The Law Council of Australia has raised concerns about the Australia Taxation Office’s draft protocol for handling claims of legal professional privilege, saying it “overreaches” and asks too much from lawyers.
A Melbourne law firm has lost its bid for indemnity costs after it failed to convince a judge that its settlement offer to a former client was anything more than a demand to capitulate in a “hard fought” legal battle over a $24.5 million East Melbourne development.
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.
Big Six firm Ashurst has committed to achieving gender parity among its partners and senior business service leaders within the next five years.
Investment firm Keybridge Capital has brought action in court seeking to set aside a statutory demand for $165,000 issued by its former law firm and calling for an assessment of over $600,000 in legal bills.
A boutique Sydney law firm has been taken to court by the Fair Work Ombudsman for allegedly failing to pay the minimum wage to a paralegal.
An online tool launched Thursday by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner enables targets and witnesses of sexual harassment to anonymously report incidents to the Sexual Harassment Complaints handling team.
Assessing claims of privilege involving multidisciplinary firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers that offer legal and accounting services is “inherently awkward”, a court heard on the final day of a hearing in a privilege battle between the accounting firm and the ATO.
Chinese lender Aoyin must pay PricewaterhouseCoopers’ legal costs for a vacated trial after Aoyin’s eleventh hour decision to join Baker McKenzie to a $10 million cross-claim in a dispute concerning the accounting firm’s advice on its failed bid to launch the first Chinese incorporated bank in Australia.
A law firm may have exerted unfair or illegitimate pressure on a sacked solicitor when it told her to accept an offer to settle her adverse action case or risk referral to the legal watchdog, a judge has found.