When it comes to briefing barristers, solicitors lie on a spectrum of awesome to irksome. In a series of interviews with Lawyerly, some of Australia’s top counsel reveal what they like and what they don’t like about their instructing lawyers.
Virgin Australia unsecured bondholders contesting the sale of the embattled airline to private equity firm Bain Capital have failed in their bid to access confidential transaction documents, but a judge has urged the administrators to communicate with the frustrated creditors.
Virgin Australia bondholders contesting the sale of the airline to private equity firm Bain Capital have blasted the airline’s administrators at Deloitte for failing to inform the court when applying for confidentiality orders that the bondholders had sought information on the terms of the deal.
It is entirely possible that the first effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is developed in Australia, with an Australian firm securing patent rights to the vaccine. If that occurs, it is important to remember that a patent is not an impenetrable fortress. Patent laws already contain mechanisms to enable “special access” to patented pharmaceuticals and other technologies, including (perhaps especially) in times like this, say James Neil and Richard Hoad of Clayton Utz.
A judge has appointed special purpose liquidators to investigate the affairs of failed VET provider Phoenix Institute and its directors after the Commonwealth complained of “a difficult working relationship” with the training company’s current liquidators.
Ariosa Diagnostics is fighting to revoke a patent for noninvasive prenatal test owned by Sequenom, arguing it merely describes how to extract “incorporeal” genetic information that is naturally found within the DNA of an unborn foetus.
Virgin’s administrators have reached a deal with Bain Capital to buy the airline and its subsidiaries, saying Friday US investment firm had made a “strong and compelling” bid to keep Australia’s second airline operating and secure the jobs of thousands of workers.
The competition regulator wants the High Court to hear its challenge to Pacific National’s $205 million acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland, saying the deal would entrench the rail freight carrier’s near monopoly on the east coast of Australia.
A settlement has been reached in a dispute between UK-based Hill & Smith Holdings and Australia-based Safe Barriers Pty Ltd over a patented road safety barrier system.
The former CEO of Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Beem It was dismissed for blowing the whistle on multiple conflicts of interest by directors of the digital payment company, just months after she was warned by one director that the “CBA wagons” were circling her, a lawsuit alleges.