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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…

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…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion relat­ing to salary arrange­ments, set-off claus­es and award compliance

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion relat­ing to salary arrange­ments, set-off claus­es and award complianceTo lis­ten to the inter­view click here…

Sarah Heuv­el pro­vides insight into get­ting Rent Roll Trans­ac­tions Com­pli­ance Compliant

Sarah Heuv­el in an inter­view with Matthew Cial­lel­la of MC Broking & Advi­so­ry, dis­cuss rent roll trans­ac­tions and the three key com­pli­ance issues where even minor errors or omis­sions in con­tracts can have major con­se­quences. These issues can delay set­tle­ments, strain rela­tion­ships, and in some cas­es, cause entire deals to fall apart:VOI/POI…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“The reac­tion to Char­lie Kirk’s assas­si­na­tion and its impli­ca­tions for employ­ment law”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 26 Sep­tem­ber 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“The reac­tion to Char­lie Kirk’s assas­si­na­tion and its impli­ca­tions for employ­ment law”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 26 Sep­tem­ber 2025.To read the full arti­cle click here…

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…

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

What hap­pens if your builder becomes insol­vent mid-project and why is the risk so high? Builder insol­ven­cy dur­ing con­struc­tion can lead to severe delays, sky­rock­et­ing costs, and com­plex legal dis­putes. This arti­cle explores why insol­ven­cy risk is increas­ing, what it means for home­own­ers and devel­op­ers, and the prac­ti­cal steps you…

Isabel­la Machin

Exper­tiseCom­mer­cialCom­mer­cial FinanceCor­po­rate…

Press Release | New Asso­ciate Appoint­ment — Isabel­la Machin

With a dual back­ground in account­ing and law, Isabel­la brings a depth of com­mer­cial insight and exper­tise to the firm across a wide spec­trum of prac­tice areas. Her expe­ri­ence spans com­mer­cial trans­ac­tions, restruc­tur­ing, cor­po­rate gov­er­nance and com­pli­ance, reg­u­la­to­ry advi­so­ry, and dis­pute res­o­lu­tion. Isabella’s unique com­mer­cial acu­men and client-cen­tric approach make her a strong asset…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“What hap­pens when an employ­ee runs out of sick leave?”, pub­lished in HRM Online on 21 Octo­ber 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“What hap­pens when an employ­ee runs out of sick leave?”, pub­lished in HRM Online on 21 Octo­ber 2025To read the full arti­cle click here…

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…

Michael Byrnes dis­cuss­es the West­pac WFH case on 2SM with Tim Webster

Michael Byrnes appeared on Break­fast with Tim Web­ster on 2SM on 27 Octo­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the West­pac Work from Home case.To lis­ten to the inter­view click here…

What the West­pac flex­i­ble work rul­ing real­ly means for employers

Michael Byrnes’ arti­cle ​“What the West­pac flex­i­ble work rul­ing real­ly means for employ­ers”, was pub­lished on HRM Online on 28 Octo­ber 2025:To read the arti­cle click here…

Can you dis­miss an employ­ee for look­ing for anoth­er job?

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Can you dis­miss an employ­ee for look­ing for anoth­er job?”, pub­lished in HRM Online on 3 Novem­ber 2025To read the full arti­cle click here…

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)…