Legislation focusing on imposing new obligations on design consultants and builders was recently introduced to the NSW Parliament. Importantly, the Design and Building Practitioners Bill creates a statutory duty of care owed by builders, and others, for economic loss for defects in construction serv ...

The Australian Government has tabled the Crimes Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2019 (the 2019 Bill) in the Senate, and the Attorney-General's Department has released Draft Guidance on the steps a body corporate can take to prevent an associate from bribing foreign public officials for public consultation (the Draft Guidance). Like the 2017 version of the Bill that lapsed earlier this year (the 2017 Bill), if passed, the 2019 Bill will strengthen Australia's foreign bribery laws, including by introducing a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by an associate, and will introduce a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) scheme for resolving serious corporate criminal matters. Partner Rachel Nicolson, Senior Associate Andrew Wilcock and Associate Lewis Winter report on the key differences between the 2017 and 2019 Bills, and the content of the Draft Guidance. ...

This Insight considers the regulatory effect of the grandfathering of the conflicted remuneration clause, 6½ years after it came into effect. ...

Today the Full Federal Court clarified the law of penalties as it applies to fees The key development is that in considering whether the amount of a fee is extravagant and exorbitant compared to the potential costs incurred in dealing with a failure to perform an obligation the court held that ...

A recent Victorian Supreme Court decision has resolved a disputed construction of a major shareholder exclusion in a DO policy in the insurers favour after considering the broad commercial purpose of these provisions Partner Andrew Maher and Law Graduate Shelley Drenth report ...

The Supreme Court of New South Wales has confirmed in a recent case that the impact of any dispute on third parties will generally not determine its arbitrability which rather will be determined on the proper construction of the arbitration agreement Partner Nick Rudge Senior Associate Alex Price ...

A principal has successfully challenged a decision to grant an interlocutory injunction restraining it from calling on performance bonds ...

Corporate mergers and acquisitions commonly involve changes to entities that comprise a corporate group the holding of property within that group and the ultimate beneficial ownership of that group Even if those changes occur entirely outside Australia Australian landholder duty may be payable and ...

A representative proceeding can only be commenced where seven or more group members have claims against the same person In proceedings with multiple respondents there has been conflicting authority as to whether each group member is required to have a claim against each respondent Last week in Cash ...

The Federal Court has dismissed shareholders claims against Babcock Brown alleging failure to disclose market sensitive information The court made important findings on the scope of listed entities continuous disclosure obligations in the context of accounting irregularities and potential insolvency ...