Eleven law firms reign supreme in the legal market for class actions in Australia, with ten or more class actions on their plates, and two firms are way ahead of the pack, according to Lawyerly’s inaugural ranking of the country’s top class action groups.
Burford Capital has come under fire by a US short-seller which claims the litigation funder has engaged in misleading accounting practices and is a “poor business masquerading as a great one”.
International legal giant Dentons will acquire New Zealand law firm Kensington Swan, a move that will further strengthen its position in the Australasian region.
Former King & Wood Mallesons managing partner Stuart Fuller will take the reins of KPMG’s global legal services division, the first Australian at the helm of the Big Four firm’s legal offering.
The overwhelming majority of employees at small and medium-sized law firms are being affected by depression and anxiety, with a new survey revealing almost one in three work more than 45 hours a week.
Two lawyers that recently left the intellectual property boutique where they worked for a combined 40 years to set up their own firm are now facing a courtroom battle with their former employer.
One of the top Australian executives of Herbert Smith Freehills has advocated for a UK-style quartile pay transparency system Down Under, calling on law firms to air their “dirty laundry” when it comes to the gender pay gap.
JustKapital has defeated a bid by funder Litman Holdings to keep $2.2 million remaining from its cut of a $44.25 million settlement in two class actions against the trustees of failed debenture issuer Provident Capital locked down in court until the resolution of a separate dispute between the two funders.
A judge has partly sided with a former Mills Oakley client in his challenge to a costs ruling in a saga over $25,000 in unpaid fees, saying the law firm’s arrangement with a debt management company that kept the client in the dark about the consequences of default was “regrettable”.
The clock is ticking on Commonwealth Bank’s search for a new general counsel, with the position still vacant two weeks before the bank’s current top lawyer’s planned departure, announced almost four months ago in the wake of the Hayne royal commission’s scathing final report into the banking sector.