Law Firms

A judge has retroactively validated the appointment of BDO as auditor for litigation funder Omni Bridgeway after EY resigned due to a class action conflict, saying the failure to seek shareholder approval for the appointment was not the result of a blatant disregard for its obligations. 

As the head of Maurice Blackburn’s class actions group he helped win hundreds of millions of dollars for claimants and shaped the jurisprudence around the practice. As the Victorian Supreme Court’s newest judge, Andrew Watson has promised to keep up the fight for fair.

 Macquarie Bank has agreed to pay a $10 million fine in proceedings brought ASIC after the bank admitted that it failed to monitor third-party withdrawals, resulting in a financial adviser’s theft of $2.9 million.

A class action targeting Victoria Police over its use of capsicum spray against protesters has lost its bid to uncover confidential information about police crowd control tactics, after a judge found disclosure of the information could “endanger the public”.

The corporate regulator is appealing a judgment that tossed its landmark action against Austo & General Insurance, saying the judge erred in construing an unclear and disproportionate term in the insurer’s house and contents policy.

A judge has shut down a case by Icon against Australia’s nuclear agency over the $27 million construction of a waste treatment plant at Lucas Heights, saying the dispute should be determined by an arbitrator despite the parties waiving pre-arbitration steps.

A judge has signed off on a $16 million settlement in a class action against Dixon Advisory, but the funder of a competing case that was stayed after losing a beauty parade has earned a fragment of the $1 million it sought from the resolution sum.

After a seven-year legal battle, a court has upheld the validity of Neurim Pharmaceutical’s patent for insomnia drug Circadin and ruled two generic drug companies infringed the intellectual property.

The entity in charge of a $511 million waste-to-energy plant south of Perth has filed a second lawsuit against Acciona, accusing the Spanish infrastructure giant of withholding $38.6 million in bank guarantees to use as leverage in unrelated disputes about the troubled project.

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”.