The owner of Melbourne’s Barfly’s, which has been sued by its former law firm for unpaid fees relating to a $2.4 million settlement negotiated for the Flinders Street cafe in negligence proceedings, has raised questions about the nearly $1 million in fees charged by the firm and a barrister that worked on the case.
Pitcher Partners says the lead applicant in a discontinued class action over its auditing of Slater and Gordon should cover the costs for cross-claims it brought against nine parties, including the law firm and several of its former directors.
An appeals court has declined to dismiss an international law firm’s appeal of a ruling staying its case against a former director who formed a breakaway law firm with a former Freehills partner and Westpac in-house counsel and lured away lucrative oil and gas clients.
US white shoe firm White & Case has snagged a leading tax partner from Herbert Smith Freehills’ tax firm to bolster its growing team in Australia.
Herbert Smith Freehills has discovered it underpaid a number of its graduate lawyers, with some in the Big Six firm’s graduate ranks owed more than $20,000.
The number of female barristers being briefed is climbing but they continue to be paid significantly less than their male counterparts, a new report by Australia’s peak legal body has revealed.
Herbert Smith Freehills will ask lawyers to spend just 60 per cent of their time in the office once they are free to return, a change to the firm’s agile working policy that acknowledges the upside of remote working in the COVID-19 era, co-head of global disputes Anna Sutherland told Lawyerly.
Evidence of an outdated management approach and bullying — which included threatening defamation proceedings against two junior lawyers that complained about her — appear to be responsible for the ousting of a former senior Piper Alderman partner, not her sex, a judge has found.
A former Piper Alderman partner has lost her bid to bring sex discrimination claims against the partners of the law firm, but can still proceed with her other claims.
Just weeks after raids on DLA Piper and Macpherson Kelley, Thomson Geer has announced its fourth acquisition of the year, poaching a specialist tech law team from Russell Kennedy, as the firm pushes forward with plans to become one of the country’s top firms.