A tribunal has found prominent barrister Charles Waterstreet guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct for sexually harassing three women, but declined to find he was unfit to practice after accepting expert evidence that undiagnosed mental illness “was the dominant causal factor” behind his actions.
The High Court has agreed to hear a case with implications for law firms that represent themselves in litigation, granting an appeal application by media mogul Bruce Gordon, a former client of Sydney firm Atanaskovic Hartnell.
A class action against the Murray Darling Basin Authority over alleged negligent water management is seeking to claim a funder’s commission as damages after a judge refused the first-ever such bid in a separate group proceeding.
A class action seeking to hold a regional NSW law firm liable for the actions of a former employee who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for fraud offences in 2021 has reached a settlement.
Investment and advisory firm Pollination Group has poached a leading climate lawyer who led MinterEllison’s global climate practice group to bolster its offering of cutting edge advice on the transition to net zero.
A judge’s refusal to recuse himself from hearing a costs dispute between MinterEllison and a former client has been overturned, with a court finding that a number of complaints made about the judge by the client created “a contest” between them.
Workplace health and safety lawyer Jane Hall is the newest addition to Holding Redlich, boosting the firm’s regulatory expertise.
A judge has ruled that HWL Ebsworth invalidly expelled a former capital partner, finding that the expulsion, which prevented him from participating in a planned float of the firm on the ASX, breached the partnership deed.
Leading lawyers have welcomed a new practice note in the Commercial Court division of the Victorian Supreme Court, including a “rigid framework” to cut down on interlocutory disputation which is expected to benefit commercial class action litigants, but some say the note “should have gone further” to compel discovery from defendants.
How to tell if a judge is buried under a mountain of outstanding judgments? Their mood will say it all. A sure-fire way to prolong that hearing with a vexatious litigant? Engage them in dialogue. Here, Lawyerly shares a High Court judge’s war stories and tips for new members of the bench. But what weight to give them? That’s a matter for you, he says.