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5 times to review your estate planning

As the hol­i­day sea­son approach­es and trav­el plans are made, many peo­ple con­sid­er it the right time to update their estate plan­ning. In addi­tion to review­ing your estate plan­ning before you trav­el, we take a look at five sig­nif­i­cant life events that should prompt you to review and update your estate planning.Mar­riageMar­riage…

Cyber or Online Abuse Dur­ing and After Sep­a­ra­tion and Help­ful Tips

Tech­nol­o­gy facil­i­tat­ed vio­lence and abuse is a seri­ous issue. When peo­ple sep­a­rate it is not uncom­mon for a dis­grun­tled spouse to turn to social media such as Face­book to vent their unhap­pi­ness. But when does the use of social media in this man­ner become some­thing more? In this pub­li­ca­tion, we dis­cuss Cyber Abuse…

Lawyers Week­ly | Which firms believe in cli­mate change and take mean­ing­ful action?

The four ques­tions asked were: What is your firm’s response to the find­ings from the Ethics Index that 90 per cent of Aus­tralians see an urgent eth­i­cal oblig­a­tion for busi­ness­es such as law firms to act on cli­mate change?Does your firm accept the set­tled sci­ence of cli­mate change on the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, as…

Our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing 2019

We are almost at the end of 2019, and with the end of a year comes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing the year:Deeds of Release and their effec­tive­ness – update 2019 | Richard Ott­ley | Employ­ment LawFair Work Com­mis­sion – When will the Full Bench enter­tain an…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the Lawyers Week­ly arti­cle: Reli­gious employ­ees in law firms ​‘should be cir­cum­spect’ about new bill

Employ­ment part­ner Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the Lawyers Week­ly arti­cle: Reli­gious employ­ees in law firms ​‘should be cir­cum­spect’ about new bill. Read the full arti­cle here.…

NSW Con­struc­tion Indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 6 of 6)

Inter­view with Tadd Wal­ford, Par­tridge, Struc­tur­al EngineerOver the past eight months, I have released a series of arti­cles. This arti­cle is ​‘part 6’ of a six-part series and will be fol­lowed by my ​‘2019 wrap-up’. The series doc­u­ments my dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of…

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…

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…

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…

Michael Byrnes on 2GB — 6 Feb­ru­ary 2020 — Coro­n­avirus: Do Qan­tas work­ers have the right to refuse to clean planes from China?

A Qan­tas employ­ee has report­ed­ly been stood down for telling clean­ers they didn’t have to clean planes that had come from Chi­na where the coro­n­avirus orig­i­nat­ed. Part­ner Michael Byrnes explains both sides of the argu­ment with Ben Ford­ham on 2GB.Lis­ten to the pod­cast here…

Changes to Annu­alised Salaries under Mod­ern Awards: A Short Guide

From 1 March 2020, changes to the annu­alised salary pro­vi­sions in a num­ber of mod­ern awards will impose more oner­ous admin­is­tra­tive require­ments on employ­ers with respect to award-cov­ered salaried employees.This change was the result of a deci­sion of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) ([2019] FWCFC 4368]) (Deci­sion) as part of its four year­ly review…

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in HRM online — 12 Feb­ru­ary 2020 — Pro­ba­tion and the min­i­mum employ­ment peri­od – what’s the difference?

It’s a sim­ple dis­tinc­tion, but the lan­guage around ​‘pro­ba­tion’ still cre­ates con­fu­sion for non-experts. HRM tries to clear it up.Click here to take you to the article.…

Top 5 ​‘Did you knows’ about get­ting a divorce

#1. Did you know that you do not actu­al­ly need the con­sent of your for­mer spouse to get a divorce? In New South Wales, you can apply for a divorce togeth­er (with your for­mer spouse) or by your­self (sole application). There are dif­fer­ent oblig­a­tions in each case par­tic­u­lar­ly with respect to ser­vice…

Michael Byrnes on 2GB — 28 Feb­ru­ary 2020 — Full Bench Fair Work Com­mis­sion appeal decision

Michael Byrnes with John Stan­ley — 28 Feb­ru­ary 2020…

Inter­na­tion­al Wom­en’s Day 2020 #Each­forE­qual — Mary Digiglio

How has Swaab been so suc­cess­ful in achiev­ing gen­der diver­si­ty in a pro­fes­sion that has strug­gled for so long? The suc­cess of Swaab has been built on our cul­ture. Our firm has a his­to­ry of gen­der diver­si­ty, hav­ing being led by females. The female lead­ers have influ­enced our fir­m’s long his­to­ry of pro­mot­ing…