Ashurst has lured two partners from competing firms to join its Perth office, bolstering its restructuring and investigations offerings for clients in the energy sector.
Santos is seeking to wrangle further documents from the Environmental Defenders Office to support its bid for costs orders against the law firm, telling a court there must have been “glaring deficiencies” in the standard of its services in running its challenge to construction of a pipeline for the energy company’s $5.6 billion Barossa gas project.
The Mining and Energy Union is pursuing pay increases of up to $40,000 per year for labour hire workers at three BHP coal mines under new legislation, saying the energy giant’s use of labour hire to cut pay was “out of step” with community standards and the law.
The owner of a major coal power station in Western Australia has lost its bid for an inquiry into alleged misconduct by the receivers of collapsed Griffin Coal after they tried to avoid obligations under coal supply agreements, with a judge saying the allegations were “relatively trivial”.
A law firm that has gone after major banks and the federal government over their climate exposure has trained its sight on the National Australia Bank.
The judge overseeing a six-year-old class action against BHP over the collapse of a Brazilian dam has allowed the applicant to retroactively amend the group definition, accepting that a pleading mistake was contrary to the intended class membership in the case.
Fortescue has brought legal action against start-up Element Zero and three former employees, alleging “industrial scale misuse” of the Western Australian mining company’s confidential information.
The Australian Energy Regulator has secured a $2.75 million penalty in a case against oil and gas company Santos alleging record-keeping failures in breach of the National Gas Rules.
MinterEllison’s Perth office has welcomed a new energy and resources expert from Dentons, fleshing out the firm’s Western Australian capabilities.
The Fair Work Commission has found in favour of a union in its bid to keep an email containing legal advice confidential amid a stoush with Peabody Energy and other mining companies over a proposed multi-enterprise agreement.