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Equi­ty Crowd Source Fund­ing Part 2: Reg­u­la­to­ry Update

Aus­trali­a’s equi­ty crowd source fund­ing régime (CSF Régime) came into effect in Aus­tralia on 29 Sep­tem­ber 2017. The rel­e­vant pro­vi­sions now sit with­in Part 6D.3A of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (the Act) and of the Cor­po­ra­tions Reg­u­la­tions (2001) (the Reg­u­la­tions). The CSF Régime offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty for start-ups and small…

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As a client, you will be at the cen­tre of the deci­sion-mak­ing process in a close client-lawyer part­ner­ship found­ed on trust and a sound under­stand­ing of your busi­ness goals and chal­lenges. You will also be choos­ing a full-ser­vice offer­ing with a rich his­to­ry of diverse, entre­pre­neur­ial skill sets. With a shared vision we can achieve amaz­ing…

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Each indi­vid­ual award reflects our absolute focus on build­ing excep­tion­al capa­bil­i­ty to pro­vide you with the ser­vice and solu­tion you need.We are always invest­ing in the next gen­er­a­tion of lawyers — recog­nis­ing and advanc­ing those who deliv­er real value.Our ded­i­cat­ed pro­fes­sion­als have been select­ed because of their cul­tur­al align­ment with our work­place…

Gaga goes gaga over Goo Goo

In Brief Last month the con­tro­ver­sial and high­ly suc­cess­ful singer and song­writer Lady Gaga suc­cess­ful­ly stopped the cre­ators of ani­mat­ed children’s char­ac­ter Lady Goo Goo and the suc­cess­ful children’s phe­nom­e­non, Moshi Mon­sters, from pro­mot­ing and releas­ing a song enti­tled ​“The Moshi Dance” on iTunes. Lady Gaga enforced her exclu­sive rights in…

New Zealand High Court says D&O policy may not be used to fund director's defence costs

In Brief On 2 July 2007 New Zealand prop­er­ty devel­op­ment com­pa­ny Bridgecorp Group (Bridgecorp) was placed into receiver­ship, owing investors near­ly NZ$500 million.  In the after­math of the col­lapse, the NZ Secu­ri­ties Com­mis­sion brought numer­ous crim­i­nal and civ­il claims against the direc­tors of Bridgecorp in rela­tion to their con­duct. Some of the Bridgecorp…

My bags are packed, I’m ready to go. Should I stay or can I go?

In Brief Often sep­a­rat­ed par­ents find them­selves in a sit­u­a­tion where one of them wants to move to anoth­er city, state or even coun­try after they sep­a­rate. This is what’s called relo­ca­tion in fam­i­ly law. Par­ents often enter into par­ent­ing orders after they sep­a­rate. All is going well for a time and then…

Retail lease bonds and dis­pute res­o­lu­tion options

In Brief When the retail mar­kets slow, dis­putes between land­lord and ten­ant tend to arise and a claim on the bond mon­ey may soon follow.  A Land­lord must ensure that it com­plies with the pro­vi­sions of the Retail Leas­es Act 1994 in respect to the lodge­ment of the bond.  Lodge­ment of security Sec­tion 16C of the Retail…

New code for pri­vate equi­ty funds

In Brief On 7 Sep­tem­ber 2011, the Aus­tralian Pri­vate Equi­ty and Ven­ture Cap­i­tal Asso­ci­a­tion (AVCAL) released a new cor­po­rate gov­er­nance code for the pri­vate equi­ty industry. The Code is based on exist­ing cor­po­rate gov­er­nance guide­lines already used by reg­u­la­tors such as the ASX, and builds on ini­tia­tives by oth­er nation­al indus­try asso­ci­a­tions, respon­si­ble invest­ment…

Land­lords and ten­ants need to be care­ful about incur­ring expens­es before being bound to the lease

In Brief Both land­lords and ten­ants should take care to ensure that the oth­er par­ty is bound by the lease rather than incur­ring sig­nif­i­cant expens­es on the assump­tion that the lease will proceed. The risk Land­lords and ten­ants often begin spend­ing mon­ey or incur­ring costs to cre­ate and fitout leased premis­es pri­or to…

Aus­tralian Sen­ate Com­mit­tee rejects Bill that seeks to pre­vent the patent­ing of human genes

In Brief The Aus­tralian Sen­ate Com­mit­tee Report on pro­pos­als to amend the Patents Act to pro­hib­it patent­ing of human genes and oth­er bio­log­i­cal mate­ri­als exist­ing in nature has made a sin­gle rec­om­men­da­tion ​“that the Sen­ate should not pass the Bill”. On 26 Novem­ber 2010, the Sen­ate referred the Patent Amend­ment (Human Genes…

Can you stand down employ­ees dur­ing a peri­od dis­rupt­ed by pro­tect­ed indus­tri­al action?

In Brief Employ­ers seek­ing to min­imise their loss­es asso­ci­at­ed with indus­tri­al action should take note of a recent deci­sion of Fair Work Aus­tralia which clar­i­fies the abil­i­ty of an employ­er to stand down employ­ees dur­ing such a period. Aus­tralian Man­u­fac­tur­ing Work­ers Union (“AMWU”) v McCain Foods (Aust) Pty Ltd [2011] FWA 6810 McCain…

Pro­tec­tion of the Olympic Brand — mar­keters beware

In Brief With the Lon­don 2012 Olympic Games fast approach­ing adver­tis­ers and mar­keters must be care­ful how they asso­ciate them­selves with the Olympics and the Olympic brand. The suc­cess of an Olympic Games is not only mea­sured by ath­let­ic achieve­ments on the track or in the gym­na­si­um. The eco­nom­ic suc­cess of…

Can a ten­ant with­draw an exer­cise of an option under a lease?

In Brief A lease may con­tain an option for the ten­ant to enter into a new lease when the first term expires. This is known as an option lease. Gen­er­al­ly if a ten­ant exer­cis­es the option in accor­dance with the terms of the option lease, the ten­ant will be bound by the new lease…

Delay in com­mence­ment of New South Wales ​“rea­son­able steps” legislation

In Brief On 8 Sep­tem­ber 2011, the New South Wales Par­lia­ment passed the Courts and Oth­er Leg­is­la­tion Fur­ther Amend­ment Bill 2011 (Bill). The Bill will bring into effect a lengthy post­pone­ment of up to 18 months of new leg­is­la­tion, requir­ing par­ties to take rea­son­able steps to seek to resolve a dis­pute before court pro­ceed­ings…

Are pre-mar­i­tal assets treat­ed dif­fer­ent­ly to mar­i­tal assets dur­ing prop­er­ty settlement?

In brief — How pre-mar­i­tal assets are treated A pre-mar­i­tal asset will be con­sid­ered to be a con­tri­bu­tion of the per­son who bought that asset into the marriage. Divid­ing the assets after separation After sep­a­ra­tion, the par­ties to a rela­tion­ship are enti­tled to seek a divi­sion of assets of the rela­tion­ship. The assets of the rela­tion­ship include…