Newslet­ters

Pre­vi­ous newsletters

Swaab Con­nect — Jan­u­ary 2020

In our very first edi­tion of the decade Part­ner Helen Kow­al inter­views Struc­tur­al Engi­neer, Tadd Wal­ford to deliv­er the final instal­ment of the NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try Series which doc­u­ments dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of the con­struc­tion indus­try. Sat­ur­day the 25th Jan­u­ary marked the begin­ning of the Lunar New Year, a 15-day fes­ti­val that cel­e­brates the begin­ning of the Lunar cal­en­dar, this year cel­e­brat­ing the Year of the Rat. Senior Asso­ciate Monique Love­day pro­vides help­ful tips on how to col­lect and store evi­dence safe­ly when it comes to cyber and online abuse after a sep­a­ra­tion and Angela Har­vey indi­cates five times you should review your estate planning.
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Swaab Con­nect — Novem­ber 2019

In this edi­tion Michael Byrnes points out a few sen­si­ble steps that can help man­age the risks of ​‘Sil­ly Sea­son’ events in the lead up to Christ­mas. With the Sher­gold Weir Report reg­u­la­tions not being set until 2020 Part­ner Helen Kow­al advis­es how design­ers and build­ing prac­ti­tion­ers should famil­iarise them­selves with the Draft Bill and under­stand what is com­ing. Also, a ques­tion often asked by employ­ers fac­ing an unfair dis­missal claim is, what hap­pens if the mat­ter can­not be set­tled? Whilst the vast major­i­ty of unfair dis­missal cas­es are resolved at con­cil­i­a­tion, some pro­ceed to a hear­ing, Part­ner Richard Ott­ley explains.
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Swaab Con­nect — Octo­ber 2019

When it comes to ter­mi­nat­ing employ­ees due to changes in oper­a­tional require­ments , com­pli­ance is key, Part­ner Richard Ott­ley talks about gen­uine redun­dan­cy ver­sus unfair dis­missal and how the dif­fer­ence could be in the con­sul­ta­tion. Dis­agree with a val­u­a­tion by joint­ly instruct­ed sin­gle expert? Fam­i­ly Law Senior Asso­ciate, Monique Love­day explains what not to do. Part­ner Marc Bad­dams out­lines the changes that will apply to con­struc­tion con­tracts in NSW from 21 Octo­ber and Asso­ciate Sean Green­wood dis­cuss­es secu­ri­ty costs for non-res­i­dent plaintiffs.
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Swaab Con­nect — Sep­tem­ber 2019

A per­son who is the sub­ject of a defam­a­to­ry pub­li­ca­tion can sue for defama­tion, but what about com­pa­nies? Marc Bad­dams and Sean Green­wood advise if a com­pa­ny can sue for defama­tion. Michael Byrnes out­lines some ini­tial obser­va­tions fol­low­ing The Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment’s deci­sion to release​‘reli­gious free­dom reforms’, Richard Ott­ley looks at fac­tors which may impact upon the cer­tain­ty and dura­bil­i­ty of deeds of release, we also dis­cuss the lat­est devel­op­­ments fol­low­ing the recent Mon­delez deci­sion and out­line how personal/​car­ers leave should be calculated.
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Swaab Con­nect — August 2019

This month we are delight­ed to wel­come Alexan­dra Streltso­va to the firm’s lit­i­ga­tion team, Part­ner Eric Ziehlke explains why recent polit­i­cal changes in the Unit­ed King­dom have raised the prospect of a​‘no deal’ Brex­it as a seri­ous pos­si­bil­i­ty, Part­ner Helen Kow­al inter­views Allan Har­ri­man OAM for the third instal­ment of the NSW con­struc­tion series, Accred­it­ed Spe­cial­ist, Annette Wil­son breaks down the com­plex­i­ty of what you need to know about divorce and sep­a­ra­tion and final­ly we announce the results of the first ever Mer­i­tas Well­ness Sur­vey which involved over 200 staff mem­bers from Mer­i­tas affil­i­at­ed law firms.
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Swaab Con­nect — July 2019

In this issue of Swaab Con­nect, Angela Har­vey pro­vides a brief out­line on the nature and oper­a­tion of Vic­to­ri­a’s new assist­ed dying laws, Fam­i­ly Law accred­it­ed spe­cial­ist Annette Wil­son out­lines how the court sys­tem deter­mines the out­come of your prop­er­ty set­tle­ment in a defac­to part­ner­ship, Bill Lo explains how ​‘small’ and​‘large’ pro­pri­etary com­pa­nies will affect the report­ing oblig­a­tions of small and medi­um sized enter­pris­es, Helen Kow­al includes her sec­ond instal­ment of the NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try six-part series with Paul Rat­cliff and last but not least, Swaab has been announced as final­ists in the Aus­tralian Law Awards 2019.
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Swaab Con­nect — June 2019

This month, Asso­ciate Bill Lo and Grad­u­ate at Law Emi­ly Capen­er dis­cuss the scope and impli­ca­tions of the pro­posed changes to the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 amend­ments which require unique a Direc­tor Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Num­ber. Part­ner, Helen Kow­al includes the first install­ment of the NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try six-part series by inter­view­ing cladding spe­cial­ist, Peter Kar­sai. Part­ner, Michael Byrnes sheds some light on the prop­er scope of the anti-bul­ly­ing juris­dic­tion and we con­grat­u­late Man­ag­ing Part­ner, Mary Digiglio on being award­ed the Lawyers Week­ly Well­ness Advo­cate of the Year 2019.
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Swaab Con­nect — May 2019

This month in Swaab Con­nect, Part­ner Eric Ziehlke explains how dis­putes can arise between a prin­ci­pal and its ex-dis­­trib­u­­tor with respect to the own­er­ship and use of brands and names and how you can pro­tect your con­tract when a dis­trib­u­tor­ship ends. Part­ner Helen Kow­al advis­es how to gain some con­trol and pro­tect your inter­ests if you are an own­er of a lot or mul­ti­ple lots in a stra­ta scheme and Part­ner Angela Har­vey high­lights the dan­gers of fail­ing to sign a Will and try­ing to seek pro­bate of an infor­mal Will. Also, we con­grat­u­late Man­ag­ing Part­ner, Mary Digiglio on being announced as a final­ist in the Part­ner of the Year Awards ​‘Well­ness Advo­cate of the Year’ category.
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Swaab Con­nect — April 2019

In this edi­tion of Swaab Con­nect we wel­come new Part­ner, Helen Kow­al to our Prop­er­ty, Plan­ning & Projects team. Part­ner, Angela Har­vey dis­cuss­es the impor­tance of safe­guard­ing your Will and Part­ner, Richard Ott­ley dis­cuss­es a recent deci­sion in the Fair Work Com­mis­sion that has shone a light on a dilem­ma which employ­ers face when man­ag­ing redun­dan­cies. Also in this edi­tion, with manda­to­ry e‑conveyancing fast approach­ing, pri­or­i­ty notices will be a use­ful tool in the respon­si­ble e‑conveyancer’s armoury. Senior Asso­ciate, Daniel Ken­twell and Solic­i­tor, Car­ly Howard explore the legal and prac­ti­cal effects that have left many scratch­ing their heads.
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Swaab Con­nect — March 2019

In this edi­tion of Swaab Con­nect we cel­e­brate Inter­na­tion­al Wom­en’s Day 2019 with an arti­cle by Nicole Cini, Kate­ri­na Lon­er­gan, Esther Khoo, Nicole Pozovsky and Monique Robb where they share their relec­tions as (female) lawyers. Michael Byrnes is fea­tured in The Keep pod­cast and dis­cuss­es cul­ture change and how to empow­er employ­ees. We also share three arti­cles this month, ​‘Mur­der and inher­i­tance — the $40 bot­tle of wine sto­ry’, ​‘An employ­ment and fam­i­ly law guide to fam­i­ly and domes­tic vio­lence in the work­place’ and ​‘Devel­op­ing a shared under­stand­ing of sex­u­al harassment.’
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