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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…

The con­struc­tion indus­try, cur­rent state of play in NSW

There has been a flood of arti­cles and com­men­tary from all cor­ners of the con­struc­tion indus­try since the high­ly pub­li­cised ​‘Opal Tow­ers’ inci­dent. This arti­cle is not intend­ed to pos­ture again over the poten­tial rights of the Opal Tow­er res­i­dents (ques­tions which many stra­ta own­ers have faced before) but to look…

Mary Digiglio announced as a final­ist at the Lawyers Week­ly Part­ner of the Year Awards 2019

The Lawyers Week­ly Part­ner of the Year Awards, in part­ner­ship with Tay­lor Root, show­cas­es out­stand­ing per­for­mance by part­ners, or part­ner equiv­a­lent, across indi­vid­ual prac­tice areas with­in the Aus­tralian legal indus­try — the only nation­al awards pro­gram to do so. We wish Mary all the best. The win­ners will be announced at…

When a dis­trib­u­tor­ship ends – who gets the nam­ing rights?

Intro­duc­tion When an exclu­sive dis­trib­u­tor­ship between an over­seas prin­ci­pal and an Aus­tralian dis­trib­u­tor ends, the issue of the own­er­ship of intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty gen­er­at­ed or used dur­ing the dis­tri­b­u­tion peri­od should log­i­cal­ly be addressed in the dis­tri­b­u­tion agree­ment. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this issue is often not addressed ade­quate­ly and dis­putes can arise between…

The prob­lem with infor­mal Wills

In NSW, sec­tion 8 of the Suc­ces­sion Act 2006 (NSW) (Act) lets the Court dis­pense with the for­mal require­ments for a will. How­ev­er, it would be impru­dent to rely on this pro­vi­sion (and state and ter­ri­to­ry equiv­a­lents if you are out­side of NSW). It is always best to com­ply with the for­mal…

Gain­ing con­trol — what you can do under the new stra­ta renew­al legislation

Although Part 10 of the Stra­ta Schemes Devel­op­ment Act 2015 com­menced on 30 Novem­ber 2016 (Part 10), the intri­ca­cies of the tech­ni­cal work­ings of Part 10 have still not been ful­ly test­ed or con­sid­ered by the Courts. This is tes­ta­ment to the fact that Part 10 requires a lengthy, con­vo­lut­ed and high­ly…

Change the rules – which ones? What busi­ness­es need to know about Labor’s employ­ment policy

The Fed­er­al Elec­tion is less than two weeks away and the Aus­tralian Labor Par­ty (Labor), has announced a robust and ambi­tious reform agen­da. With­in this reform agen­da are key changes to the Aus­tralian Fair Work régime, and the ques­tion aris­es as to how will these changes impact Aus­tralian busi­ness­es if Labor…

Fair Work Com­mis­sion rules out new approach to indi­vid­ual dispute

A New Approach Sec­tion 576(2)(aa) of the Fair Work Act (Act) con­fers upon the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (FWC) the func­tion to pro­mote ​‘coop­er­a­tive and pro­duc­tive work­place rela­tions and pre­vent­ing dis­putes’. Pur­suant to this pro­vi­sion, the FWC has imple­ment­ed a juris­dic­tion called ​‘New Approach­es’, which has the aim of assist­ing employ­ers, employ­ees and…

Swaab Con­nect | May 2019

This month in Swaab Con­nect, Part­ner Eric Ziehlke explains how dis­putes can arise between a prin­ci­pal and its ex-dis­­trib­u­­tor with respect to the own­er­ship and use of brands and names and how you can pro­tect your con­tract when a dis­trib­u­tor­ship ends. Part­ner Helen Kow­al advis­es how to gain some con­trol and pro­tect…

NSW con­struc­tion indus­try — an expert’s per­spec­tive (part 1 of 6)

Inter­view with Peter Kar­sai – Cladding specialist Over the com­ing weeks, I will be releas­ing a six part arti­cle series. The arti­cles will doc­u­ment my dis­cus­sions with build­ing con­sul­tants who are in the know when it comes to the cur­rent state of the NSW con­struc­tion indus­try and the high per­cent­age of prop­er­ties which…

Mer­i­tas | Glob­al Well­ness Launch

Fol­low­ing on from the open pan­el dis­cus­sion that Mary Digiglio par­tic­i­pat­ed in at the recent Mer­i­tas Annu­al Meet­ing 2019 held in San Diego, we are proud to announce the launch of the Mer­i­tas Glob­al Well­ness initiative. As a world­wide net­work of law firms, Mer­i­tas has iden­ti­fied Well­ness as a key issue which is…

Swaab ranked in Doyles Guide 2019

Man­ag­ing Part­ner Mary Digiglio has been list­ed as a Rec­om­mend­ed Leas­ing Lawyer 2019, Part­ner Tony D’Agosti­no has been list­ed as Rec­om­mend­ed in Prop­er­ty & Real Estate Lawyer 2019 and Part­ner Emma Flem­ing has been list­ed as Rec­om­mend­ed in Plan­ning & Devel­op­ment Lawyer 2019. Swaab has also been list­ed in both Rec­om­mend­ed Prop­er­ty & Real Estate Law…

Con­struc­tion — Inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion, is it that simple?

The Aus­tralian Stan­dards Design and Con­struct Con­tract AS 4902 – 2002, does not make any pro­vi­sion for an inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion process through­out the build. With build­ing defects on the rise, one has to con­sid­er that the appoint­ment of an inde­pen­dent project ver­i­fi­er, to over­see the works and con­duct inspec­tions at…

Aus­tralia & New Zealand Doing Busi­ness Guides 2019

The 2019 edi­tion of the Mer­i­tas Legal Guide for Busi­ness Invest­ment and Expan­sion in Aus­tralia and New Zealand are now avail­able to view.…