Construction & Engineering

The construction industry operates in a tough legal environment. Not only do we understand this environment, and the risks and opportunities it poses, we thrive in it.

Our people are experienced at bringing large, complex construction and engineering projects to fruition, safeguarding our clients' interests and helping to ensure they emerge with the commercial result they need.

Our experience is in all types of construction and engineering projects including:

• commercial building
• engineering (road, rail and light rail)
• electricity and gas
• petrochemical
• hotel, tourism and sporting facilities
• residential property
• resources
• telecommunications
• water

• Legal update: New .au Domain Name Transfer Policy from 1 June 2008

  In last month’s Legal Update on Upcoming Changes to .au Domain Name Transfer Policy we noted that the Australian domain name administrator (auDA) had approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer on .au domain name licences. auDA has now confirmed that the new policy will take effect on 1 June 2008.

  18 Apr 08 Michael Park

• Legal update: New Guidance Note issued by the Takeovers Panel on equity derivatives

  On 11 April 2008, the Takeovers Panel (Panel) released Guidance Note 20 - Equity Derivatives (Guidance Note) outlining when, and in what circumstances, the use of equity derivatives may constitute unacceptable circumstances and require disclosure to the market.

  17 Apr 08 Robert Sultan, Shane Bilardi , Natalie Trezise

• Legal update: Upcoming changes to .au domain name transfer policy

  The Australian domain name administrator (auDA) recently announced that it has approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer of .au domain names licences. (It is the exclusive licence to use the domain name that is transferred, rather than ownership of the domain name itself.) This announcement follows auDA’s earlier acceptance of the recommendation from the 2007 Names Policy Panel that the current policy be relaxed to allow a registrant to transfer its domain names for any reason.

  27 Mar 08 Michael Park , Ka-Chi Cheung

• Legal update: Market volatility - ASX and ASIC respond

  Sensing a growing controversy, the ASX and ASIC have issued a number of media releases in response to market concerns, reminding market participants of laws designed to protect the integrity of markets. This update discusses the ASX and ASIC statements in light of the current apparent market volatility.

  17 Mar 08 Tim Woodforde

• Newsletter: Critical Path - March 2008

  Welcome to Critical Path for 2008. We reflect on a recent Full Court decision of the Supreme Court of South Australia to remind readers of that State’s particular legislation that allows contractors and subcontractors to register liens over the land of the building owner in certain circumstances.

  17 Mar 08 Fleur Hudson , Fiona Turner and Simone Alphonse

• Legal update: ACCC releases new draft merger guidelines

  The ACCC recently published its 2008 Draft Merger Guidelines for consultation. These guidelines are intended to provide an explanation of the framework the ACCC will apply when considering whether a merger or a proposed merger could substantially lessen competition in a market. Guidelines such as these issued by the ACCC from time to time, provide a useful overview of polices and procedures applied by the ACCC when reviewing proposed mergers.

  4 Mar 08 Jyoti Singh and Chris Mitchell

• Legal update: Margin Scheme Mayhem

  The Federal Court has recently handed down a decision on the application of the margin scheme that could create a major GST headache for developers of strata title units.

  26 Feb 08 David Stavropoulos

• Newsletter: Workplace Safety News - October 2007

  Welcome to the October edition of Workplace Safety News. This edition covers a broad range of topical safety issues including: the importance of responding to known safety risks; what is "reasonable management action" when it comes to workplace bullying; Enforceable Undertakings as an alternative to prosecution; and the recent dismissal of charges against 2 Directors in NSW.

  31 Oct 07 Michael Tooma, Murray Procter, Scarlet Reid, Bill Kritharas , Stephen Mackie, Simone Alphonse, Alena Titterton and April Thomas

• Newsletter: Critical Path - October 2007

  In this issue of Critical Path we reflect on topics of continual interest to those in the construction industry: expert determinations, trespass to airspace, warranties of fitness for purpose and security of payment legislation. We also report on recent developments for foreign investment and constructions services in China.

  16 Oct 07 John Sharkey AM , Kim Allison, Liam Connolly and Kwok Kit Cheung

• Legal update: Recent Tax Developments of interest to Private Equity industry

  The past few months have seen a number of tax developments of interest to the private equity industry. This note provides a brief summary of some of these.

  12 Sep 07 Peter Norman