Business of Law

A company that says it loaned millions to the owner of a Brighton property has sued HWL Ebworth for negligence, alleging the firm failed to advise on “patent ambiguity” in a loan agreement that caused it to lose $2 million. 

Legal services provider Knowmore Legal has lost its bid to exclude a class action lead plaintiff’s individual claim from an upcoming trial in proceedings accusing it of providing cookie cutter legal advice to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

DLA Piper has hired a Gadens litigator to join as a partner in the firm's Sydney office.

A unit of ASX-listed mining company Equatorial Resources has lost a bid to block its former solicitors Clifford Chance from arbitrating a $5 million costs dispute.

Meridian Lawyers has nabbed an insurance litigator from Lander & Rogers who has worked on combustible cladding matters to co-head its professional and financial risk group. 

A leading class action judge has urged courts to lean into AI, suggesting the technology could rescue lawyers and judges from "mountains of documents or elaborate processes" that waste resources, freeing them up to do what AI cannot: exercise judgment.

An appeals court has rejected a Sydney solicitor’s challenge to a finding that he engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct after he inaccurately recounted a judge’s comments in a letter to a costs assessor.

King & Spalding has hired a life sciences partner from Thomsons to join its government practice in Sydney.

Mills Oakley has bolstered its insurance offering, nabbing a 15-person team from Moray & Agnew, including three partners.

A senior judge has urged lawyers and judges to “be in the vanguard” of adopting generative artificial intelligence or risk becoming irrelevant, saying machine-made judicial decisions are inevitable.