While there was no shortage of pain and challenges for law firms as the coronavirus raged across the globe last year, a number of big firms also felt the sting of litigation from disgruntled clients, partners and employees.
US-based consumer goods giant SC Johnson & Son has foreshadowed a bid to strike out a case filed by Reckitt Benckiser over its Raid Max insecticide ads after a Federal Court judge found Reckitt had a “weak” prima facie case.
A judge has dismissed an attempt by a Reckitt Benckiser unit to block Raid insect spray ads by rival SC Johnson , saying the consumer goods giant had a “weak” prima facie case based on “excessively literal and strained” interpretations of the ads.
HWL Ebsworth has successfully defended a negligence lawsuit over the $25.5 million sale of Crown-owned Sydney land to property developer PPK Group, with a court finding that the developer was actually “better off” because of the transaction.
The former CEO of Melbourne business consultant Hendry Group has launched legal action against fund manager Salter Brothers and a number of top executives alleging they engaged in unlawful sexual discrimination and harassment while also failing to investigate these allegations and pay her entitlements after suspending her.
A judge has lashed out at the legal team behind a class action against S&P over allegedly misleading credit ratings for filing hearsay evidence in support of an application to serve the ratings giant overseas, saying that “nobody who is a first year law student” would say the evidence was admissible.
Murray Goulburn’s former managing director Gary Helou and chief financial officer Brad Hingle have been disqualified from heading up companies after they were found to have breached the Corporations Act for their role in the milk supplier’s repeated failure to disclose an expected material decrease in the milk supplier’s earnings guidance for 2016.
The corporate regulator is pushing for a three-year director ban against former Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou and a two-year disqualification order against the dairy cooperative’s former chief financial officer over misleading representations about farmgate milk prices five years ago.
A contractual dispute between a litigation funder and the lead applicant in a class action against S&P will not prevent the class action from progressing, with both parties giving undertakings to preserve the status quo while the feud remains on foot.
A judge has denied Fuji Xerox’s attempt to strike out parts of the defences of Ernst & Young and a former Fuji director in a lawsuit over alleged massive accounting irregularities.