Law Firms

With artificial intelligence levelling the playing field, the Big 8 are facing increasing competitive pressure from large firms, which are pursuing an aggressive growth strategy and have outpaced them in demand and profitability over the last financial year, a report has found.

German investment firm Aurelius can add new claims in a dispute with explosives company Orica over a $180 million acquisition, but a judge has called out solicitors for both sides for filing material of “inordinate length” on an application concerning well-established law. 

A developer for a high rise building in Mascot, Sydney has launched a post-trial bid to opt out as a group member of a class action against cladding manufacturer 3A Composites and supplier Halifax, in order to bring its own "copy" of the case.

Westpac’s defunct mortgage unit RAMS has accused a class action by former franchisees of attempting to “hijack” civil penalty proceedings by the corporate regulator by seeking to intervene in the case.

A judge has hit Dyldam Developments' former boss Sam Fayad and his two sons with costs after ordering them to pay $50 million in a case by the liquidator of a special purpose vehicle, but awarded costs to payment intermediaries for the liquidator's "manifestly weak" case against them. 

A Queensland property owner whose Morton Bay land was slated to be acquired by the council can recover more than just legal costs under the state's land acquisiton law, an appeals court has found.

IC Markets is fighting a class action's bid for “highly private and confidential” information about possible group members to craft personalised opt-out notices, arguing the information would be safer in the hands of a third-party mailing house than a plaintiff firm given increasing cyberattack risks. 

Slater & Gordon is poised for new leadership, with chair James MacKenzie and two other directors set to depart in the wake of a scandal that saw all staff salaries disclosed in a firm-wide email.

Fonterra said Tuesday it had settled a dispute with Bega Cheese over the status of lucrative licence agreements as part of a $3.8 billion sale of its Australian business to French dairy company Lactalis.

TaxiApps, the operator of the GoCatch rideshare app, has failed to prove that Uber engaged in an unlawful conspiracy, despite a judge finding the rideshare giant intended to harm the defunct taxi app and "surreptitiously" obtained a confidential driver list.