A lower demand for legal services triggered by the coronavirus pandemic has forced law firm Gadens to reduce staff salaries by 20%.
Dentons has become the latest law firm to adopt belt-tightening measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, announcing cuts to staff and partner pay for the next two months.
Celebrity chef Pete Evans has been fined $25,200 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for claiming an expensive light machine dubbed the Biocharger could help protect people from the coronavirus.
The administrators of Virgin Australia will not have to pay the troubled carrier’s aircraft and other lease payments, after a court granted them a temporary exemption from liability.
Voluntary administration was the only option for Virgin, and the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the airline’s decline could present a unique opportunity for the administrators to push the boundaries of corporations law, according to insolvency experts.
Sparke Helmore has become the latest law firm to take steps to control costs in response to the coronavirus pandemic, announcing that it will suspend salary increases for the next financial year.
The Department of Home Affairs has failed in its duty protect an individual housed in an immigration detention centre from contracting COVID-19, according to a lawsuit which claims the cramped facilities are as vulnerable to outbreaks as cruise ships.
Slater and Gordon’s directors and senior executives have taken a voluntary pay cut of up to 15 per cent in a move aimed at giving the firm flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Victoria will allow judge-only trials as part of a raft of temporary new laws to be put in place to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the COVID-19 crisis leaves tens of thousands unemployed and charities struggling, law firms are responding by offering assistance to those in need through expanded pro bono work and community outreach programs that provide assistance to the country’s most vulnerable people.