Shareholder Agreements Part II
This week we’ve been working on a suite of documents. One shareholder is leaving a company and another is buying in. The remaining two shareholders are buying twenty-five per cent of the leaving shareholder’s shares each. The new guy is buying fifty per cent, but has the option to buy the other fifty per cent […]
ATO Troubles (Our Clients, Not Us)
It has been a week of helping clients deal with stressful situations. One client had a meeting with the ATO last week regarding an R&D rebate claim in relation to the development of some software with a large artificial intelligence component, and went away with the understanding that: (a) The ATO believed he had committed […]
Supreme Court Trial
Yesterday one of our matters went to trial before Supreme Judge Allanson. It is rare thing. Only about two per cent of Supreme Court cases go to trial, and that is the same for all of our commercial disputes. The other 98% settle, usually with the assistance of a mediator. This trial was unusual, because […]
Neighbour Disputes
We saw a chap yesterday who owns a duplex property. The other duplex owner has built a higher fence next to an old existing fence and concreted half her back yard. Our client wishes to connect to sewerage but the connection point is on the other side of the concrete slab, which was laid after […]
Accountant Conflict of Interest
Some clients of ours were not happy with their ex-accountant because he had been giving advice to a family member, who was also a client, which was averse to our clients’ interests. They then refused to pay one of his accounts and the accountant got his solicitor to threaten to sue them. The conflict of […]
Shareholder Agreements
We have been working on a shareholder agreement with some slightly complicated succession clauses. In summary: (a) the company pays for insurance for the key persons associated with each of the shareholder companies; (b) in the event of death or total and permanent incapacity of a key person: (i) the shareholders associated with that key […]
Resolving a Dispute with Solicitors
We are meeting with two other solicitors this afternoon in an attempt to negotiate the settlement of a long-running and acrimonious dispute over a deceased estate. One of the solicitors belongs to the third law firm that has been engaged by the opposition, which has not helped the situation. The other represents the other defendant, […]
Debt Collection Good Result
We had a good result for a client just before Christmas last year. Their company had provided over one million dollars in services between 1 July and 30 November, but had not been paid. The company’s former solicitor had concentrated on the disputes and not the common ground. We went for the low hanging fruit […]
Incomplete Sale of Land
We had a new matter this week involving a contract for the sale of land. Our client is a company that owns a villa. The directors are a husband and wife. The husband thought the wife wished to sell, so he put the house on the market, an offer was made, and he signed the […]
Special Purpose Wills
We have been preparing some special purpose wills lately: Wills that make special provision for intellectually disabled children; and Wills that only allow the next generation to have the benefit of the income from the estate, with the capital going to the grandchildren. We have also prepared wills to give a schizophrenic son the benefit […]