The number of new class actions has nosedived in the past six months, but experts say the drop does not signal a long-term trend but a recalibration by lawyers and funders, whose ingenuity is not to be underestimated.
An appeals court has upheld a ruling that Sydney law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell was not entitled to the bulk of $165,000 in legal fees charged to two media company clients defrauded by jailed former solicitor Brody Clarke, calling the firm’s attempt to renege on its undertakings “dishonourable”.
A NSW barrister has been hit with an injunction for working without a valid practising certificate after a judge made a complaint to the Bar Association.
Hall & Wilcox has expanded its corporate insurance, commercial and regulatory offering with the appointment of new partner Philip Hopley, formerly of Herbert Smith Freehills.
With the Delta variant of the coronavirus thrusting Australia’s largest cities back into a protracted lockdown, lawyers forced to return to remote work for the forseeable future are lamenting the renewed loss of colleague and client connections.
Law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has rejected findings of dishonesty, deceit and abuse of process in seeking to overturn a $160,000 judgment against it, saying it had no “evil intent” in litigating a long-running dispute with former partner Thomas Martin.
A former Norton Rose Fulbright partner locked in a six-year legal battle with the firm has urged the Full Court to allow a $160,000 damages award in his favour to be recalculated, saying it did not provide enough “sting”, amounting to just $1,500 per partner.
The Australian Bar Association has criticised “flawed” methodology used to analyse the competency of judges, weighing in on controversy over the Australian Law Reform Commission’s handling of a submission to its judicial impartiality inquiry.
Barristers’ costs for a three-day hearing over alleged unfair dismissals of two childcare workers, which exceeded the $60,000 the workers were awarded, could have been avoided with a more “realistic” approach to negotiation, the Fair Work Commission has said.
Herbert Smith Freehills this week escaped a cross-claim that its advice made it liable for the alleged losses of Arrium’s lenders, but the judge who tossed the claim along with the banks’ cases expressed doubts about one of the law firm’s key arguments, a warning to other firms caught up in litigation as so-called concurrent wrongdoers.