Reading your rights – Arts Law at BMWF

You’d be hard pressed to find a member of staff at Arts Law who is not also an avid reader (and you will find the odd writer among us too) – so it is always a thrill when we get invited to a literary event.

On 3 November 2024 Arts Law were lucky enough to join the phenomenal line-up at the Blue Mountains Writers Festival. Arts Law CEO Louise Buckingham and friend of Arts Law and volunteer lawyer Anna Spies from Simpsons delivered a session on Defamation for writers. Louise and Anna talked about things to look out for when you’re writing about real people and discussed some recent cases about defamation, which has been a hot topic in the media this year with some high profile cases.

Later in the day Louise and Arts Law solicitor Chloe Hillary delivered a workshop on general legal issues for writers. Looking at legal issues arising from the ideas phase, throughout the writing process and into the publishing and distribution.

The team at Varuna put together an inspiring and well considered line-up, filled with amazing authors. Our workshops were up against some stiff competition (eg Liane Moriarty, Kate Mildenhall, Thomas Mayo) and yet we filled the room with enthusiastic writers keen to learn more about their legal rights and responsibilities.

As is often the case, we could have talked for hours about the topics and the participants contributed valuable questions and insights.

Arts Law is already booked in to appear at the BMWF again next year and we are looking forward to it. In the meantime, if you’re a writer who needs help with a legal matter, don’t hesitate to reach out – we’d love to help.