Moray & Agnew

Law firm DLA Piper has picked up a pre-eminent property partner from Moray & Agnew, who advised on the $175 million joint venture between GPT and QuadReal Property Ground to acquire logistics developments on Australia’s eastern seaboard. On Monday, Sallie Bowtell was appointed to DLA Piper’s real estate practice in Melbourne, where the team’s head,…

Japanese oil and gas producer INPEX and contractor JKC Australia have settled all claims between them relating to the construction of the $45 billion of Ichthys LNG project.

Last year brought economic growth and success for law firms, but 2021 was not only marked with good news. A slew of law firms were dragged into litigation by disgruntled ex-clients, with some paying out millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits accusing them of giving bad advice.

The New South Wales Bar Association has lost an appeal seeking a financial penalty and a professional reprimand against a Sydney barrister for his “poorly judged, vulgar and inappropriate” behaviour, with an appeals court finding damage to his reputation and a hike in his insurance premium dwarfed any punishment it could dole out.

Law firm Maddocks has been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in indemnity costs for “throwing good money after bad” in failing to consider a settlement offer in a negligence lawsuit over a client’s botched deal with Woolworths. 

The structural engineer behind Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower can examine whether builder Icon Co has been indemnified for $31 million worth of damage which occurred in the 36-storey apartment block on Christmas Eve of 2018, a court has found.

Clyde & Co made an “inextricable” oversight in preparing an unpaid works claim, causing a Sydney-based sandstone excavator to lose millions of dollars, according to a cross claim in a case brought by the law firm for unpaid fees.

A national law firm has been found liable to pay $13 million in damages for giving negligent advice to a former client that led to a botched sale of its business to Woolworths and caused it to go into administration.

Last week’s judgment denouncing the scandalous behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action cast a spotlight on the conduct of lawyers for some of the defendants, asking whether “untenable” defences were maintained beyond an acceptable point in the case.

Prefab concrete company Evolution Precast Systems failed to install reinforced concrete in Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower and knew about a prior failure with one of the building’s panels, engineer WSP Structures alleges in a cross-claim lobbed in a class action on behalf of residents of the tower.