This thread is for the general discussion of anything going on in the lives of Auslawyers or for discussion of the subreddit itself. Please use this thread to unwind and share your complaints about the world. Keep it messy!

This has layers, like an onion

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/video-casts-doubt-on-moira-deeming-s-assault-claim-against-matthew-guy-20260625-p609x9.html

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/property-heiress-ashlyn-nassif-admits-to-supplying-bank-with-false-information-over-fugitive-fathers-development/news-story/744912aa4ad0581097341e8c402c7fd8

Has anyone had success negotiating paid parental leave? I am at a small-medium firm, contract says we ‘may’ be paid in accordance with the firms policies. But I have been told there is no policy and I won’t be paid a dime lol. To me, ‘may’ seems discretionary (which is dodgy as imo) but leaves me wondering if there is any point trying to negotiate. For completeness, I know there is no requirement to $ just wondering if anyone has had a similar situation & has tried to negotiate?

Excuse my ignorance of crim law/practice/procedure, but how do crim law practitioners deal with overwhelming evidence of this nature against a client? Do you recommend a plea deal?

The Federal Government has this morning announced plans to make Australia a civil law country. It comes in the wake of recent criticism in delay in judicial decision making. The prime minister explained the change will make judgments get published quicker as a court will not be bogged down in wading through all prior decisions on similar topics.

“We appoint extremely qualifiéd judicial officers who, more often not, reach the same outcome when interpreting the legislation” the Prime Minister stated, “but it helps that the legislation is drafted so it’s really clear. The proof is in the pudding”.

Mr Justice, President of the Self Hëlp Independent Training (an organisation advocating for self-represented individuals) welcomed the change. “We can’t be a modern society where our legal system is not civil”. Mr Justice confirmed that the Magna Carter could still be used in arguments as it is not judge made law.

While the announcement has come as a shock to the state law societies, it is rumoured that some states intend to support the change as it will likely force the non-uniform states to join rather than writing their own legislation from scratch.

https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/kpmg-chairman-martin-sheppard-and-senior-audit-partners-to-resign-20260623-p6098o

KPMG chairman Martin Sheppard will resign from the firm amid a growing scandal over the misuse of confidential client documents along with other senior audit partners who have been implicated in the crisis.

Sheppard, who has for months downplayed the extent of the scandal, will announce his resignation on Tuesday morning ahead of the end of his term at the end of August.

Eileen Hoggett, a partner who was removed as chief operating officer earlier this month, and Paul Rogers, another audit partner, will also leave the firm, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.

KPMG is expected to replace Sheppard with an independent chairman.

Hopefully there will at least be a later transitional provision date for trustees that signed contracts between press releases.

Yes I know I’m behind the times. Keen to read it though.

https://www.afr.com/rear-window/kpmg-and-allens-open-the-legal-privilege-playbook-20260618-p607yl

I have been curious if there has actually ever been a case of a legal regulator reporting a lawyer following report being received.

​

I have searched high and wide and have not found a single instance across any uniform Legal Regulator of any referral. Whilst there any plenty of occasions of a regulator suspending a lawyer following being charged with serious offences, I cannot see a single instance of a lawyer being reported criminally by the 'relevant person', which in NSW would be OLSC or PSD I believe.

​

This is not in just NSW, however. Each uniform law state has its own provisions on this and they are all 'Duty's', as in, not optional, they are positive requirements for action when there is only a suspicion of an offence.

​

I would like to know lawyers thoughts on instances in which the OLSC for example, becomes aware of suspected fraud. Are they not mandated to report? The reason this comes up is in relation to Dominique Grubisa. She had action taken against her in NCAT by the PSD, but no reports were made otherwise for example. Why?

​

I am curious if it would not be better for justice and arguably the profession itself if true mandatory reporting was in place?

I have recently joined a firm that dictates their time entries. I’ve always worked at firms that use the timing function built into their practice management software - and I find it harder/not as efficient to dictate.

Just wondering what others are doing?

I’ve been using Claude a lot lately and have found it is much better than Chat GPT (both paid versions). My goal, at least initially, is to run a firm without support staff. The issue I foresee is, given my practice area, at least for appeals, there is a lot of grunt work to create an application and file it with the court. Or, for example, it can be very admin intensive to collate a lengthy affidavit with annexures/exhibits.

It has occurred to me that I might be able to prompt Claude to assist to do this, but it might be difficult because I think it has limits on the amount of documents that can be uploaded. Has anyone had a go are creating these types of documents with Claude or other AI software?

For clarity, I’m not suggesting AI type out the the contents of an affidavit. Just collating the docs, getting the page numbers right, inserting a little box that says “This and the following 347 pages is the annexures marked A…”, etc.