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Swaab fea­tured in The Aus­tralian on the eco­nom­ic out­look for 2013

Swaab has been fea­tured in the Legal Affairs sec­tion of The Aus­tralian dis­cussing the eco­nom­ic out­look for this year and trends with­in the legal sec­tor. Swaab lit­i­ga­tion part­ner Ter­ry Sper­ber com­ments on the need for mid-size firms such as Swaab to pro­vide val­ue beyond sound legal advice…

Impor­tant Changes to Employ­ment Law for 2013

Fair Work Changes Var­i­ous amend­ments made to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) came into force on 1 Jan­u­ary 2013. A sig­nif­i­cant change is to the time peri­ods with­in which dis­missal appli­ca­tions must be lodged with the renamed Fair Work Com­mis­sion (for­mer­ly Fair Work Aus­tralia): The time for lodg­ing an unfair dis­missal claim increas­es…

Swaab Award­ed Inno­va­tion Award at Annu­al ALP­MA Awards Night

Swaab was recent­ly recog­nised by the NSW branch of the Aus­tralasian Legal Prac­tice Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion [ALP­MA] with the Inno­va­tion Award at their annu­al awards evening. Swaab received the acco­lade for their efforts in ​“tak­ing things to the next lev­el” when it comes to ser­vice deliv­ery and client focus. ALP­MA NSW Pres­i­dent Sal­ly…

Swaab a final­ist at the BRW Client Choice Award for the 8^th Con­sec­u­tive Year

Swaab has been nom­i­nat­ed in the cat­e­go­ry of Best Law Form rev­enue under $50 mil­lion at the 2013 BRW Client Choice Awards. It is the 8th con­sec­u­tive year that Swaab have been nom­i­nat­ed for a BRW Client Choice Award. The BRW client ser­vice sur­vey is the largest inde­pen­dent sur­vey of pro­fes­sion­al ser­vice…

When is redun­dan­cy genuine?

In Brief Employ­ers who fail to observe the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act) require­ments relat­ing to redun­dan­cies can find them­selves exposed to unfair dis­missal claims in cir­cum­stances in which they may have had good busi­ness rea­sons for termination. A recent deci­sion before Fair Work Aus­tralia (now Fair Work Com­mis­sion) high­lights…

Down, down, prices are down … or are they?

In Brief Retail­ers must not mis­lead cus­tomers about the amount of mon­ey they are sav­ing dur­ing adver­tised sale periods. ACCC v Jew­ellery Group Pty Lim­it­ed (No 2) [2013] FCA 14 Last month, the Fed­er­al Court found that Zamel’s Jew­ellers engaged in mis­lead­ing or decep­tive con­duct and made false or mis­lead­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tions by dis­trib­ut­ing…

When do I need a new will?

As a gen­er­al rule you should have your Will amend­ed (or get a new Will draft­ed if amend­ing isn’t pos­si­ble) when you expe­ri­ence a major change in your life or a sig­nif­i­cant event, for example: You plan to get mar­ried. Say­ing those mag­i­cal words ​“I do” may revoke your exist­ing Will. For peace of mind…

Con­struc­tion Indus­try Insolvency

In Brief In August 2012 the NSW Gov­ern­ment announced an Inquiry into Con­struc­tion Indus­try Insol­ven­cy in NSW. The Inquiry released its Dis­cus­sion and Issues Paper in Octo­ber 2012 which pro­pos­es a num­ber of poten­tial reme­di­al mea­sures for the industry. Con­struc­tion Indus­try Insol­ven­cy in NSW In August 2012 the NSW Gov­ern­ment announced an Inquiry into…

What not to say in the office

Why are there things I can and can­not say in the office? What is and what is not appro­pri­ate behav­iour in the work­place has tra­di­tion­al­ly been derid­ed as sim­ply a mat­ter of com­mon sense and ques­tioned on the basis: why would we seek to pre­scribe com­mon sense? In case you find your­self nod­ding…

Down, down, prices are down … or are they?

In Brief Retail­ers must not mis­lead cus­tomers about the amount of mon­ey they are sav­ing dur­ing adver­tised sale periods. ACCC v Jew­ellery Group Pty Lim­it­ed (No 2) [2013] FCA 14 Last month, the Fed­er­al Court found that Zamel’s Jew­ellers engaged in mis­lead­ing or decep­tive con­duct and made false or mis­lead­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tions by dis­trib­ut­ing…

Nation­al Trans­port & Logis­tics Reg­u­la­tion Becomes Real­i­ty. Is Your Sup­ply Chain Ready?

In Brief After years in the mak­ing, the estab­lish­ment in late Jan­u­ary of two new nation­al trans­port reg­u­la­tors rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal shift in land trans­port reg­u­la­tion in Aus­tralia and serves as an impor­tant reminder of the way that trans­port reg­u­la­tion impacts every­one who uses trans­port in their sup­ply chains, not only those…

Non Award Com­pli­ance Can Real­ly Cost Small Businesses

In Brief The Fed­er­al Mag­is­trates Court has issued a very clear warn­ing to small busi­ness­es to com­ply with the min­i­mum enti­tle­ments set by awards or risk get­ting severe­ly fined.Fair Work Ombuds­man v Tur­bo Café Water Gar­dens Pty Ltd & Anor [2012] FMCA 794 & Fair Work Ombuds­man v Tur­bo Café Point Cook Pty Ltd & Anor [2012]…

Employ­ment Law in Australia

Swaab employ­ment part­ner, Richard Ott­ley has been fea­tured on Cor​po​rate​liv​ewire​.com dis­cussing the legal com­pli­ance chal­lenges over­seas organ­i­sa­tions face when wish­ing to set up busi­ness­es in Aus­tralia. > Read the full article …

Employ­ee? Or not employ­ee? Why is it not clearer?

After 200 hun­dred years of legal deci­sions on the ques­tion of who is an employ­ee and who is a sub­con­trac­tor, the courts still sur­prise us. A recent Full Fed­er­al Court deci­sion on the issue pro­vid­ed a very adverse out­come for the hap­less employ­er. It involved 5 insur­ance sales rep­re­sen­ta­tives oper­at­ing in 3 dif­fer­ent roles for an…

Recog­ni­tion of cross-bor­der insol­ven­cies in Australia 

In brief Swaab lawyers Georgina King and Michelle Harpur dis­cuss appli­ca­tions for recog­ni­tion of for­eign insol­ven­cy pro­ceed­ings in Aus­tralia under the UNCI­TRAL Mod­el Law on Cross-Bor­der Insolvency.  Since 2008, the Unit­ed Nations Com­mis­sion on Inter­na­tion­al Trade Law Mod­el Law on Cross-Bor­der Insol­ven­cy (Mod­el Law) has been in force in Aus­tralia pur­suant to…