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This week's judgment referring the conduct of lawyers behind the Banksia class action to prosecutors shows the effectiveness of unique legislative provisions in Victoria that should serve as a blueprint for federal reform, says barrister and University of New South Wales adjunct professor Dr Peter Cashman.
Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria's legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
An appeals court hearing the case of a barrister who allegedly made a sexual comment to a clerk while intoxicated at a dinner following a legal industry event has questioned how a professional reprimand can serve a protective purpose if the person remains unnamed.
Trial judges should not communicate with barristers outside of court, the High Court has ruled in a “troubling” case of apprehended bias that saw a divorcee’s counsel socialising with the judge presiding over her long-running and “tortured” Family Law case.
A Sydney solicitor accused of stealing over $130,000 from a client and doctoring five invoices has lost a bid to pause the NSW Law Society’s suspension of her certificate after a judge found there was a “very significant” risk of harm to the public if she continued to practice.
A former barrister has continued to practice in local courts without a valid practising certificate, in “very serious” criminal contempt of a court-ordered injunction, the NSW Bar Association has told a court.
A PwC partner who the ATO claims was assigned to work on a matter for meat processing company JBS to bring a “cloak of legal privilege” kept a supporting role on the brief despite the company CFO’s dissatisfaction, a court has heard.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers used one of its legally qualified partners as a "postbox" to provide a "cloak of privilege" to work conducted for meat processing company JBS, the Commissioner of Taxation has told the Federal Court.
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".