Parties involved in large-scale commercial transactions with non-lawyer third-party advisers need to be aware that communications with these advisers will rarely be protected by legal professional privilege following a recent Federal Court decision ...

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 recently ruled that there is no requirement for a public benevolent institution to provide direct relief to people in need Its interpretation of the expression public benevolent institution theoretically has the potential to expand eligibility well beyond traditionally accepted ...

We have previously reported on ASICs submission to the Financial System Inquiry FSI and in particular its assertion that it needs a broader range of more onerous financial penalties in order to punish and deter corporate wrongdoing ASIC made similar submissions to the recent inquiry by the Senate ...

The 100 member rule for convening company meetings will be abolished under legislative amendments introduced into Parliament this week following consultation by the Federal Government on draft legislation earlier this year Proposed streamlining of remuneration disclosure obligations is also still ...

After much anticipation ASIC has released new employee incentive scheme class order relief Partner Greg Bosmans and Special Counsel Gadi Bloch members of Allens Head Office Governance team report on the implications for listed and unlisted companies ...

In recent times APRA has been active in prescribing duties for directors of the institutions it regulates In light of what has happened it is worth asking should the question of directors duties be excluded from APRAs prudential standard-making powers ...

There is lots of noise about the duties of financial advisers and lawyers including us love to debate whether FoFA has left any room for fiduciary obligations ...

Superannuation fund trustees and their lawyers including this one have been grappling for years with what the covenant in section 522c of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act 1993 means What must a trustee do to exercise its powers and discharge its duties in the best interests of ...

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 ...