Practice Intelligence | Archive | 2019
2019
28 NOVEMBER 2019
Cyber attacks: risks and remedies for the modern firm
When many people think of cybersecurity, they think of two-step authentication, multiple passwords and firewalls - but it’s much broader than that. While these systemic defences are absolutely necessary for any business, data breaches are inevitable.
21 NOVEMBER 2019
Protecting Your Data [Infographic]
With so much at stake, it's imperative you know the value of your data and how to protect it.
23 OCTOBER 2019
5 Ways To Combat Cybersecurity Fatigue
Cybersecurity is a growing concern for businesses of all sizes. Hacks and data breaches are becoming more common and more complex. While no business is expected to be invincible against cyber attack, they are expected to be fully prepared and to take all practicable steps to prevent breaches from happening.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reported a total of 245 data breaches affecting personal information between July and September 2018. It also reported that human error was a contributor in 37% of these cases—making people one of the most significant risk factors to any business’s digital security.
23 OCTOBER 2019
Keeping the Knowledge: Understanding the Value of your Data and how to Protect it.
Data is now the most valuable commodity in the world. Still, few businesses outside the tech sphere have fully come to terms with the value of the data they hold - and the legal industry is no different.
Knowledge Managers undertake a number of data-intensive activities - managing large numbers of documents, precedents and firms’ proprietary data, intranets and other sources of digital information crucial to smooth business function. Different data types have different obligations attached to them, and this means it is important for Knowledge Managers to understand the value of their data and how best to protect it.
23 OCTOBER 2019
Work-life balance in a hyperconnected world
Feeling torn between work and all of the other things in life is a common conundrum. For the last two decades, the topic of work-life balance has been a popular one.
A good work-life balance “means you have harmony between different aspects of your life, where benefits gained from each area can support and strengthen the others.”
23 OCTOBER 2019
The flexible workplace: what you need to know about new ways of working
Rapid advancements in tech and broader societal changes are driving a workplace revolution. Gone are the days of a job for life and the 9 to 5 grind. Instead, we’re craving flexibility and reinvention and we’re working in ways we could have only imagined 10 or 20 years ago.
Here, we take a closer look at this new era and what it means for both employers and employees.
02 OCTOBER 2019
High Court shuts down ‘Chorley exception’ cost claims for barristers
In a major decision delivered on 4 September 2019, Bell Lawyers Pty Ltd v Pentelow [2019] HCA 29, the High Court has ended the right of lawyers to claim costs when they are self-represented litigants, saying the special rule was "an anomaly and an affront to the fundamental value of equality of all persons before the law".
16 SEPTEMBER 2019
Criminal Law and Forensic Evidence
Forensic Science in Criminal Trials: Is It a Double-Edged Sword?
Forensic evidence has long been used as a weapon in criminal trials. From fingerprints to handwriting and DNA, scientific analysis is a powerful force, used to exonerate the innocent and convict the guilty. It is also now used to hunt down killers, whose crimes were committed in the decades before science developed DNA profiling, and crack cold cases.
21 August 2019
Caveats and PEXA: a cautionary tale
A caveat may be useful when your client has an interest in land that can’t be protected by the registration of another type of dealing. However, it’s important to lodge a caveat only in respect of a caveatable interest, since lodging a caveat that doesn’t protect a caveatable interest may give rise to a claim for compensation by a person who suffers loss as a result.
The recent NSW Supreme Court case of Guirgis v JEA Developments Pty Ltd reminds us it’s a good time to review what we know about caveats, caveatable interests and lodging caveats – and what we should know.
25 june 2019
Lawyers and ‘Likes’: why it’s time to err on the side of caution
We all have opinions, but just how free are we to express these online? Digitisation and the rise of social media means anyone’s opinions, statements, actions, and comments can now disseminate widely, quickly and uncontrollably.
27 MAY 2019
Co-mediation of thorny multiparty disputes: the advantages and practicalities
Mediation as a process is widely praised by judges and lawmakers for being able to resolve even the thorniest of disputes, often to the surprise of the parties involved.
06 MAY 2019
ALRC Family Law Report: A quick guide for practitioners
With 60 recommendations made over 574 pages, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) report, Family Law for the Future: An Inquiry into the Family Law System is a long read. The much-anticipated report was tabled in Parliament on 10 April 2019.
To help you find the parts of the report that will matter most to you as a family lawyer or barrister, we spoke to Professor Richard Chisholm AM, former Judge of the Family Court of Australia and author of the LexisNexis loose-leaf service Australian Family Law.
27 MARCH 2019
The Hidden Cost of Free Legal Research
Artificial Intelligence is proving revolutionary for the legal industry. The ability for algorithms to quickly and automatically analyse large data sets is changing processes and opening new opportunities for innovation.