Pub­li­ca­tions

Nov 5, 2025

Stra­ta Law Changes — Effec­tive 27 Octo­ber 2025

What do the lat­est NSW stra­ta law changes mean for own­ers and com­mit­tees? On 27 Octo­ber 2025, the next stage of reforms under the Stra­ta Schemes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Act 2025 came into effect, intro­duc­ing stronger com­pli­ance pow­ers for NSW Fair Trad­ing, fair­er finan­cial hard­ship arrange­ments for levy pay­ments, and new…

Nov 5, 2025

How does statu­to­ry inter­pre­ta­tion impact build­ing dis­putes in NSW?

How does statu­to­ry inter­pre­ta­tion impact build­ing dis­putes in NSW? Writ­ten laws like the Home Build­ing Act, build­ing codes, and indus­try stan­dards often leave room for mul­ti­ple inter­pre­ta­tions. This arti­cle explains how courts apply statu­to­ry inter­pre­ta­tion rules, such as the extrin­sic mate­ri­als rule under sec­tion 34 of the NSW Inter­pre­ta­tion Act…

Nov 5, 2025

Prov­ing Major Build­ing Defects Under the Home Build­ing Act

What qual­i­fies as a major defect in res­i­den­tial build­ings under NSW law? Defects can range from minor issues to seri­ous struc­tur­al prob­lems, but under­stand­ing the legal def­i­n­i­tion of a ​‘major defect’ under sec­tion 18E(4) of the Home Build­ing Act 1989 (NSW) is crit­i­cal before mak­ing a claim. This arti­cle explains the key…

Nov 4, 2025

Restraints and Real Estate – what is enforceable

What do post-employ­ment restraints in real estate real­ly mean for agents and employ­ers? In the prop­er­ty indus­try, employ­ment agree­ments often include three key restraints: non-solic­i­ta­tion, non-accep­tance, and non-com­pe­ti­tion. These claus­es aim to pro­tect client rela­tion­ships, con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion, and busi­ness good­will, but their enforce­abil­i­ty depends on how they’re draft­ed and applied…

Nov 4, 2025

Reform­ing Retail Leas­es? Retail Leas­es Amend­ment (Review) Bill 2025 (NSW)

What does the Retail Leas­es Amend­ment (Review) Bill 2025 mean for land­lords and ten­ants in NSW?On 14 Octo­ber 2025, the Min­is­ter for Small Busi­ness intro­duced the Retail Leas­es Amend­ment (Review) Bill 2025 (Bill) to NSW Par­lia­ment to imple­ment the first tranche of leg­isla­tive reforms to the Retail Leas­es Act 1994 (Act)…

Oct 27, 2025

Putting the West­pac Work­ing From Home Case in Perspective

Can employ­ees real­ly work from home if they want to? In a recent Fair Work case an employ­ee won the right to work from home, but it turns out it’s not that sim­ple. It can only be request­ed under cer­tain con­di­tions and each case depends on the sit­u­a­tion of the employ­ee and…

Oct 13, 2025

The risk of builder insol­ven­cy mid way through a con­struc­tion project is real (and will prob­a­bly be expensive)

Intro­duc­tionThis arti­cle pro­vides guid­ance to those under­tak­ing con­struc­tion works and iden­ti­fies a num­ber of con­tract pro­vi­sions which, if includ­ed in the con­struc­tion con­tract, can assist a devel­op­er to iden­ti­fy and then man­age a builder insol­ven­cy event should it arise. All con­struc­tion projects come with risk (and reward)Some of the usu­al risks that imme­di­ate­ly come to mind include:Cost…

Sep 30, 2025

Cross-Com­pa­ny Secu­ri­ty and Liq­uida­tor Chal­lenges: Full Fed­er­al Court Restores Cer­tain­ty in CEG Direct Secu­ri­ties v Coop­er [2025] FCAFC 47

A sig­nif­i­cant deci­sion from the Full Fed­er­al Court has clar­i­fied the lim­its of liq­uida­tors’ pow­ers to unwind cross-com­pa­ny secu­ri­ty grant­ed to relat­ed entities.The deci­sion has re-enforced the com­mer­cial via­bil­i­ty of intra-group finance arrange­ments when prop­er­ly struc­tured and documented.In CEG Direct Secu­ri­ties Pty Ltd v Coop­er as liq­uida­tor of Run­tong Invest­ment and Devel­op­ment Pty…

Sep 9, 2025

Copy­right and Gen­er­a­tive AI: what Aus­tralia can learn from the Meta and Anthrop­ic Rulings

In 2025, two U.S. court deci­sions, Kadrey v. Meta and Bartz v. Anthrop­ic, have pro­vid­ed the first real judi­cial answers to a press­ing ques­tion, can using copy­right­ed works to train large lan­guage mod­els (LLMs) amount to fair use?Judges Vince Chhabria and William Alsup, in the Meta and Anthrop­ic cas­es respec­tive­ly, both found…

Sep 8, 2025

Fed­er­al Court Deci­sion Lim­its Effec­tive Use of Set-Off in Con­trac­tu­al Annu­al Salary Arrangements

The Deci­sionIn a recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion*, Jus­tice Per­ram held that while con­trac­tu­al set-off claus­es in an annu­al salary arrange­ment can be effec­tive for the sat­is­fac­tion of mod­ern award enti­tle­ments dur­ing a pay peri­od, they are inef­fec­tive between pay peri­ods. This is a sig­nif­i­cant lim­i­ta­tion on the prac­ti­cal use of con­trac­tu­al annu­al salary…