what were you thinking? Legalwise Seminars is a legal education business, and describes itself on its website as follows: "Legalwise Seminars is your continuing legal education and professional development partner, providing CLE and CPD to lawyers and other professionals. We offer a broad range of seminars, workshops, practice management courses and publications to suit your needs."To establish some credibility, the Legalwise "About Us" page tells lawyers (lawyers being the main market for Legalwise seminars): Our seminar producers hold law degrees and have practised as solicitors in NSW and overseas.Lawyers in Victoria are required to accumulate Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points each year, and will spend hundreds (perhaps thousands) of dollars on legal education. Conveyancers, however, are not required to make any such investment. It follows that Legalwise relies heavily on lawyers feeling that they are getting value for money when they attend legal training seminars. But how patronising and insulting for a legal professional to be expected to pay for a training seminar chaired by a non-lawyer who heads an organisation which falsely asserts that there is no need for a lawyer in conveyancing transactions! So, given that conveyancers in Victoria are:
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