Quarterly update
Work highlight examples
Market entry
Advising a new Chinese EV brand to establish a new franchise arrangement to distribute electric vehicles to the Australian market for the first time.
Corporate
Advising our client on a strategic corporate restructure following a series of acquisitions. This included a selective buy-back of shares and rebranding of services.
Disputes
Successfully resolving a long-running partnership dispute in the Supreme Court involving three parties and numerous corporate structures.
Pro bono
Advising Gasworks Arts Park on various contracting and governance matters pro bono.
Employment
Successfully settled several claims for employers in the Fair Work Commission at an early stage and on commercially favourable terms.
Out and about
Our triple threat of Kaye Ho, Hannah Pike and Ashleigh Trotter headed to the Women in Automotive end-of-year event. They listened to an insightful talk on what it takes to be an employer of choice from Rachel Vitale of 115-year-old family-owned dealership group Patterson Cheney. The food and drinks were good, but the speaker, as well as the new connections and conversations, were standout.
Monica Yuan and Zach Moon attended the Victoria Society of Computers & the Law end-of-year dinner and chatted all things IP and other legal considerations of GenAI. Congratulations to Zach who now has a seat on the Board.
Nicole Wilson and Brendon Low got in the festive spirit at the Franchise Council of Australia’s Victoria Christmas Party. From what we heard, they chatted the whole night and are already looking forward to next year’s event.
Katherine Thomas facilitated the last webinar in the ‘Technology Adoption in Law Firms’ series, wrapping up the series on Technology Adoption in Law Firms: What have we learned? hosted jointly by The Law Institute of Victoria and ALTA – Australian Legal Technology Association. With plenty of engagement in the chat, it’s fair to say that attendees enjoyed the discussion. Don’t worry if you couldn’t attend, LIV members can watch it via the LIV website.
People news
November was a big month for people news at CIE Legal.
Partner, Jeremy Snow and Special Counsel, Lisa Splawa-Neyman, joined our commercial and technology practices and hit the ground running. A big welcome to the dynamic duo! To find out more about Jeremy and Lisa, check out the article on their appointments, which featured in Asia Law Portal.
At the end of November, we welcomed our new Office Coordinator, Wahida Wahida. She brings a bubbly personality and a Bachelor of Economics to our business team’s skillset.
Lachlan Malliaros joined us as our internal IT Consultant. With skills as a back-end software developer and part-time futsal player, he’s already making an impact, from finding internal efficiencies to building client solutions.
Achievements
Congratulations to Dylan Olley, who was admitted as a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Victoria in October. It was especially pleasing to see CIE Legal alumnus and Stellantis General Counsel Farrel Braver, move his admission.
Our Special Counsel Tiffany Lucas was recently appointed as President of Arts Project Australia, a creative social enterprise that supports artists with intellectual disabilities. Congratulations to Tiffany on her appointment to this important role.
And, as mentioned above, lawyer Zach Moon has been appointed to the Board of the Victorian Society of Computers and Law. We’re looking forward to what Zach and his Board colleagues will achieve in 2025.