Author: CommBar Contributor
Interview with Cam Truong. This is the second in a four part series of interviews between CommBar and some of the Asia Practice Section’s up-and-coming members who explain something about their backgrounds and how life at the Bar for a person of Asian heritage throws up challenges.
Interview with Angela Lee. This is the first of a four part series of interviews between CommBar and some of the Asia Practice Section’s up-and-coming members who explain something about their backgrounds and how life at the Bar for a person of Asian heritage throws up challenges.
After great introductory fanfare, the Asian century was meant to be all things to those who traded in Asia. But have events turned out that way? This article says yes and that opportunities continue.
Article by Dr Josh Wilson SC and Cam Truong – When business opened on 3 March 2014 in Hong Kong, a new era in company law began with the commencement of the new companies ordinance, (“C 622”). That ordinance was the upshot of several years of deliberation and hard work by a specialist panel of company lawyers and others dedicated to reforming Hong Kong’s company laws. This article addresses some of the more important changes and the reasons for them.
Last year CommBar was treated to the visit of Geraldine Andrews QC, before she took her seat in the Queens Bench Division. Her vast experience in arbitrations in Singapore is legend. For court appearances though, as with most common law jurisdictions, the Singaporeans are protective of their turf. They resist giving audience to foreign practitioners. So when the High Court of Singapore handed down its decision in re Andrews, Geraldine Mary QC [2012] SGHC 229, new ground was broken concerning a foreign practitioner’s right of appearance in Singapore, good news for Victorian barristers. But as we essay below, ad hoc admission there is not without a catch.
Eugenia Levine – The Commonwealth of Australia v The Australian Capital Territory
Roslyn Kaye – The New South Wales Court of Appeal allowed this appeal brought by the ANZ bank. The trial judge had found that the bank was not entitled to rely upon an assumption that a forged guarantee document had been duly executed. The Court of Appeal held that the bank was entitled to rely upon the assumptions in sections 129(4) and (5) of the Corporations Act 2001 that the guarantee had been duly executed, and accordingly the guarantee was enforceable against the respondent company.
Roslyn Kaye – In this appeal, the New South Wales Court of Appeal: (a) dismissed an appeal by two company directors who were found by the trial judge to have breached their directors’ duties; and (b) upheld an appeal by an individual alleged to have been in knowing receipt of monies transferred to her by the directors in breach of their fiduciary duties.
Dr Josh Wilson SC and William Lye – In our capacity as heads of the Asia Practice Section of CommBar, it gives us great pleasure to report that our endeavours to crack the Asian market on behalf CommBar have again bore fruit. This time we have successfully opened the door for CommBar’s entry into Malaysia.
In this case Mr Schmidt obtained a line of credit facility from Perpetual Trustees Australia Limited (Perpetual) and gave a mortgage over his home as security for the facility. Violet Homes Pty Ltd (Violet) was the mortgage originator and manager and processed the loan application on behalf of Perpetual. Mr Schmidt borrowed the money to invest in what he thought were property developments. He was duped into doing so by Mr Maddock, who has since been convicted of fraud. Most of the money advanced by Perpetual to Mr Schmidt was paid directly or indirectly to Mr Maddocks and was lost.
In this case, the High Court rejected an argument that to constitute ‘insider’ trading in contravention of the Corporations Act 2001, the information of which the accused person is in possession must be true and accurate. Justices Hayne, Crennan, Kiefel and Bell delivered a joint judgment and Justice Heydon delivered a separate judgment in which his Honour agreed with the plurality that the appeal ought to be dismissed.