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 Australian Securities and Investments Commission is seeking feedback on proposals to help facilitate the increased use of electronic means of providing disclosure for financial products and services The proposals include new class order relief to facilitate the increased use of multimedia ...

From 1 January 2015 a new common risk management prudential standard will apply to banks general insurers and life companies and in many cases to other companies in the corporate groups in which those institutions sit Michael Mathieson looks at the three lines of defence model that APRA proposes to ...

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 ...

Following a decision earlier this year preventing a solicitor from acting in a class action in which the solicitor managed and controlled the representative plaintiff the Victorian Supreme Court has held that a solicitor and senior counsel should be prevented from acting in a class action in which ...

Having recently acquired a new CEO and a significant funding boost AUSTRAC is being closely watched by reporting entities for an indication of its future direction and priorities both at the policy and the enforcement level In light of this and with major review reports pending 2015 promises to be a ...

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 issued the first court-ordered civil penalties for breaches of the National Electricity Rules demonstrating a willingness to apply an agreed pecuniary penalty negotiated by regulators and respondents This decision is important not just to the energy sector but also to ...