Law Firms

An appeals court has held that a Sydney solicitor can’t be sued for negligence for a failure to include a breach of contract claim in a building dispute, saying the lawyer was protected by advocate’s immunity because his decision was “intimately connected” with the litigation.

Three firms fighting for carriage of a $80 million class action against Star Entertainment say a group costs order would guard against ‘costs blowouts’ in the case and have urged a judge to ditch a no win, no fee proposal brought by fourth-to-file firm Shine Lawyers.

In a decade-old dispute, Viterra has lost an appeal of a judgment holding it liable to pay Cargill Australia $293 million for misrepresentations about the performance of its malt producer Joe White, which it sold to Cargill for $420 million in 2013.

Queensland lender SunshineLoans has lost its second bid for the Full Court to decide whether ASIC has the power to bring civil penalty proceedings for violations of the Credit Code, with a judge finding its arguments were not strong enough to vacate an upcoming trial.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has recruited Clayton Utz partner and executive chair Karen O’Flynn to replace the outgoing Carmel Mulhern as the bank’s group general counsel.

Hannover Life Re should be allowed tax credits for GST paid on a share of its overheads, including rent and power, a judge has found in a partial win for the reinsurer.

Nine has partially won its bid to include evidence about the reputation of Euro Pacific CEO Peter Schiff in an attempt to minimise the damages it will owe after abandoning its substantive defences in defamation proceedings by the bank boss.

The French association representing wine producers from Champagne is appealing a recent trade mark loss to an Australian health retailer, claiming a product being sold on Aussie shelves is using its coveted name without assurances it originates from the French region. 

Drug maker Sanofi-Aventis is not liable for the federal government’s losses for excess subsidies paid for the blood-thinner Plavix after an allegedly unjustified court injunction prevented the release of a generic version of the blockbuster drug, an appeals court has found.

For Meridian Lawyers managing director Paul Baker, the challenging decisions for executives post-COVID are almost as great now as they were in the difficult early days of the pandemic, including getting it right on remote work.