Monthly Archives: November 2016

Leading independent business law firm Hall & Wilcox has added to its Melbourne commercial dispute resolution practice with the appointment of Hamish McNair as senior associate.

Mr McNair joins Hall & Wilcox from Norton Rose Fulbright. He brings diverse experience in disputes involving breach of contract, corporations law, consumer law, equity, financial services, product liability, real property and intellectual property.

He has advised on disputes in several industries including healthcare, technology, finance, government, pharmaceutical, property, retail and transport. Mr McNair has acted for clients in relation to complaints made to the Australian Human Rights Commission and has appeared for clients at inquiries conducted by the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). He is a member of the NSW Young Lawyers Civil Litigation Committee.

Leading independent business law firm Hall & Wilcox has added further depth to its Sydney Private Clients team by appointing two new special counsel, Eileen Meehan and James Whiley.

Eileen Meehan has extensive experience in estate planning, and joins from Bartier Perry, where she was consulting to the private clients team. Eileen was previously a Director in PWC’s private clients team specialising in estate planning.

James Whiley has specialist expertise in estate planning, dispute resolution and succession planning for high net worth clients. He was previously at Bartier Perry where he was responsible for a large portfolio of clients. Prior experience includes a succession and estate planning role at PWC and a senior role at a leading private client team in an international London-based law firm.

In December 2015 the Federal Government announced proposed reforms to insolvency laws as part of its National Innovation Statement (NIS).

The NIS includes a controversial proposal to reduce the current minimum bankruptcy term from three years to one year. The rationale is to encourage individuals who innovate to ‘fail quickly’. This proposal has received a lot of attention in the mainstream press and we have received many queries regarding the status of this proposed reform.

The Government called for submissions – which closed on 27 May 2016. 72 submissions were received, including from Australia’s peak insolvency body – ARITA and various law societies and insolvency practitioners Australia-wide.

The proposed reform forms part of the Government’s second tranche of insolvency reforms, which according to the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services are being progressed.

However, since the Federal election, the progress of the mooted reforms appears to have slowed.