When news dropped this week that Brittany Higgins had appointed Rachel Young SC to defend the defamation action brought against her by Linda Reynolds, my phone lit up.
“Huge get for Higgins,” one of the messages read.
Young’s reputation precedes her. She’s made the Doyle’s Guide for recommended counsel for the past six years, and last year was added to The Legal 500 for commercial disputes. She has acted for various billionaires - from Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest to the Paspaley pearling family - and assisted in the prosecution of three former ministers of the Khmer Rouge for crimes against humanity.
She is well versed in defamation law, especially when it comes to appeals. Young acted for rabbi/jurist Marcus Solomon in a case brought against him by a kosher compliance inspector. The inspector alleged he was defamed in an email written by Solomon, that said he did not have “shem tov” - a good name - in Perth’s Jewish community.
From the looks of things, Higgins will need all the help she can get. Reynolds is suing Higgins for damages over social media posts she claims falsely defamed her, including one in which Higgins accused Reynolds of using the media to harass her.
While the Federal Court last month vindicated Higgins after she accused her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann of rape, it gave no weight to claims that Reynolds instigated a political cover-up of the assault.
The matter has been set down for trial on August 2, with a flexible timetable to accomodate witnesses required to be at parliamentary sitting weeks. The trial won’t likely take the full scheduled six weeks, after Higgins’ husband David Sharaz advised he would not be participating.
Tell me what you think at ellie.dudley@news.com.au
Legal movements
Slater and Gordon have promoted 42 lawyers across various practice areas.
They include Liam Casey (medical law), Phillip Reid (superannuation & disability insurance), Emily Archer (asbestos, dust diseases) and Alisha Muscara (workers compensation), who have been appointed senior practice leaders. Nicole Valenti (asbestos, dust diseases) Anna Hansen, Paula Pulitano and Bridie Walsh (medical law) and Gabriella Giunta (comcare) have been promoted to practice leaders.
Raelene Lingham (asbestos, dust diseases) has been promoted to senior legal counsel and Sharntelle Roach (medical law), Sean Sweeney (asbestos, dust diseases), Alexandra Agathouli (public liability), Paul Creed (abuse), Elizabeth Edgar (workers compensation) and Jacob Sutton (class actions) have been appointed senior counsel.
Joel Gilbourd, Gemma Leigh-Dodds and Daniel O’Connor have been appointed principal lawyers.
Wotton + Kearney has appointed four new partners, nine special counsel, 10 senior associates, and 10 associates across its Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Christchurch and Wellington offices.
The firm’s newest partners are Morgan Campbell (general liability), James Cooper (property, energy and infrastructure), Stuart Moore (general liability) and Marcus Saw (financial lines).
Jessica Chapman, Julian Amato, Samantha Saad, Meg Harrington, Jeanine Wong, Liana Isaac, Tushka Sridharan, Marnie Hasler and Matthew Booth have been appointed special counsel, and Mia Dowie, Caitlin Barclay, Karim Ibrahim, Jessica La, Gemma Curcio, Antonia Fox Koob, Stacey Juras, Alex Percy, Rocco Domine and Renee Magee have been promoted to senior associate.
Allens has appointed 15 managing associates, 42 senior associates and the promotion of 20 senior corporate services professionals. The managing associates include Andrew Burns (disputes & investigations), Sarah Delaney (banking & finance), Darcy Doyle (real estate), Mai Go (financial services), Tom Hall (M&A), Madeleine Hunt (technology), Tristan Kelly (banking & finance), Kimberley Lowrie (M&A and Capital Markets), Alexander Ninkov (M&A), Joe Payten (disputes & investigations). Rebecca Ritchie (real estate), Kelly Roberts (disputes & investigations), Nick Swart (banking & finance), Ben van Weel (projects) and John Yiannakou (competition).
SA Chief Justice at war with his barristers
South Australia’s chief justice has become embroiled in a spat with the state bar association over his claims that barristers had embarked on “personal exploitation” of the King’s Counsel title.
Attorney-General Kyam Maher this week won his fight to get rid of the KC title, despite fierce backlash from the state’s legal profession.
Chief justice Chris Kourakis had thrown his support behind the abolition of the title, saying the court appoints barristers to silk in the public interest, not so they can “exploit” clients or “charge more”.
“We don’t appoint people Senior Counsel so they can charge more...We don’t appoint them so that they can earn more,“ he said. “We appoint them so that the public has an objective idea of who is skilled or not.”
As you may imagine, the state’s KCs took issue with this characterisation.
In correspondence published to the Supreme Court website this week, a group of KCs told Kourakis his comments “conveyed the imputation that persons who made the choice to seek appointment as King’s Counsel or Queen’s Counsel ... made that choice to exploit clients by using the title to unfairly charge more money”.
SA Bar Association president Marie Shaw KC, meanwhile, called on Kourakis to retract his comments.
Kourakis says he will do no such thing. “I remain open to meet to discuss those matters but cannot, in good conscience, retract the opinions I genuinely and reasonably hold,” he wrote back.
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