Legal Affairs

  • Farewell to those beach days

    The interview process is tough, the hours are long and beach time is crunched - but the good news is that there are more summer clerkships on offer at Australia's law firms than there were last year.

  • Tight credit sends Ask Funding's profit down

    Listed presettlement and disbursement lender Ask Funding's profit slumped in the 2009-10 financial year as tight credit conditions hampered its business model and it sought debt financing to protect against an uncertain economy.

  • Courts curb executive power

    The federal government's attempts over decades to restrict judicial review of migration decisions has had unintended consequences.

  • DLA loses Adelaide office

    DLA Phillips Fox announced this week its office will merge with local tax and corporate law boutique Rankine Tucker.

  • Summer clerk numbers rise

    Despite a year of horror in 2009, where law firms slashed excess blubber - and sometimes bone - and graduates sweated a tough job market, today's students are optimistic about their prospective careers as they plough through the summer clerkship interview process. And firms consider that they're in a good position to offer students what they want.

  • French for Teo

    Two weeks ago, High Court Chief Justice

  • Overseas work experience offered

    The war for legal talent has spurred local and international law firms in Australia to launch a range of programs designed to give lawyers overseas experience.

  • Wrongdoers should not keep ill-gotten profits

    The first tranche of the landmark Australian consumer law reforms came into force in April, giving Australia's consumer regulators new powers.

  • Saints march on but Mordy scores the dinner

    Having played 34 games for St Kilda from 1978 to 1981, it's no surprise Federal Court judge Mordy Bromberg is a mad Saints fan.

  • Mentoring cultivates indigenous barristers

    Mick Gooda, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, says financial barriers are not the only obstacles to justice for indigenous Australians.

  • McGorry urges action on depression

    Law firms should move swiftly to implement mentoring programs for lawyers with anxiety and depression and establish referral pathways to facilitate access to experienced medical professionals, the Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry, told the annual Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation lecture last night.

  • Offshore processing under scrutiny

    The High Court is scrutinising the offshore processing regime for asylum seekers, after hearing arguments this week that decisions by the immigration minister and department officials should be subjected to the same level of legal scrutiny those relating to asylum seekers who arrive onshore.

  • Judicial pay rises may be curbed

    Future pay rises for federal judges and magistrates may be affected by the government's restructure of federal courts, following 4.1 per cent pay rises dished out by the independent Remuneration Tribunal this week.

  • LCA calls for reform costings

    The Law Council of Australia does not support a broad power for a new ombudsman to subject law firms to compliance audits and make directions on practice management systems.

  • IMF considers going global

    Litigation funder

  • Pro bono cases on the rise

    Large law firms have been boosting the pro bono legal work their lawyers do each year, but industry experts say this alone will not solve chronic problems restricting access to justice in Australia.

  • Judge hits out at hourly billing

    The practise of hourly billing is thwarting attempts by courts and governments to expedite litigation, and lawyers' pay structures should be reviewed to make courts more efficient, one of Victoria's most senior commercial judges has said.

  • Call to curb 'executive federalism'

    The next target for the man who almost succeeded in bringing down the Rudd stimulus is commonwealth spending under various National Partnership Agreements.

  • Cy-pres remedies raise concerns for business

    The NSW Attorney-General has this month announced plans to introduce new class action laws which will give the NSW Supreme Court the power to order that unclaimed damages awarded in class actions be paid to a public interest beneficiary which is not a party to, or represented in, the proceedings.

  • Keane's lament for cases lost

    The competition mafia convened at the Palazzo Versace on election day - not in Italy alas, but the next best thing: the Gold Coast - for the annual trade practices workshop, organised by the very secretive Law Council of Australia.

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