Clayton Utz

Clifford Chance has added former Clayton Utz competition and consumer law partner Elizabeth Richmond to the firm’s global antitrust team in Sydney.

On the first day of trial in parallel class actions and regulatory proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman panned the payment systems adopted by Woolworths and Coles for salaried managers, saying they were “entirely foreign” to the industrial award and that the supermarket giants had “no meaningful proper records” for overtime. 

It was “fundamentally wrong” that AMP Financial Planning paid consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers significantly more to review a court-ordered remediation than was paid to customers who suffered loss after an adviser churned life insurance policies for higher commissions, a judge has said.

The defendants in a trade mark infringement case by the Pokemon Company were the victims of identity theft and were wrongly named in the suit, a court has heard.

The Federal Court’s recently retired top judge has landed on his feet with his appointment by the court as referee to determine which of a group of competing firms should dole out a $300 million settlement that resolved the J&J pelvic mesh class actions.

Racing NSW has won access to documents that concern an alleged plan by its Victorian counterpart to exclude it from the thoroughbred racing industry as part of an alleged anti-competitive agreement with four other states.

A private investment fund has won its claim as a secured creditor over $2 million in research and development tax refunds that a court previously found should go to employees in a fight over funds remaining following the collapse of fintech Spitfire Corporation. 

A judge has allowed two of Gina Rinehart’s children to use documents produced in private arbitration for their defence in court proceedings over ownership of a valuable mining tenement.

Class action firms and funders will set their sights on claims related to environmental, social and governance investing, says Clayton Utz’s new litigation partner Matthew Spain, but whether the game is worth the candle remains to be seen.

A contradictor in two pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson and unit Ethicon has told the court of the “extraordinary amount of group member unhappiness” following approval of a $300 million settlement – the largest in the history of Australian product liability group proceedings.