 |
|
: January 2008 |
|
.
Well 2007 was a memorable one for us at Cornwall Stodart. The growth we experienced in 2006 continued, particularly in the past six months when the firm grew to almost 100 staff members. Details of our staff changes are contained in our CS Update.
This six months has seen the firm working on major transactions including (to name a few) the refinancing of new banking facilities for a major retailer and acting for a major telecommunications provider in a series of payment claims on construction security of payment legislation.
John Chamberlin (Wills and Probate) reached a significant milestone - 30 years of service with the firm. John continues to be heavily involved with his clients and there are no signs of him slowing down. We celebrated Joe Naccarata’s (Partner Insurance) 20 years’ service with the firm. We know you will join us in congratulating both John and Joe on reaching their significant milestones.
We also held our first CS Carnival Day in October and the feedback indicated it was a success. The Business Development team is planning to make it an annual event.
In 2007 the partners and senior management team began to develop our three-year business plan – codename Project MMX. This plan should see the firm expand in a variety of areas – people, clients and our operating environment – and take us through to 2010. Many of the initiatives are well under way, setting the firm on track to achieve our goals.
We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and we wish you a happy and safe new year.
Michelle
McLean,
CEO
Back to Top
|
|
|
We welcomed the following staff to the firm over the past six months:
• Ashley Jackson - IT Services Support/Network Administrator
(Shared Services)
• Jaclyn Robins – Personal Assistant to the CEO (Shared Services)
• Justin McCleave – Senior Associate
(Reconstruction and Insolvency)
• Carolyn Falcone - Lawyer
(Banking & Finance)
• Melissa Falcone – Lawyer
(Commercial Property)
• Jennifer Holdstock - Senior Associate
(Commercial Litigation)
• Kate Harry - Lawyer
(Commercial Litigation)
• Ashley McArthur – Administrative Assistant
(Commercial Property)
• Gino Potenza – Partner
(Mortgage Recovery – Banking and Finance)
• Kim Iliopoulos - Law Clerk
(Mortgage Recovery – Banking and Finance)
• Jaclyn Felton - Office Assistant
(Shared Services)
• Fran Bedford - Business Development Manager
(Shared Services)
• Virginia Sadler - Lawyer
(Workplace Relations)
• Ben Lowry – IT Manager
(Shared Services)
• Michelle Prosser – Administrative Assistant
(Commercial Litigation)
We have experienced strong growth in recent years and this is reflected in the additional resources required to support our clients. This year looks to be no different!
Louise Houlihan (Workplace Relations) was made a Partner of the firm effective from 1 July 2007, while Gino Potenza commenced in September 2007 as a Partner in the Banking & Finance Team (more details are available in the Profiler section).
The CS family continued to grow in the second half of 2007 with Tamara Young (Lawyer Corporate Advisory) and her husband welcoming their third child, Ruby, in September, Natalie O’Brien (Business Development Consultant) and her husband their second little girl, Chelsea Marie, in November and Elica Spaseski (Word Processing Operator Shared Services) and her husband their second child, Emma Jordan. Congratulations also to first time father, Levent Shevki (Partner Commercial) whose wife, Sifa, gave birth to a little girl name Shyla in December.
Fiona Thomas (Office Manager Shared Services) made a welcome return from family life to resume her role within the firm and with her return, Rachael Boxshall remains as our HR Manager.
Congratulations to Amelia Sutherland and Daryl Lim who were admitted to practice in August 2007 and November 2007 respectively. Both Amelia and Daryl have joined our Business Transactions & Advice Group.
Our ranks of Articled Clerks increased in October with Renee Stockley joining the firm. Her clerkship will include undertaking rotations in three broad practice areas - Business Transactions & Advice, Commercial Litigation and Commercial Property - and a fourth working in Business Development.
Both John Hutchings (Chairman of Partners) and Michelle McLean (CEO) have been involved in building networks within ALFA both locally and internationally. In September, John attended the ALFA Seminar - ‘Managing Legal Know How in a Global World’ in Brussels, where he sat on a panel discussion about mergers and acquisitions. At the end of October, Michelle attended ALFA’s annual business meeting as well as an ALFA Conference on “Global Legal Strategies for the Proactive Legal Counsel” in Chicago.
In October, Damien Wurzel (Partner Business Transactions and Advice) attended Sigma Pharmaceutical’s Embrace Conference 2007. The Conference, held in Europe, was attended by key pharmacy and healthcare participants including representatives of The Pharmacy Guild of Australia and by general practitioners. The Conference was an opportunity to share industry knowledge and discuss issues affecting the pharmacy and medical professions as well as other issues affecting industry stakeholders.
Oaks Day was busy for Cornwall Stodart with Elpis Korosidis (Partner Banking and Finance) and the Banking and Finance Team hosting a function at the course while Wayne Kelcey (Partner Reconstruction and Insolvency) hosted guests on a cruise boat organised through Melbourne Riverboat Cruises.
As part of our health and well being strategy, we continue to have a personal trainer lead our commando training sessions for all interested staff on Tuesdays at 7am, at Flagstaff Gardens.
Some staff members used the training to get fit for the Law Institute of Victoria’s the Annual Legal Fun Run & Power Walk which took place on the 19 November. Well done to Kathy Luvara (Law Clerk Banking and Finance), Paul Ferguson (Operations Manager), Ashley Jackson (IT Services Support Network), Eliza Curtain (Lawyer Commercial Litigation) and Kate Harry (Lawyer Commercial Litigation) who completed the 8km course and Anna Smits (Articled Clerk) who finished the 4km walk.
At the end of August we held a breakfast seminar where Adrian Butera presented on ‘Real Estate Hot Topics’. Adrian was a winner of the REIV Senior Auctioneers Competition in 1998, 2001 and 2004 and Grand Finalist in the 1999 of the Australasian Auctioneering Championship. The breakfast was enjoyable and everyone came away with a few new property tips.
Our final YBP event for 2007 was held in December at the Waterside Hotel and a great night was had by all.
The social scene at Cornwall Stodart is as active as ever thanks to the efforts of the Social Committee. In recent months our staff visited the Mornington Peninsula on a winery tour, enjoyed a night out at the Gold Class cinemas, compared our general knowledge in a fiercely fought out trivia night and took part with our families in a tennis day in Flagstaff Gardens.
Also, social drinks for all staff members raised funds for Mo-vember, an initiative to increase awareness of prostate cancer and male depression. To support breast cancer research, a morning tea on Friday 19 October was held and staff made a gold coin donation or purchased any of the official National Breast Cancer Foundation Pink Ribbon in support. Staff were also encouraged to wear ‘pink’ on the day.
Back to Top |
| Profiler |
|
Louise Houlihan - Partner
Workplace Relations and employment Team
Louise is a Partner in our Workplace Relations and Employment Law team.
Louise provides legal and strategic advice to clients on a range of employment and industrial relations issues including industrial disputes, enterprise bargaining, wrongful and unfair dismissals, EEO and occupational health and safety.
Louise has experience representing clients in HREOC, the AIRC, the EOCV, and Federal and State Courts. As well as advising and representing clients in employment and discrimination matters, Louise also conducts training seminars on issues of interest to clients.
In addition, Louise prepares employment related documentation such as employment contracts, workplace policies and procedure manuals.
Louise holds a Bachelor of Arts/Laws from the Australian National University and is a Committee Member of the Industrial Relations Committee of the Law Institute of Victoria, the Industrial Relations Society of Victoria and the Australian Human Resources Institute.
Gino Potenza - Partner
Banking and Finance Team
Gino is a Partner in our Banking and Finance Team.
With almost 20 years experience in the finance and property sectors, Gino has acted for major Australian banks and lending institutions. Gino’s expertise lies in mortgage and security enforcement, insolvency, debt recovery, Consumer Credit Law and property disputes.
He also assists clients to develop recovery procedures, training manuals and compliance audits under the Uniform Consumer Credit Code.
Gino has an in-depth understanding of the finance industry and has developed strong relationships with key industry players including mortgage insurers, consumer representative bodies, industry regulators, the Courts and enforcement officers.
Gino is a member of the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia and is accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria as a Commercial Litigation Specialist.
Gino holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne.
Kerrie-Anna Hutchins - Senior Associate
Business Transactions and Advice Team
Kerrie-Anne is a Senior Associate in our Business Transactions & Advice Team.
With broad experience in corporate and commercial law, Kerrie-Anne advises a range of clients in the areas of company and business law, mergers and acquisitions, restructures and contracts. She has also advised liquidators, receivers and other insolvency practitioners in regard to issues requiring business solutions.
Kerrie-Anne has particular expertise in the structuring, negotiation and documentation of commercial contracts including joint venture agreements, licence agreements, share sale agreements and business and asset sale agreements.
She is also experienced in the establishment of unit trusts and discretionary trusts and the preparation of share holder and unit holder agreements.
She is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria Commercial Law section and Young Lawyers section.
Kerrie-Anne holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University. |
Back
to Top
|
| Reforming Australia's Privacy Laws |
|
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), at the request of the Commonwealth Attorney-General, has conducted a review of Australia’s privacy laws. The review focuses in particular on whether the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) and other related laws still provide an effective framework for privacy protection (and the handling of personal information) in Australia. The views expressed in the review paper are preliminary only, and interested parties can make submissions to the ALRC by 7 December 2007.
1 - Under the Act, there are two sets of privacy principles - the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) and National Privacy Principles (NPPs). These apply differently to the public and private sectors and at present in some situations both sets of principles will apply to the one organisation. The ALRC has recommended that these two sets of privacy principles should be merged into a single set to be called the Unified Privacy Principles (UPPs).
2 -
The Act does not apply to all organisations. The ALRC has proposed the removal of the exemption for small businesses so businesses with an annual turnover of less than $3 million will need to comply. It has also been recommended the removal of the current exemption for private sector employee records, giving private sector employees the same protection as public sector employees on personal information.
3 -
Credit reporting, the provision of information on an individual’s credit ‘worthiness’ to banks, finance companies and other credit providers, is usually conducted by credit reporting agencies. The ALRC has suggested more stringent controls on data quality as well as a more comprehensive scheme of reporting to allow for an increase in the information in a credit file. These changes would bring Australia’s credit reporting system more in line with systems in comparable overseas jurisdictions.
4 -
No common law right to privacy exists in Australia. The ALRC has proposed that such a right should be formally incorporated into the Act to provide a statutory cause of action for invasion of privacy in certain circumstances, for example, in cases where sensitive facts about an individual’s private life have been disclosed or where there has been interference with an individual’s home or family life. This protection would apply where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy and a breach is serious enough to cause substantial offence to an ordinary person.
5 -
A key recommendation of the ALRC is for the Act to be technologically neutral so it may operate effectively while technologies continue to develop and change. Technological advances have also resulted in the need for different regulation on personal information and identifiers. It is proposed the definitions of ‘personal information’ and ‘record’ be broadened to cover information such as email and IP addresses in certain circumstances.
6 -
The ALRC has recommended the new Federal privacy laws override any state and territory privacy laws in the private health sector ensuring the need to comply with only one set of privacy laws. Further, the ALRC proposes states and territories should adopt the new UPPs.
For further information, please contact:
Nicole Stevens-Warton on +61 3 9608 2264 or n.stevens-warton@cornwalls.com.au or Anna Smits on +61 3 9608 2103 or a.smits@cornwalls.com.au
Back to Top |
| Inaugural Cornwall Stodart Carnival |
More than 300 Cornwall Stodart staff, clients and their families gathered at Moonee Valley Racecourse on an unusually warm October day to celebrate the Inaugural CS Carnival.
The event was an opportunity for us to thank clients and their families for their continuing support and enable our clients to meet each other in a relaxed and fun- filled environment.
In keeping with the Carnival theme, guests relaxed on the lawn in front of the home straight at Mooney Valley and were treated to a BBQ lunch, followed by plenty of pop corn, fairy floss and ice cream. Highlights of the day for both young and old were the many rides and activities. The dodgem cars and tall slide proved particularly popular with the older generation while face-painting, jumping castles, an animal farm and Camp Australia games were a hit with the children. The children did not leave empty handed either, receiving a football or netball and a small Cadbury show bag.
Feedback from clients indicated the day was a huge success with many suggesting it should now be firmly placed on the CS Calendar as an annual event. Clients can now tell their children/grandchildren that they have been heard and preparations are now under way for an even bigger and better CS Carnival in 2008.
Back to Top |
|
|
