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.
Shine Lawyers and Slater & Gordon on Tuesday denied media reports that the two law firms were in merger talks or that there were any imminent plans for a union.
A former partner expelled from HWL Ebsworth has been awarded $450,000 in damages after the NSW Supreme Court found the reasons for the termination were “irrational and wrong”.
A senior Piper Alderman partner who has launched a sex discrimination case against the law firm rejected “reasonable settlement offers” that would have allowed her to leave the partnership on a “dignified basis”, counsel for the firm has told a court.
Australian law firm Mills Oakley has established an IP practice in its Melbourne office, snatching a senior lawyer from rival K&L Gates, which is now set to lose five IP specialists in the space of almost two months.
A judge has found a senior female partner at Piper Alderman has not provided sufficient evidence that the firm moved to oust her from its ranks because she is a woman, in a ruling dismissing her bid for an order halting the firm from moving forward with a meeting on the proposed expulsion.