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A McDonald’s franchise has been hit with a lawsuit accusing it of deliberately withholding workers’ paid rest breaks and committing “horrifying” and “shameful” violations of the Fair Work Act, the seventh such lawsuit to be filed by the union representing fast food workers.

Thirteen Victorian silks have expressed “deep concern” over a bill proposed by the Andrews government giving the health minister power to make “pandemic orders”.

The Australian managing partner of King & Wood Mallesons, Evie Bruce, is set to join Macquarie Group as its next group general counsel and head of the legal and governance group, where she will lead a team of 400 lawyers and governance professionals.

The Queensland Supreme Court has ruled it does not have the power to make declarations regarding the validity of COVID-19 vaccination mandates for Queensland health workers and police officers.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth has continued its hiring spree, luring a financial services regulatory specialist from Herbert Smith Freehills.

Legislation capping litigation funder returns in class actions to 30 per cent and requiring group members to sign up to funding schemes has been introduced to federal parliament despite widespread criticism.

The president of the peak body for barristers in Victorian has slammed the Andrews government’s proposed pandemic laws as “appalling”, and says claims that the bar association was consulted were not true.

A court has shut down Facebook’s renewed push to cut off Melbourne-based content strategists Sked Social from posting on Instagram on behalf of its clients, with a judge saying the social media giant’s justification for varying the injunction order was “flimsy and possibly strategic”.

Embattled Sydney accountant Vanda Gould has lost his defamation case against the Commissioner of Taxation, with a court finding Chris Jordan’s defamatory comments constituted a “robust”, but proportional, counter-attack to Gould’s public disparagement of the Australian Tax Office.

Franchise giant Retail Food Group has been hit with a class action on behalf of current and former franchisees of the company’s Michel’s Patisserie brand.