Tassie law shop pays its respects to departed Castro … Federal Court upheaval … Melbourne law dinner boycott … Inspector Dave accused of conflicts … Brandis’ denials become inoperative
IT was gratifying for Tasmanians to see the Cuban flag flying at half-mast from the Georgian pile in Hobart’s Murray Street that is home to Butler McIntyre & Butler.
No doubt it was intended as a mark of respect for the passing of the old Caribbean commie Fidel Castro.
Some of the partners at the venerable law shop were livid and remonstrated with Phil Kimber, who was fingered for the deed. By the time he agreed to take the flag down it had been fluttering for three hours.
“The situation is much more complex than the members of a mere law firm in the antipodes can comprehend, so when a flag is flown, the full panalopy of meaning and sentiment is inevitably going to escape some.We have flown the ’26 de Julio’ flag in the past, but no one else seemed to understand the difficulty Fidel had at the Moncada Barracks, and the contest between the corrupt regime in place at that time (in Cuba), so there were no calls for its removal.”
Moy is currently on contract to shake up the backend of the court and prep it for next year’s merger with the Family Court of Australia, where it will become a division of the Federal Court.
The reorganisation will see quite a bit of slashing and burning and already the process has run up against concerns by employment lawyers who have been briefed about some of the staff changes.
An advertisement soon will be placed for a senior executive service position at the court on $200,000 a year, plus. Darrin is expected to slip into the job with little trouble, making his position permanent.
Moy previously was General Manager, People and Culture, at Sydney Ferries, and before that the Director of People, Strategy and Community at the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
The executive director of the court’s corporate services, Catherine Sullivan, is also an escapee from Sydney Harbour Federation Trust’s management.
Retrenchments are in the wind as the restructured courts looks to shrink 150 jobs to 100.
Last month Justinian had the miserable duty to report that Darrin in his enterprise bargaining update to staff had plagiarised a chunk from the Qantas magazine that had been written by Alan Joyce, CEO of the Flying Kangaroo.
Fortunately, the court has jurisdiction over copyright, so it can sort this out if Joyce complains. It also looks after industrial law, which is handy for aggrieved staff who feel the downsizing process has been fast and loose.
It’s not on till June 3, 2017, yet already Melbourne Law School is polishing the silver and buffing the glassware in preparation for its 160th anniversary gala black tie dinner where alumni, “corporate partners”, profs and others will assemble for a good old nosh-up.
As Vic’s Bar newsletter informs people, “It will be a night to connect, network and appreciate the scope and significance of our community”.
The distinguished MLS alumnus James R. Gorman (BA 1981, LLB 1981, Melb.) will give the keynote address. James is chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, based in New York.
However, not everyone will be networking because some have already told the law school dean, Prof. Carolyn Evans, that at least one collection of old farts will not be forming a table.
Apparently, there’s an objection that someone from the netherworld of finance would be sullying the rarified confines of higher learning.
Maybe, it also has something to do with the bank’s string of infractions and brushes with the law, stretching from intentionally publishing misleading research to win business, late disclosure of reportable information, short sale violations, unfair labour practices, deleting emails and failing to cooperate with SEC investigations, failure to disclose other emails to claimants in arbitration proceedings, misrepresentation of auction rate securities, misconduct in handling the accounts of retirees, insider trading, involvement in an electricity price-fixing scandal, misleading investors in mortgage-backed securities, and so on.
By no means was this all on Gorman’s watch, but to prep you for his appearance next year here’s a slice of James “Off Air at Davos” …
Dave Levine has been featuring in the blatts following his retirement as Inspector of ICAC and the Police Integrity Commission.
The National Rupert published a report on December 2 saying that in 2002, as a Supreme Court judge, he signed a warrant to allow police to bug the conversations of a copper, Mark Smith.
It is unlikely to be the only warrant Levine signed in the massive police bugging operation from 1999 onwards, codenamed Mascot. He claimed these warrants were coming to the court in “inundating waves”.
Ten years later, as the PIC Inspector the government asked Levine to advise whether a report into the bugging operation and the way it was orchestrated and conducted should be released.
No, Levine said, it should not be released because it would be “dangerous” to do so and damage the reputation of NSW police (ho, ho.)
Upper House justice spokesman for the Greens, David Shoebridge, said:
“It’s a pretty basic premise of any impartial investigation that those doing it cannot have a conflict of interest. If, as a judge, he had been authorising warrants that were the subject of the investigation, that’s a pretty obvious conflict of interest and should have disqualified him from undertaking the review.”
Indeed, reporter Neil Chenoweth in the Financial Review, on the same day the conflict of interest article appeared in the Rupert, had a story about Levine being incandescent with fury that The Sydney Morning Herald had published excerpts of the Crime Commission’s tapes that recorded prosecutor Margaret Cunneen talking to an auto repair man at the time her son’s girlfriend was involved in a car crash.
Levine wrote to the parliamentary committee that oversights ICAC:
“I write to express my dismay that the SMH website presently discloses the contents of transcripts of intercepted telephone conversations involving Cunneen …
Might I respectfully suggest that the committee forthwith initiate an investigation as to whether the source is within the Parliament of NSW.”
It appears that Inspector Dave was more concerned about protecting Cunneen’s reputation, and plugging the holes that could do her damage, than he was in determining whether ICAC was onto something in initiating its investigation into the prosecutor.
As Chenoweth points out, Levine also leaked his letter to the AFR.
Levine didn’t like the way ICAC had sought to investigate Cunneen, the commission’s reference of evidence to the DPP and the fact that commissioner Latham was not paying him enough respect.
His florid and poorly constructed report can be found here.
Cunneen has always maintained that her son’s girlfriend had not been drinking and she denies that she sought to delay the blood test by suggesting the young lass pretent to have chest pains.
Yet, this is the revealing bit of the crime commission’s transcript of her conversation with the smash repairer:
“My only reservation, just between you and me, is that, that naughty girl had alcohol, had, had, oh no that’s all right I can cover that …
But she had drunk, she’s on her P plates. But it had been some time ago which is why I sent her a message to start having chest pains and get the ambulance because it’s bought her a few more hours. Just hoping it goes down to zero cause otherwise there might be complicated insurance issues.”
Cunneen’s lawyers sought to have Fairfax “immediately withdraw” this report from its website.
[BTW, the government, which doesn’t want a federal ICAC today (Dec. 9) put out a celebratory statement to mark “Anti-Corruption Day”.]
Brandis insisted that the first he became aware of this was March 3 this year.
Yet in the first round of public hearings into the matter by the Senate Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, there was evidence from the ATO that Brandis’ office had sought a briefing on June 5, 2015 about the implications of WA’s legislation.
The ATO was concerned that the Bell Act would deny it as much as $1.8 million as a creditor.
Chris (Missing Briefcase) Moraitis, the secretary of the attorney general’s department, told the committee that on December 1, 2015 the AG’s office had been issued with a notice inviting the Commonwealth to intervene in the High Court case challenging the legislation.
On January 28, 2016 the AG’s office got a written briefing on the question of intervention.
The minister for finance and Western Australian senator Mathias Cormann and assistant Treasurer Josh (Emissions) Frydenberg also received briefings before March 2016.
But, Brandis knew nothing until well after everyone else did. So amazing as to be implausible.