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.
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.
A judge has found PwC should face a claim that it engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct while assisting Chinese lender Aoyin with its planned launch in Australia by failing to properly advise the company there was a risk its shareholders did not comply with APRA’s ‘fit and proper’ requirement.
A judge has dismissed two cases brought by the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and other lenders against directors of the failed steel giant Arrium, saying he was not satisfied the directors’ representations on loan drawdown notices were false or that the company was insolvent when it went into voluntary administration in April 2016.
Baker McKenzie has been accused of negligence in a cross claim by Chinese lender Aoyin, which faces a lawsuit by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers for unpaid fees over advice related to a failed bid to launch a bank in Australia.
A judge has slammed an “absurd” class action settlement offer made by pelvic mesh device maker Astora Women’s Health that would require Shine Lawyers to provide the company with indemnities, saying “no rational judge” would approve it.
Popular American restaurant chain In-N-Out Burger is seeking to fast-track a trade mark lawsuit against an Australian food business which operates four “ghost kitchens”, citing negative reviews from allegedly misled customers.
A former rugby league journalist with Channel 7 has lost his defamation case over media reports, which alleged he threatened to rip the head off a young regional cadet, because the defamatory imputations were substantially true, judge has ruled.
The a2 Milk Company has urged the Federal Court to allow its ‘a2 Milk’ and ‘True a2’ trade marks to be registered, arguing they’re not merely descriptive of a protein in milk.
A judge has approved a $50 million settlement in a shareholder class action against failed training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, but questioned whether the $10.9 million commission and $12.75 million legal bill could have been “materially lower” had the case been run by one funder and firm instead of two.