This half-day conference entitled "Learn How to Handle Cross-Border Family Law Issues" took place at the Raja Aziz Addruse Auditorium
Wisma Badan Peguam Malaysia on 2nd November 2018 and was jointly organised by IAFL and the Malaysian Bar Council Family Law Committee.
The initiative came from Mr Andrew Davies of Australia and Ms Poonam Mirchandani from Singapore. Their continued hard work, and the hard work of Ms Yet Ngo Foo and her partner MS Kiranjit Dhaliwal, Malaysian Fellows, meant that what began as an intimate gathering to discuss cross border issues in the region with about 10 senior family lawyers grew to an audience of 81 practitioners thanks to the generous support of the Bar Council of Malaysia. The Asia Pacific Chapter expresses its gratitude to the Bar Council, and particularly its chair Goh Siu Lin, who opened and closed the conference. The Bar Council also kindly made available its meeting room for the purposes of the conference and provide refreshments to all delegates and guests.
Mr Max Meyer, the President of the Asia Pacific Chapter of IAFL, introduced and explained the role and nature of the Academy, the formation of the Asia Pacific Chapter, and the benefits of Fellowship.
Ms Poonam Mirchandani from Singapore, Mr Nigel Nicholls from Australia (each Vice Presidents of the Asia Pacific Chapter) and Ms Rita Ku from Hong Kong (Treasurer of the Asia Pacific Chapter) spoke on relocation of children and the cross border issues that arise, from the perspective of each of their jurisdictions.
Mr Andrew Davies from Australia spoke on cross border enforcement of property and maintenance orders, as did Ms Kiranjit Dhaliwal from the Malaysian perspective. There was then a lively exchange of questions between the audience and the panel of speakers, which flowed over into the hospitality generously provided by the Bar Council after the event.
The success of the conference exceeded our expectations in raising IAFL's profile, hopefully producing a greater awareness of the Academy's role and the possibilities of Fellowship and of course continuing the goal of increasing awareness of cross border family law issues and options to benefit parties.
