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Sydney or Canberra, five years post-admission and up.

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Modern award coverage: what a high salary does not buy

Pathological arbitration clauses in Singapore

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Guide: directors’ duties and the compliance calendar

Guide: shareholder agreements

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A German desk for businesses moving between Australia and the German-speaking market.

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Vietnam arbitration

Defective arbitration clauses in Singapore

European privacy law for Australian business

Award coverage for German employers

COURT AND TRIBUNAL

Manny v David Lardner Lawyers: negligence claim dismissed, and the appeal refused

4 April 2024

A former client and four of his companies sued their solicitors over the conduct of earlier Family Court proceedings and the loss of a property portfolio. The claims were framed in breach of retainer, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, and were run to a full trial in the Supreme Court of the ACT.

The Chief Justice entered verdicts for the defendants: Manny v David Lardner Lawyers (No 2) [2021] ACTSC 289. Each limb failed independently. There was no breach of the retainer, the conduct complained of had caused no economic loss, advocates’ immunity answered the events of one hearing day, the claims were brought outside the limitation period, and the claims against the solicitor personally were debts provable in his bankruptcy, commenced without the leave the Bankruptcy Act requires.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal with costs: Manny v David Lardner Lawyers (No 4) [2024] ACTCA 12. It found no error in the findings that decided each cause of action, and no basis for the complaints of apprehended bias or want of procedural fairness.

The proceeding ran for eight years and produced nine published judgments along the way, on the reinstatement of deregistered companies, leave to bring a derivative action, security for costs, judicial review, and the form of the notice of appeal.

Read the judgment: AustLII

WHERE THIS SITS

Commercial litigation Insolvency and restructuring

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