The Federal Court offers group members in the shareholder class actions against AMP a major legal advantage over the NSW Supreme Court, lawyers for the federal cases have argued ahead of a hearing in the controversial jurisdictional battle.
When it comes to bet-the-company matters that keep corporate counsel awake at night, intellectual property disputes often rank at the top of the list. And these eight law firms are the ones companies turned to the most last year when facing a courtroom battle over their IP.
Mining giant BHP Billiton has reached a $50 million deal to settle the US class action over the 2015 dam failure at the Samarco mine in Brazil.
Iluka Resources has shot back at claims in a shareholder class action that it made misleading statements about projected sales volumes, saying the statements were accompanied by extensive disclaimers about its ability to predict future sales.
A week before WorleyParson’s CEO promised shareholders net profits in excess of $322 million for the 2014 financial year, the engineering group’s global finance director told its CFO that the company’s earnings targets were “a stretch”, according to an email uncovered in a shareholder class action.
BHP Billiton is facing the possibility of a second shareholder class action over the Fundao dam failure at its mine in Brazil, but the cases may be put on hold pending the outcome of homicide charges against company employees.
The timing of an email from a Herbert Smith Freehills solicitor alerting the Fair Work Commission to union contempt proceedings, which the firm argued early this year was grounds for halting the amalgamation of the CFMEU with two other unions, points to ‘a high level of collusion’ to block the merger, a judge said Tuesday.
Lawyers for two competing class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia over breaches of anti-money laundering laws say the cases can happily co-exist, but whether the court will agree may well depend on the outcome of a closely-watched appeal in a separate battle over multiple proceedings.
A judge on Friday will hear arguments in a bid by BHP Billiton to halt a class action over the mining giant’s Brazilian mine disaster, a sweeping case filed on behalf of investors who held the company’s shares in Australia, the UK or South Africa.
Two generic drug makers have lost their bid for confidential documents related to Neurim Pharmaceuticals’ patents covering sleep drug Circadin, with a court ruling legal professional privilege was waived in a phone conversation between a DLA Piper lawyer and the company’s founder.