Notarisation of Overseas Documents
One of our clients needs some documents notarised and sent to the US, as part of the process of winding up her late husband’s estate.
Employment Contracts
This week we received a call from a friend of a client with an employment issue. He was recruited, signed a contract and shown his office and the company car.
Copyright Breach Allegations
We spoke to a client about a copyright matter this week. They had had a company prepare some plans for them based off an initial sketch, however no contract was signed and they did not like the design, so they got the plans drawn up by someone else.
Commercial Disputes Part II
This week we spoke with a client who had engaged a large firm to help handle a dispute with a former business partner. He had paid the law firm $300 000 over twelve months and got nowhere. He sent us some documents on Monday. We read them for forty-five minutes, discussed the matter for twenty […]
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 […]