Law Firms

A judge has declined to toss most of the claims brought against a crypto trading company by a former director, despite finding the director’s case “is not an easy one”.

A law firm partner who alleges a Melbourne solicitor failed to properly advise him on a share sale agreement with Slater & Gordon in 2014 declined assistance before signing a term sheet that outlined he could not sell his shares in the firm for three years, a court has heard.

Food giant Goodman Fielder has won freezing orders against a former employee who the company suspects of a $10 million fraud and issued a slew of subpoenas to betting firms the employee holds accounts with.

Law firm Holding Redlich has been hit with proceedings over invoices totalling more than $334,000 by an ex-client who says the firm provided no cost agreement and made no cost disclosure over the course of an eight-month retainer. 

An appeals court has rejected a challenge by a woman who said she was given negligent advice by her lawyers about two settlement offers which she rejected, finding that she would not have taken advice to accept the offers in any case.

Former Seven News reporter Robert Ovadia has filed a complaint with the Fair Work Commission over his sacking, which alleges the intentional infliction of harm by the network and its news director. 

The managing partner of a leading plaintiff law firm has sued a Melbourne firm, alleging it failed to properly advise him on an agreement that prevented him from selling his shares in Slater & Gordon before its share price plummeted in 2015.

Law firm Johnson Winter Slattery has recruited energy and resources specialist Nick Thorne for the firm’s Brisbance office, an appointment that represents a reunion for a former Corrs Chambers Westgarth trio. 

Lawyers are allowed to take a cut from a class action settlement or judgment under a so-called solicitors’ common fund order, the Full Federal Court has ruled, saying they are a permissive use of the court’s power.

The Federal Court is set to become a more attractive forum for class actions now that the Full Court has confirmed it has power to make orders granting solicitors a contingency fee from any settlement or judgment in a group proceeding.