Insights
Dyco Hotels Pty Ltd v Laundy Hotels (Quarry) Pty Ltd: Buyer of hotel affected by COVID-19 health orders wins return of deposit on appeal
The NSW Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal from the purchaser of a hotel business affected by COVID-19 public health orders, finding that although the contract was not frustrated, the vendor could not insist on completion and had repudiated the contract by purporting to terminate. Background In January 2020, Dyco Hotels Pty Ltd and Quarryman Hotel Operations Pty Ltd (together, Dyco ) contracted to buy the Quarryman...
In 2022, artificial intelligence and machine learning permeate our work and home lives. But what are they?
Lawyers and other professionals must apply their expertise to the hard problems of law, business, and society in a saturated information environment on a daily basis. What’s more, the legal, financial, and geopolitical landscape in which we work is constantly evolving and becoming increasingly complex. In this context, new technology solutions are indispensable tools for achieving our goals, staying agile, and maintaining...
APRA releases guidance on managing crypto asset risks
On 21 April 2022, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) issued risk management guidelines (in the form of a letter) for APRA-regulated entities that engage in crypto asset related activity. The guidelines outline APRA’s risk management expectations and a policy roadmap for regulated entities that engage in crypto activity. Who needs to know? Organisations under the regulation of APRA should review...
Challenges for council landlords in and out of the COVID-19 pandemic and managing their leasing portfolios
Managing a large and varied leasing portfolio can be challenging for any landlord, and most landlords are constantly looking for tools to assist them to efficiently manage their leasing portfolios, particularly during a quickly changing regulatory landscape, like we have during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to various factors, councils arguably have a greater need for such tools. As owners of land (or managers...
Indigenous Cultural IP – new topic on Practical Guidance Intellectual Property
Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been calling for stronger measures to recognise, protect, and maintain all aspects of their culture and heritage. Globally, there is growing recognition of ‘Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property’ or ‘ICIP’ which is the term used to describe the fundamental human rights of the world’s Indigenous Peoples to manage and control their tangible and intangible...
It’s election time! Will the increase in applications being made under the Government Information (Public Access) Act continue? GIPA and the objective of balance
There will usually be an increase in applications for access to information under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA) in the lead up to any election or after a significant change in government policy. For example, the announcement of the NSW council amalgamation plans and their reversal led to a significant number of access applications, as did the light rail project and WesConnex. No doubt you...
A question of notice: employment contract’s implied term of reasonable notice versus the Fair Work Act’s notice provisions.
Courts have had to decide many cases in which a dismissed employee claims damages for breach of contract, the alleged breach being the failure to give the amount of notice that was implied into the contract (because there was no express term specifying the period of notice to be given). For a long time, the implication of such a term was widely accepted. However, there is a growing body of cases that questions whether...
Understanding your contracts with workers
The contract is in the driving seat, but who is in control? Where are we going, and most importantly, how do we get there safely? Two recent High Court decisions, Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union v Personnel Contracting Pty Ltd [2022] HCA 1 ; BC202200585 and, ZG Operations v Jamsek [2022] HCA 2 ; BC202200580 , said it is the contract which decides if a worker is an employee or a contractor....
Be careful what you wish four: Australian considerations of a 4-day work week
Aurora borealis (the Northern Lights). Stunning landscapes. Outdoor hot-tubs, year-round. All of these, you will find in Iceland. And yet, recently this country has been in the headlines not for these things, but for its work practices? The 4-day work week. It is the talk of the town. From Reykjavík to Randwick, there has been an unmistakable uptick in talk of workers working 4 days but being paid for 5. Although, as...
Making the most of your firm's data with Lexis®︎ Web Service APIs
Interview with Lindsay O ‘Connor , Head of Core Product Pacific Formerly a lawyer, Lindsay now manages a team of talented Product Managers with responsibility for driving new product developments as well as the roadmaps for existing products. Having once been a customer of LexisNexis, Lindsay is passionate about driving efficiency improvements for lawyers enabling them to spend more time building their practice and...
Lessons from technology: how to compete, co-operate and reinvent your firm for success
No doubt, too many times you’ve been told that your business is about to be disrupted. That innovation, or a particular technology, will change the way the law works and how legal firms make money. That the sky is falling and your days are numbered – the Amazon of legal is just around the corner! Or even worse, they are already here! But despite all that, when you look around you’ll see that the business of law, and...
Powering Law with Data APIs
Law firms across the world are increasingly becoming conscious of the pivotal role Data plays in determining the future of their business and practice. At the centre of every matter, every case and every argument is Data. Data about historical judgments, legislation, analytical content, expert opinions and firmographic information about clients, industry news, the opposition or your own teams. Legal research is and...
Why does China’s Personal Information Protection Law matter to Australian organisations?
Should Australian organisations, even those that don’t have a Chinese market for their products or services, care about China’s new privacy law? On 1 November 2021, China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) commenced in the People’s Republic of China. The PIPL establishes a framework for collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. This wide-reaching jurisdictional approach of the PIPL is similar...
The importance of effective leadership in a volatile environment
Those faced with leading organisations in current volatile environments clearly encounter significant challenges. Effective leaders are those who have the skills to make good decisions in an ambiguous environment, and develop opportunities through innovation to gain a competitive advantage. They are highly valuable to organisations. [i] Leadership styles There are numerous models of leadership, for example: transformational...
Worth fighting about: risk identification
What is the most important step in the risk management process? While some professionals, including my friend Dr David Hillson, the Risk Doctor contend the most important step is the Risk Treatment step (Controls/Mitigation). They support this view by pointing out it is only in this step where you “actually do something to manage risk”. I (secretly) strongly agree with Dr Hillson, as that it is perhaps the first step...
Building rapport during online dispute resolution: different, difficult, doable
The rapidly changing court protocols amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have posed tremendous challenges for barristers, solicitors and their clients. With dispute resolution and mediation via video technologies becoming a more typical way of resolving legal disputes, setting the right tone quickly can be critical to a successful outcome on the day. So how do you quickly build rapport when meeting online? It wouldn't...
The pen is not mightier than the sword…or Zoom
At last, permanent reform for companies on electronic signing and virtual meetings Michelle Sim – Senior Legal Writer, LexisNexis® Practical Guidance Banking & Finance Michelle Wibisono – Senior Legal Writer, LexisNexis Practical Guidance Corporations Kathryn Schultz – Senior Legal Writer, LexisNexis Practical Guidance Mergers & Acquisitions In this article, three expert writers from LexisNexis Practical Guidance...
The COVID-19 vaccine claims scheme explained
Introduction: Vaccination against COVID-19 is the most effective way to reduce deaths and severe illness from infection. However, vaccines may cause side effects which on rare occasions extend to serious adverse outcomes. [1] On 2 July 2021, Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and Ageing, announced “a COVID-19 Vaccine Claim Scheme.” [2] The Vaccine Claims Scheme (VCS) enables individuals who suffer a significant adverse...
Legal professional privilege: A tale of two judgments
Can common law legal professional privilege truly be claimed over electronic communications? Did the High Court in its Expense Reduction and Glencore decisions give tangible guidance as to how the doctrine of legal professional privilege can provide answers to the problems created by misuse of technology? Expert author and barrister RJ Desiatnik analyses these two recent unanimous High Court judgments concerning the...
Q & A with barrister Farid Assaf SC, author of Assaf’s Winding Up in Insolvency 3rd edition
Assaf’s Winding Up in Insolvency 3rd edition (earlier known as Statutory Demands and Winding Up in Insolvency) is an essential practical reference text providing comprehensive treatment of all aspects of winding up in insolvency. We took the opportunity to ask Farid Assaf SC of Banco Chambers a few questions about the text. Q: Why the new title? The new work is about all aspects of winding up in insolvency. To reflect...
Cybersecurity awareness: The maturity journey
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that in order to mitigate cyber security risk, companies need to train their staff in how to identify and respond to IT threats. When over 90% of IT breaches are via staff, it would be prudent to accept this as major risk. In its simplest form, there are three stages in the cyber security awareness maturity model: Compliance Do some awareness training Don’t focus too much...
Insider Threat
We are living in a very complex world filled with vulnerability and uncertainty, where anyone, externally or internally, can cause harm to you and your organisation. When a person with authorised access to organisational resources becomes an adversary, they are deemed an “insider threat”, which refers to an insider who wittingly or unwittingly does harm to the organisation. Examples are sabotage, espionage, terrorism...
The next chapter in the Modernising Business Registers program
The implementation of the Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program is picking up its pace, after a slow start. The MBR program originated in the 2016 National Business Simplification Initiative , which had the aim of reducing the burden of unnecessary regulation and improving, centralising and streamlining access to government information and services. Following extensive consultation, the Government rolled out the...
Privacy and the search for suspects using forensic genetic genealogy
“ There’s no such thing as anonymity anymore ” quotes Nathan Scudder of the University of Technology in a recent article inside the Privacy Law Bulletin . He asks, “…are we now at a point where — if enough investigative time and effort is applied —can almost any suspect can be identified from their discarded DNA ?” The increase in publicly available genetic data presents investigators of cold cases with potential leads...
Will data-driven law firms act differently to the top firms of today?
“Analytics”, “Artificial Intelligence”, “Machine Learning” – these have become the ubiquitous catch cries of our world, the fear mongering we hear at conferences about what is about to hit our firms. They describe a future wholly different from the present, where the very fabric of the law firm is irreparably changed. Yet this future never seems to arrive. The promised disruption seems close but still thankfully just...