The Heydon inquiry into trade unions is just one of a number of royal commissions to get into political trouble – including Petrov and the political bribery scandal in Tasmania … Shortcomings with Dyse’s Luddite defence … Why backout from the Barwick lecture if there was no resulting reasonable apprehension of bias? 

Here’s the 2015 list of the NSW bar n’ grill’s applicants for senior counsel … 113 seeking recognition … Only a small contingent of women with their hands up … Here we go, again 

Lingering doubts about the royal commissioner’s state of mind … Commissioner refuses to release all documents … We’re now in cover-up mode 

Same tired, old untested stuff in the Kellam report recommending retention of Victoria’s QCs … Claims of economic value, getting rid of “confusion” and preserving independence … Evidence wanting … Creating a choice that isn’t a choice … Miracle cure for deeper ills 

Claim that Sydney solicitor overcharged former HIH executive $700,000 … Byzantine submissions … HH says time to stop the skirmishing and get on with the trial … Kate Lilly reporting 

Leaks, Latham and Levine … NSW parliamentary committee on ICAC gets to work … Transcript released … Putting “free kicks and butterflies” in context … Questions that ICAC need not answer … Frisson on display … Alex Mitchell ringside 

Wrinkles in the Dyson Heydon story … Parsing the emails … A speech lost for all time … Pulling out of the Barwick lecture moments before the story broke … A history of “overlooking” … Amazements aplenty 

Years of to-and-fro between tribunal and appeal court over failure to pay barrister’s fee and other complaints against a NSW solicitor … John Basten takes control and six years after the law society issued a summary reprimand, that decision is upheld … Kate Lilly on the case