The Acting Attorney-General has made two appointments to the Federal Court, including the barrister representing ASIC in its high-stakes cases against Rio Tinto and GetSwift.
Family law solicitor Christopher Bowrey has been appointed to the Federal Circuit Court to replace the late Judge Guy Andrew on the bench in the court’s Townsville, Queensland registry.
In the face of significant crossbench opposition, the Morrison government has pushed through a gutted IR Omnibus Bill that scraps all but one of the five major employment reforms proposed.
Facing laws strongly favouring plaintiffs and defamation claims based on allegations of an historic rape with no witnesses, the ABC has an uphill battle in defending itself against Attorney-General Christian Porter’s case alleging the national broadcaster engaged in a campaign to destroy his reputation, experts say.
Ashurst has snagged a long-time commercial litigation partner from Clayton Utz as part of a planned “major expansion” of its disputes team.
APRA has closed its probe into Westpac after finding no evidence it breached anti-money laundering laws, but the regulator has maintained a requirement that the bank hold a minimum of $1 billion in capital to reflect its higher operational risk.
Lawyers and experts welcomed the High Court’s ruling Wednesday, which approved a class action beauty parade approach to dealing with competing proceedings and provided guidance as to how judges might otherwise manage the problem of duplicative cases. Here, Lawyerly outlines the important things to take away from the majority’s judgment.
Judges have power to manage competing class actions by picking a winner in a so-called beauty parade, the High Court has ruled, but there is no one size fits all approach to the decision, and the law firm that files first is not guaranteed the coveted prize.
As pressure mounts for the board of MinterEllison to remove the law firm’s CEO in response to a staff email apologising for a partner’s representation of the federal attorney general, legal ethics experts told Lawyerly law firms must be free to vet potential clients, and that social issues may in the future play a bigger role in deciding whether to reject matters.
An independent review into Parliamentary workplace culture will be led by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins, the Federal Government has announced, two days after Christian Porter outed himself as the federal Cabinet member accused of raping a teenager 33 years ago.