Fearing passage of a contentious bill in parliament that threatens to curb open class actions, plaintiffs law firms and funders have raced to court with new cases in the past two weeks.
Spurred by the Banksia class action scandal, the federal government has implemented new regulations requiring litigation funders to manage conflicts of interest that arise when the lawyers acting on a class action have a “material financial interest” in the funder that’s running it.
Specialist workplace relations consultancy Employsure has been ordered to pay a $1 million penalty over a series of misleading Google advertisements, a figure significantly lower than the $5 million sought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In the crucial early years of practice junior barristers have been deprived of vital learning opportunities as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns necessitating the move to online court hearings. The promised return to in-person proceedings is critical for the professional development of counsel just starting out, and equally critical for the Bar as a whole, says noted silk Rachel Doyle.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has appointed an esteemed Herbert Smith Freehills competition partner who defeated some of the regulator’s most high-profile merger challenges to be a commissioner.
As the courts open up after 18 months of online hearings, junior barristers who were recently called to the bar may be apprehensive at the move to in-person appearances. Here, ten top silks share their wisdom with new barristers on how to be an effective advocate in court.
The federal government’s latest class action reform bill that would effectively cap legal fees and funding commissions has narrowly passed the House of Representatives.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has imposed additional license conditions on the Australian Securities Exchange after operational issues created a “very serious” outage last year.
Ashurst has picked up a leading insolvency partner from Norton Rose Fulbright who advised on the restructure of the beleagured Arrium Group.
A committee report recommending passage of the Morrison government’s controversial class action reform bill was tabled in federal parliament Monday, with the committee’s chair touting the proposed legislation as putting an end to funders’ “windfall” profits and Labor panning the bill as a study in “Orwellian gaslighting”.