Herbert Smith Freehills has snagged one of the country’s leading competition lawyers who advised on two of the biggest and most contentious mergers in recent years from rival Clayton Utz to join its market-leading competition and trade practices group.
A judge has sided with five investments banks and rejected a bid to amend a class action alleging a series of cartel agreements to rig foreign exchange rates, saying there were “substantial problems” with the proposed pleadings.
Lawyerly’s Litigation Firms of 2020 delivered significant victories for clients last year in bet-the-company matters, thriving in a tumultuous year that saw courts and litigants adapt to virtual trials and other new norms that are sure to outlast the COVID-19 pandemic.
Building products supplier Wagners has successfully challenged a Queensland Supreme Court judgment ruling in favour of Boral in a high-stakes cement supply dispute between the construction giants.
The daughter of property data pioneer Ray Catelan has won a legal fight with Excelsior shareholders over claims she acquired a controlling share of the real estate private equity firm while in possession of inside information that caused a dramatic spike in the company’s share price after it went public.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
A judge has rejected a bid by Uber to significantly trim a class action brought by Maurice Blackburn on behalf of successors and assignees or taxi drivers after the law firm unsuccessfully sought to add them to a separate class action against the ride share giant.
The maker of Mother energy drinks has had its Motherland trade mark removed by IP Australia, with a delegate granting a win to rival caffeinated beverage maker Vittoria Food & Beverage in finding that the mark should be removed for non-use.
Class action experts have knocked several recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee for reforming the class action system, including that group members be guaranteed at least 70 per cent of any settlement or judgment, saying this would be challenging to implement and could make disputes harder to resolve.
A fight over whether a class action applicant must fork over security for costs is not a matter of the strength of the case, says a judge presiding over a class action brought by superannuation holders against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and subsidiaries Colonial First State and Avanteos.