Disputes happen, that’s life. Sometimes we don’t get a choice about what happens to us or our business; but we do get to decide how to deal with it. That’s where we come in.

We have the knowledge, skills and experience to protect and defend your rights in a dispute. Because disputes can be costly and damaging to businesses and relationships, we make it our top priority to help you resolve it as early as possible to minimise any negative impacts for you.

We use a range of strategies to analyse and assess the key issues, stress points and available outcomes to provide you with necessary and effective assistance to resolve the dispute. We also use new and emerging technology wherever possible to minimise costs and boost efficiencies so we can act swiftly on your behalf.

Sometimes litigation is unavoidable, and out of your control. If this occurs, we will work with you to achieve the best outcome and resolution tailored to suit you or your business needs.

Stages of a dispute

There are generally three main stages of a dispute and we can assist you with all of them.

1. Pre-dispute
   Early intervention is the best way to prevent a dispute from become a wrecking ball and causing major disruption to your business and life. Where disputes arise it is essential that you are able to manage the risk to ensure that your business can continue to function and do what it does best. Effective dispute and risk management cannot be underestimated, especially for businesses. A robust dispute and risk management strategy is essential so any disputes that occur can be dealt with promptly, efficiently and cost-effectively to minimise any negative impacts. It’s also critical that your business has effective commercial documentation that properly records the terms of any dealings and clearly outlines how, when and with whom you need to communicate in the event of a dispute.
2. During the dispute
   It seems obvious but here we need to establish that a dispute is actually happening. Although it sounds easy it is often very difficult and may not always be obvious. Fortunately, we have the skills in a range of effective dispute resolution procedures and methods to identify the dispute and take steps to resolve it. Early intervention at this point is really important as it can potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars in future legal costs.
   Where litigation or court proceedings become necessary we can act for you to protect and defend your rights and to efficiently and effectively run any litigation or court proceedings to a resolution.
3. Post dispute
   The dispute has been resolved but that’s not the end yet. We will continue to assist you to ensure that you are able to properly and effectively implement any resolution (whether by agreement or Court Judgment) and to enforce and protect your rights and any Judgment obtained.
   We can also assist you to strengthen your business and personal structures to guard you against future disputes and their impacts and to effectively manage those risks. Because, let’s face it, life’s too short for multiple disputes.

Alternative dispute resolution

Whether prior to litigation or during proceedings, we can assist you with a wide variety of other methods to assist you to resolve your dispute:

• Mediation
• Formal and informal settlement conferences
• Negotiation
• Conciliation & Arbitration Early Natural Evaluations
• Expert determinations

Our full list of services include:

• Commercial disputes
• Property disputes
• Consumer Disputes
• Contract disputes
• Corporations matters
• Director and Shareholder & Partnership disputes
• Professional Negligence Claims
• Building and Construction disputes
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission & other regulatory Litigation
• Banking & Finance litigation
• Fraud
• Crisis Management and Litigation Support
• Risk Management
• Debt management and recovery
• Defamation
• Tax disputes and Litigation

Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Corporate Insolvency

Personal or corporate insolvency can be one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. The economy or industry forces are not certain and unfortunately, no one is immune. Despite your best efforts things can go wrong, and when they do, you need expert and tailored advice and solutions that are right for you and your situation.

When you are experiencing financial distress, it is important that all options and strategies are considered and explored. We have the skills and knowledge to guide you through all stages of the insolvency process. We work with you, your accountants, financial and business advisors to determine the best solution for you and your business.

For distressed businesses and investments, we have extensive experience in helping you to reduce any losses and take action to protect you, your family, your business and your investments. We can also assist you in distressed asset and insolvency sales and distressed debt factoring and trading.

We can also assist and advise on turnaround management obligations, strategies and safe-harbour obligations to help companies achieve a better outcome than what may be available through the traditional insolvency route.

If you are an insolvency practitioner, we can assist you in administering the insolvent estate to recover assets for the benefit of creditors. We can advise you on your duties and obligations during the insolvency administration and have extensive experience across all forms of personal and corporate insolvency.
We act for individuals, private and public companies, incorporated and unincorporated associations, company officers and directors, receivers and managers, liquidators and bankruptcy trustees.

We use a range of strategies to analyse and assess the key issues, stress points and available outcomes to provide you with necessary and effective assistance to navigate the world of personal or corporate insolvency. We also use new and emerging technology wherever possible to minimise costs and boost efficiencies so we can act swiftly on your behalf.

Our full list of services includes:

Bankruptcy

• Bankruptcy Notices
• Part X and Personal Insolvency Agreements, Section 73 Proposals
• Public Examinations
• Debt management services
• Restructuring and bankruptcy advice

Corporate Insolvency

• Creditors Statutory Demands
• Debt management services
• Liquidations and Provisional Liquidations
• Receiverships
• Restructuring and insolvency advice
• Voluntary Administrations

The digital world is well and truly here and businesses need to either get on board, or risk alienation or annihilation. Consumers are interacting with the world in a multitude of digital and non-digital ways and if you don’t account for these new and emerging technologies and interactions you are missing out on key business opportunities and revenue while exposing yourself to added risk.

We want your business to survive the digital disruption which has impacts for every business in all industries. To help you do this, we can provide risk and strategic advice on business, corporate and commercial matters. We can assist you to effectively manage the new and emerging risk profile.

We work closely with you, your accountant, financial and business advisors to understand your interests, needs, goals and risk appetite.

We tailor our services and solutions match your business goals, objectives and strategies and help you understand the often complex issues and legal jargon.

And when we need to, we’ll use our contacts with leading professional services firms to get you the best advice and assistance for your related business areas.

Digital and Start-Ups

As a start-up ourselves, we are passionate about seeing new businesses arrive, disrupt, innovate and thrive. We offer essential and strategic advice to new and emerging businesses from small businesses and franchises to the ever-expanding technology sector. We have consulted on some innovative and disruptive start-ups providing strategic and risk advice to a new Artificial Intelligence and machine learning start-up.

We also embrace the digital renaissance and tech movement both in the world generally and in the Legal world. We see disruption and technology as the great equalisers allowing everyone to access the business and legal world in ways they previously were unable to; providing greater knowledge and access to services and justice than we have ever seen.

Recently we hosted the Global Legal Hackathon in Sydney where 10 teams competed over 54 hours to design and develop new technologies to assist you in accessing the law in new and innovative ways.

Risk management

Risk is a part of everyday life. It is present in everything and exists in forms that you cannot see, cannot hear and which can strike without warning. Every decision you make has some element of risk. The extent of that risk however differs from decision to decision.

Whether it’s simply driving a car to work or making a key business decision, we all need to quickly and effectively assess the risk and apply strategies to make sure we do not take on risk that cannot be managed.

We can provide advice on your risk situation and put in place protections that reduce the risk to you and your business. Murphy’s Law tells us “what can go wrong, will go wrong”. Just like putting on a seat belt and driving at the speed limit, it is important to factor in what can go wrong and implement effective solutions to ensure that it won’t go wrong, or even if it does go wrong, there are strategies in place to minimise that risk and reduce any damage and stress to your business and life.

We also run risk management seminars designed to teach and train key personnel in your organisation how to effectively identify, assess and manage risk in real time and to implement immediate and practical solutions to better manage your risk.

Our full list of services includes:

• Risk Management
• Asset Protection
• Business Structuring and reorganizations
• Commercial terms and conditions
• Company and Shareholder Agreements
• Company meeting and corporate compliance
• Competition and consumer law advice
• Contract drafting, commercial terms and conditions
• Intellectual property

We offer a range of other services including Wills & Estates, in-house legal services, alternative dispute resolution and Town Agency services.

Wills & Estates

A Will is one of the most important documents that you will ever sign so it’s important you get it right.

Your Will records how you want your possessions and estate to be managed once you have passed away. It also allows your Executors (the persons you choose to administer your estate) to easily collect your assets and possessions and distribute them according to your wishes.

If you don’t have a Will it can be very difficult and expensive for your family to administer your estate and the government might get the final say about who gets what. In some cases, your family would need to ask the court for permission (called Letters of Administration) to administer your estate. It is likely they will have to distribute your assets according to who the government considers should receive your assets and possessions.

If you have concerns that a family member does not have a Will but is unable to make a Will for reasons beyond their control (for example they don’t have capacity or suffer from an illness such as dementia or Alzheimer’s) then you can ask the court to make a Will for them (called a Statutory Will). The court will hear evidence from any interested person about what they consider the Person would have done in making a Will if they had the ability to do so.

Sometimes people will disagree with a family member’s Will and want to challenge the Will. We have the ability to appear in applications for both persons challenging the Will and for executors facing a challenge.

We have also acted in matters where people have attempted to make a Will but it was not validly signed or executed prior to that person dying. In those circumstances we can act for you in having the court validate the attempted Will and seek to have the court allow you (or the persons the deceased wanted to appoint) execute their wishes and administer their estate.

Inhouse legal services

Need any extra set of hands? We assist internal legal teams and businesses by acting as an inhouse counsel for either a set timeframe or ongoing arrangement.

We assist you with any of our key service areas or advise directly prior to issues arising. We can also act as the liaison point between outside counsel and your inhouse team to help you understand the legal process better.

Where litigation has commenced, we can assist you to internally manage the litigation and to allow you effectively liaise with your external lawyers to ensure that you can reduce costs and manage any risks which arise from time to time.

Alternative dispute resolution

There are options you can consider before proceeding with Litigation. We are skilled in all forms of alternative dispute resolutions including:

• Mediation
• Formal and informal settlement conferences
• Negotiation
• Concilliation
• Arbitration
• Early Natural Evaluations
• Expert determinations

Town agency

We provide a wide range of town agency services to other law firms who have matters in Queensland but are not able to attend to the matter on the ground.
We appear regularly across all Queensland and Federal courts based in Brisbane and South-East Queensland for law firms across Australia.

We will work within your requirements and can manage all, or part, of the process for you.

Our full list of services includes:

• Estate management and administration
• Estate Planning
• Wills and Enduring and General Powers of Attorney
• Wills, Estate and Succession Litigation
• Inhouse legal services
• Mediation and Settlement Conferences
• Town Agency