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Michael Byrnes dis­cuss­es work, health and safe­ty issues for junior lawyers in firms

Michael Byrnes and Jerome Doraisamy dis­cuss the WHS issues that law firms across the board need to be aware of when it comes to idio­syn­crat­ic issues affect­ing younger lawyers in the work­place, par­tic­u­lar­ly the impacts of fatigue, sus­tained stress, bul­ly­ing and exploita­tive inter­ac­tions with clients.Lis­ten to the pod­cast here…

Home own­ers: what to do about defects

It seems a straight­for­ward arrange­ment, a builder is con­tract­ed to build a res­i­den­tial build­ing. They build it and hand it over to its own­ers. Con­tract fulfilled. But what if it isn’t that simple? As with most prod­ucts, a build­ing can look great on the out­side but con­tain hid­den defects. The dif­fer­ence is that build­ing defects can…

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…

You got­ta have faith: good faith and deter­mi­na­tions under the SOP Act

Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ments Act 1999 (NSW) The Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ments Act 1999 (NSW) (SOP Act) pro­vides a statu­to­ry enti­tle­ment to progress pay­ments which runs par­al­lel to a con­struc­tion contract. Under the SOP Act, a par­ty may engage a reg­is­tered adju­di­ca­tor to make a deci­sion as to the amount…

A Caveat on Caveats

When used cor­rect­ly, caveats can be an impor­tant ally in your secu­ri­ty arsenal. Loaned some­one mon­ey? You should con­sid­er a caveat.  Con­tract­ed to pur­chase real estate? You should con­sid­er a caveat. You get the idea. A per­son seek­ing the pro­tec­tion of a caveat is called a ​“caveator”. A caveat is used to pro­tect a caveator’s legal…

Super­an­nu­a­tion and rela­tion­ship breakdown

The Aus­tralian Finan­cial Review recent­ly ran an opin­ion piece (by Tim Mack­ay) on the ATO announc­ing that it is using a ​“top 100 SMSF” list to ​“tar­get aggres­sive tax plan­ning arrange­ments.” The top 100 SMS­Fs report­ed­ly con­trol a com­bined $8 billion.  Super­an­nu­a­tion is a tax effec­tive way to save for retire­ment, and while…

James Skel­ton has been announced as a final­ist in the 2019 Aus­tralasian Law Awards

Con­grat­u­la­tions to James Skel­ton who has been announced as a final­ist in the ​‘Young Pri­vate Prac­tice Lawyer of the Year (30 or under)’ cat­e­go­ry of the Aus­tralasian Law Awards 2019. The Aus­tralasian Law Awards cel­e­brate the out­stand­ing achieve­ments of Aus­tralia and New Zealand’s lead­ing legal pro­fes­sion­al, firms and in-house teams for their…

Michael Byrnes dis­cuss­es whether an employ­er can sack you over what you say anony­mous­ly on social media

A High Court case will decide whether an employ­er can sack you over what you say anony­mous­ly on social media. Pub­lic ser­vant Michaela Baner­ji had worked for the Depart­ment of Immi­gra­tion and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion for sev­en years when she was fired in 2013. Her employ­er dis­cov­ered she was behind an anony­mous…

Helen Kow­al

Exper­tiseCon­struc­tionProp­er­tyStra­ta…

New Part­ner Joins Prop­er­ty, Plan­ning & Projects Team

Swaab is delight­ed to wel­come new part­ner Helen Kow­al to the firm’s PPP Prac­tice.Helen brings with her a career span­ning over 25 years in gen­er­al prac­tice, for the past decade Helen has spe­cialised in build­ing and con­struc­tion, stra­ta and prop­er­ty law, includ­ing lit­i­ga­tion and dis­put­ed res­o­lu­tion. Helen has worked for many own­ers…

Unfair Dis­missal – Con­fi­den­tial­i­ty no excuse for fail­ure to con­sult on redundancy

A recent deci­sion in the Fair Work Com­mis­sion has shone a light on a dilem­ma which employ­ers face when man­ag­ing redun­dan­cies in the con­text of a con­fi­den­tial busi­ness acquisition.  The dilem­ma is, at what point in time should the employ­er dis­close to staff the impend­ing acqui­si­tion and its like­ly impact upon their con­tin­u­ing…

A Will with no ben­e­fi­cia­ries? An expen­sive mistake

Con­sult­ing a lawyer might seem expen­sive to some. A defec­tive Will, how­ev­er, can prove even more costly. Will mak­ing is a sig­nif­i­cant com­po­nent of lat­er life plan­ning, and in near­ly all sit­u­a­tions will require pro­fes­sion­al legal advice. On a basic lev­el, legal advice should ensure that the Will itself is a legal­ly sound doc­u­ment and will…

Pri­or­i­ty Notices: Pru­dent or Impractical?

With the dead­line for manda­to­ry e‑conveyancing fast approach­ing, con­veyanc­ing in New South Wales has unequiv­o­cal­ly entered the dig­i­tal age.  And while the change from ​‘paper’ con­veyanc­ing to online plat­forms gives prac­ti­tion­ers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stream­line their ser­vices and poten­tial­ly pass on costs sav­ings to clients, it also cre­ates new poten­tial prob­lems…

Mer­i­tas Annu­al Meet­ing 2019 in San Diego — Well­ness in law

Mary Digiglio par­tic­i­pat­ed in an open pan­el dis­cus­sion among Mer­i­tas law firms at the recent Mer­i­tas Annu­al Meet­ing 2019 held in San Diego. The dis­cus­sion was on the grow­ing impor­tance law firms need to place on well­ness and well-being with­in the legal pro­fes­sion. Pan­elists show­cased the pro­grams and com­mit­ments they…

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…