LEGAL AFFAIRS

Security laws erode media’s role

Mark Day THE Abbott government has said it expects the new media-related provisions will be used rarely, if ever. So why are they there?

WASP culture hindering agencies

PAUL CLEARY AUSTRALIA’S security agencies have not recruited enough staff from the ethnic communities posing a security threat to the nation.

Lib rebel backs free-speech push

STEFANIE BALOGH REBEL Liberal senator Dean Smith says he refuses to be lectured by Bill Shorten on racism and xenophobia.

UK Tories plan to scrap rights act

THE UK’s Human Rights Act will be scrapped and the European Court of Human Rights curbed if the Tories are re-elected.

Diversity deficit at security agencies

PAUL CLEARY SECURITY agencies including the ASIO have been unable to recruit significant numbers of staff from ethnic backgrounds.

IBA steps in where politicians fear

JOSEPHINE KELLY THE 1994 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has failed to deliver the outcome its proponents had expected.

Clive’s court to target Carmody

MICHAEL PELLY THE Senate inquiry into Queensland is there to cause mischief, which is Clive Palmer’s true field of expertise.

Recognise: novice’s dinner-party guide

JAMES ALLAN FORGIVE yourself if you’re finding it hard to keep up with what the Recognise campaign proponents are proposing.

New law likely to restrict ASIO

Chris Merritt BY focusing on its own interests, the media has missed the real problem with one of the new counterterrorism laws.

Target spurring firms to work for free

John Corker from the National Pro Bono Resource Centre.

CHRIS MERRITT THE amount of free legal work provided by the nation’s lawyers is booming, driven by government policies.

Women lose out on senior counsel

MICHAEL PELLY WOMEN emerged as the biggest losers when the list of new senior counsel was released by the NSW Bar Association yesterday.

Multi-tasking mothers better lawyers

NATASHA ROBINSON WHEN Harriet Warlow-Shill seeks new staff she looks in the homes of mothers whose workplace talents are untapped.

Trilogy takes action against KPMG

SARAH DANCKERT A $700 million mortgage fund once managed by collapsed Gold Coast financier City Pacific is pushing ahead with a legal action.

Journos ‘may flout law, risk jail’

CHRIS MERRITT A LEADING journalism academic has raised the prospect that some reporters might defy a planned counterterrorism law.

Security media gag ‘to backfire’

CHRIS MERRITT PLANS to impose criminal penalties on journalists who knowingly disclose special intelligence operations could backfire.

Peace at last after school food fight

Michael Owen A FEUD between Adelaide’s most prestigious boys school and staff over the withdrawal of a lunch benefit has been settled.

EXCLUSIVE Lawyers challenged on art

PIA AKERMAN VICTORIA’s peak legal bodies have been asked to help challenge police powers as an alleged forger battles to regain paintings.

Fees force corporates to go in-house

Peter Slattery, managing partner of Johnson Winter & Slattery

CHRIS MERRITT EXCESSIVE fee increases by big law firms is resulting in corporate clients expanding their own in-house legal departments.

Top UK firms hit by strong pound

CHRIS MERRITT FEE income at Britain’s 10 biggest law firms fell by 2.7 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year.

IBA in search of ‘climate justice’

CHRIS MERRITT A plan to give international law a shade of “green” should not be seen as favouring either side of the political debate.

Plans for international environment court

CHRIS MERRITT A senior judge has helped draw up a plan to create an international court of the environment to handle litigation over climate change.

EXCLUSIVE Support grows for court overhaul

Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant at her chambers in the Lionel Bowen building in Sydney.

NICOLA BERKOVIC FAMILY Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant has backed the set-up of a single independent body to run the entire federal court system.

Precautionary tale of perspective

Chris Merritt AN outsider’s perspective can be a valuable way of assessing the true nature of developments inside the Australian legal system

Donations a bigger hurdle than bikies

MICHAEL PELLY WHAT have bikie laws and political donation laws got in common? They are the hardest to get right.

EXCLUSIVE ADR services in rapid growth

KATHERINE TOWERS THE more flexible market in alternative dispute resolution is expected to grow almost twice as fast as the general legal services industry.