IRSV Advocacy Course

The IRSV offers a renowned and well subscribed advocacy course. 

The course is designed for human resources, industrial relations practitioner and lawyers to develop and enhance their skills in the art of advocacy before the Fair Work Commission.  

The course is run by two very experienced and distinguished advocates, Chris O’Grady QC of the Victorian Bar and Brian Lacy AO barrister and former Presidential Member of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.  Participants of the course learn practical advocacy skills and then in turn practice these skills before current Commission members and witnesses who volunteer their time to support the participants’ learning.  Feedback is given by the course presenters and Commission members to improve the confidence and skills of the participant advocates.

Admission into the course is by expression of interest, with invitations being released in around June each year ahead of course commencement in July and August.  Places will be offered to interested participants with a mind to ensuring equal representation from trade unions, management and the legal profession. 

You can find out more about our annual Advocacy Course by becoming a member of the Society.  Join here

Feedback from the August 2019 course participants

“The best thing about the course was the opportunity to practice perfecting my skills at advocacy and receiving feedback from the experts”
“the course helped me to better understand the process of running a case before the FWC and demystifying the process”
“the Advocacy course is highly recommended -my only disappointment I didn’t attend the course years ago!”

Training workshops

Throughout the year, the IRSV offers a range of training webinars on topical areas of interest for industrial relations practitioners. 

Details of upcoming and past training workshops are here

Professional development and events on demand

Past online training workshops can be viewed on demand by financial members of the IRSV here (login required)