As states across Australia shut down non-essential services and close borders in the battle to control the spread of the coronavirus, companies are turning to their lawyers for guidance on everything from contracts to disclosure obligations, staff reductions to workplace health and safety issues. Lawyerly talked to practitioners to find out what was on the minds of their corporate clients.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has given the go-ahead for supermarkets to work together immediately to ensure consumers have access to fresh food and groceries, after a wave of panic buying lead to product shortages and delivery disruptions across the country.
Measures to relax insolvency and bankruptcy laws to stem a possible wave of COVID-19 company collapses will not achieve their goal — and if Australia enters a European-style lockdown it won’t be a wave of insolvencies, it will be a tsunami, Lawyerly has been told.
HWL Ebsworth is keeping its offices open and requiring lawyers and staff to work at their desks despite updated government health advice, a decision that exposes the law firm to potential liability for workplace health and safety breaches, an employment expert says.
Companies under financial strain from measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus will get a reprieve from insolvency and bankruptcy laws as the Federal Government looks to stem a possible tide of company collapses.
For the lawyers conducting the committal hearings in the criminal cartel case over ANZ’s $2.5 billion equity raising, the Sydney Downing Centre courtroom was already too close for comfort.
Six law firms are working on a consolidated trial of multiple class actions over the collapse of retailer Dick Smith, but when the trial opened in the NSW Supreme Court this week, a lone barrister appeared in court before Justice Michael Ball, amid a sea of empty bar tables. Most of the hearing’s participants joined through a virtual courtroom while members of the public were invited to watch the trial unfold on a YouTube live stream. Welcome to litigating in the age of the coronavirus.
The Federal Court has updated guidance on its response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying it is working with lawyers to ensure as many hearings listed for the coming months can proceed. And Monday’s calendar, while perhaps lighter than usual, shows multiple matters will be heard as planned — by telephone.
The move by Australia’s highest courts to vacate in-person hearings in the face of the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have only a minor impact on cases in the short term, lawyers say, but the delays to trials and other major hearings will have a flow-on effect that could be felt for years to come.
A MinterEllison employee has tested positive to the new coronavirus and is now in self isolation, as are all the colleagues they were recently in contact with.