Lawyers Week­ly reached out to 35 large firms in Aus­tralia with four questions

The four ques­tions asked were: 

  1. What is your firm’s response to the find­ings from the Ethics Index that 90 per cent of Aus­tralians see an urgent eth­i­cal oblig­a­tion for busi­ness­es such as law firms to act on cli­mate change?
  2. Does your firm accept the set­tled sci­ence of cli­mate change on the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, as well as the man-made con­tribut­ing factors?
  3. How does your firm advo­cate for or assist in the pro­tec­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, if at all?
  4. Assum­ing your firm is envi­ron­men­tal­ly active, why is it impor­tant, in your firm’s opin­ion, for legal insti­tu­tions to step up and take such action?

Read the arti­cle here

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

More AI Slop in the Fair Work Juris­dic­tion: The Fight Back

In two recent cas­es both the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) and Fed­er­al Cir­cuit and Fam­i­ly Court of Aus­tralia (FCF­CoA) have…

NSW Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 Pass­es Parliament

The Build­ing (Approvals and Prac­ti­tion­ers) Bill 2026 (the Bill) passed through Par­lia­ment on Tues­day after­noon 4 August 2026. The Bill is…

AI Slop v Fair Work Com­mis­sion: The Scourge Continues

For all the talk of how extra­or­di­nary and trans­for­ma­tive arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) can sup­pos­ed­ly be, it con­tin­ues to be a scourge…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Busi­ness­es demand new pow­ers after worker’s hope­less’ AI claim costs employ­er”, pub­lished in the Aus­tralian on 23 August 2026

Busi­ness­es want new pow­ers because AI-assist­ed employ­ee claims are increas­ing the num­ber of weak or inac­cu­rate work­place com­plaints, forc­ing employ­ers…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Has the NBI undone itself?”, pub­lished in HR Leader on 19 August 2026

Has the NBI weak­ened its own influ­ence in Aus­trali­a’s work­place and indus­tri­al rela­tions system?Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Has…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Scott Hay­wood on 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR on 17 August 2026 to dis­cuss the use of AI by lit­i­gants in mat­ters before the Fair Work Com­mis­sion and oth­er tri­bunals and courts (from 29:15 to 36:45)

Michael Byrnes dis­cussed the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), includ­ing gen­er­a­tive AI tools such as Chat­G­PT, by lit­i­gants in pro­ceed­ings…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information