City Beat: Deborah Bean; Graham Quirk; Doug McTaggart

THE boys have a bit of catch up to do in the lawyering stakes if Deborah Bean, partner at global law firm K & L Gates, is to be believed.

MIND THE GENDER GAP

THE boys have a bit of catch up to do in the lawyering stakes if Deborah Bean, partner at global law firm K & L Gates, is to be believed. The Brisbane-based legal eagle told a BDO professional services lunch that girls applying for graduate positions turn up for job interviews immaculately dressed and looking like they have just stepped off the set of Suits.

The boys on the other hand arrive looking sweaty and uncomfortable. Bean (illustrated) says the boys usually settle down after six months and things even out. Of course, it is all a far cry from the good old days when a young chap probably didn’t even need to turn up for an interview if he, or Daddy, had the right connections in the law.

SHARE SWOOP

SUNCORP director Doug McTaggart, one of the two Queenslanders on the board of the State’s biggest company, swooped on the bank’s stock after its full year results earlier this month went down like a lead balloon.

He paid almost $68,850 for 5000 shares in Suncorp and his timing wasn’t bad. Suncorp’s result, which included the revelation that it will spend up to $100 million on a new financial marketplace, had sent its shares down 6.4 per cent to $13.57. McTaggart was then in, buying shares at $13.77.

He’s a tad underwater as of Monday with stock at $13.46. Suncorp directors are required to have one year’s gross pay as shares (that’s $220,000 for a non-executive position!) and McTaggart is comfortably over the target with 25,011 shares worth $336,648 as of Monday.

HIGH RISE HEADACHE

THERE is no doubt Brisbane is quickly becoming a high-rise city. But you only have to look at what is planned for 160 Macquarie St, St Lucia, to see that some of this change is not always welcome.

Residents in the street have been battling a proposed multistorey residential tower block on the site, which by chance is the location of the original Alvey Reels headquarters.

Brisbane City Council last year approved 26, three-bedroom apartments on the site but much to the chagrin of residents a new application was lobbed in at the end of June to change that to 62 smaller apartments. Nearby residents claim the development will cause huge traffic congestion in an already busy part of town.

A Brisbane City Council spokesman tells your diarist that the application is in the early stages of assessment and no decision has been made. Implications for traffic and parking will be a focus of council’s assessment.

HEALTH CHECK

MEDICAL device maker Impedimed can’t seem to shake the flightiness of investors for the biotechnology sector. On Monday, Impedimed announced that US regulators had given the okay for its new Sozo device to be used to detect a horrible swelling ailment linked to cancer.

The stock initially jumped to 68 cents on the news before closing at 65 cents. The company’s stock has yo-yoed between $1.82 and 53.5c as investors hope for big things from its device — which it also wants to use to detect heart ailments.