Port role for Minter Ellison
The government of Victoria has announced that Minter Ellison will be its adviser for the proposed lease of the Port of Melbourne. The firm's core advisory team includes infrastructure partner Peter Block, corporate partner John Steven, real estate partners Lloyd Baggott and Anthony Poynton, and competition and regulatory partner Geoff Carter. The firm has been the Port of Melbourne Corporation's primary legal adviser for the past 15 years and has experience of similar deals including advising on the leases for Newcastle and Brisbane ports.
Law Society chief faces vote of no-confidence
Members of Hong Kong’s Law Society are voting on a motion of ‘no confidence’ in its president Ambrose Lam San-keung this evening (Thursday). Hundreds of solicitors are expected to attend the vote, which is the result of Lam’s support for Beijing’s white paper on Hong Kong affairs. Almost two thousand lawyers marched in protest in June following his backing for the Communist Party.
When politics fails, bring in the lawyers
Talks to remedy the violence in the Gaza strip have yet to produce satisfactory results and posturing from world leaders, including President Obama, has also done little to calm the situation. While the violence and politics continue, now there’s talk of legal action. Palestinian lawyers in Gaza are planning their case to prosecute Israel for the use of weapons that are prohibited under international law.
Judge orders law firm to stop tweeting
We often hear about the growing use of technology in modern law firms but those who are embracing it may need to do so with some restraint. A judge in Texas has told a law firm that they cannot ‘live tweet’ a deposition after an objection from the defence. Judge Delgado said that “technology is far outpacing ability to formulate rules". The Pena Law Firm has informed interested parties of the decision; via
its Twitter account of course.
