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Marks & Sands' dedicated agribusiness team has been involved in the privatisation of some of Western Australia's major primary industry sectors, and has provided advice to leading agribusiness companies on restructuring, trade documentation and agreements.
Major Services Include
The team has assisted large manufacturers, co-operative enterprises, processors, growers, producers, R&D organisations and government bodies with:
- formation of entities, including trade cooperatives;
- business structuring;
- deregulation, environmental and compensation issues;
- financial issues including credit management and debt, finance arrangement (including crop credit) and sale of crops; and
- bioresearch and agricultural research.
Marks & Sands' agribusiness team has also worked with the cotton, horticulture, grain, rice, beef and sugar industries.
We employ the best technology to stay aware of client and market needs, and to communicate effectively and electronically with our clients.
Major Services Include
- syndicated lending and security transactions
- leveraged leasing
- security reviews and advice on restructuring
- complex stamp duty advice
- equity participation/venture capital transaction
We aim to develop a close working relationship with our clients to gain a solid understanding of their businesses, and deliver more than just a traditional advisory service.
Major Services Include
- Corporate acquisition and sales;
- Company structuring and capitalisation;
- Trusts and joint ventures;
- Franchising;
- Licensing and distribution contracts;
- Privacy.
Marks & Sands' employment lawyers are skilled in providing advice, interpretation and/or documentation relating to employment, industrial relations and occupational health and safety.
Marks & Sands is able to combine strong corporate and insurance experience with employment and industrial relations expertise, to allow us to effectively advise and assist our clients in a range of workplace related matters including unlawful and unfair dismissals, discrimination and equal opportunity, company restructures and redundancies, employee contracts and entitlements, enterprise bargaining, workers compensation and occupational health and safety.
Our lawyers have experience as advocates in State and Federal jurisdictions although we take a proactive approach to the resolution of disputes prior to litigation. Many of our lawyers are trained mediators.
Marks & Sands also provides training services to clients, having formulated and presented seminars and workshops and drafted training manuals, policies and procedures.
Major Services Include
- unfair and unlawful termination
- anti-discrimination and equal opportunity law
- award interpretation and employee entitlements
- executive contracts
- advice in relation to restraints of trade and confidential information
- contractor issues and company structures
- advice in relation to transmission of business including conducting due diligence in relation to employment issues
- redundancy
- privacy
- employee relation strategies to meet business goals
- negotiation of enterprise agreements and advice on suitable workplace arrangements
- freedom of association and rights of entry issues
- drafting and advising on employment policies and procedures
- advice and preparation of training manuals for use within the workplace
- occupational health and safety, including conducting compliance audits and defending prosecutions
- pre-employment medical testing
- workers compensation
- disciplinary hearings
- advocacy
Our understanding of the public service and the context in which Government Departments and quasi-government organisations operate can be summarised by these key points:
- probity and transparency are the number one priority
- Government Departments and organisations have political masters
- each Department/organisation has its own culture, environment and ethos, and
- Government operational mechanisms include the need for paper and electronic trails and full accountability.
Major Services Include
Our government industry group assists government departments and quasi-government organisations with the following:
- Commercial and contract law, including trusts, government tendering, trade practices/competition law, infrastructure projects, outsourcing and corporations law
- Administrative Law, including Freedom of Information, Government/Public Law, Privacy, Natural Justice and Corporate Governance
- Litigation, including personal injury and Coronial Inquests
- Property, including acquisitions, disposals, leases, licences and Crown land
- Intellecutal property and technology law, including copyright, trademarks, licensing, joint ventures, outsourcing and strategic alliances
- Employment law, including advice, interpretation and documentation in relation to employment, industrial relations and occupation health and safety
Our expertise in this field is extensive, providing specialised legal advice to both the public and private sectors of the health industry. Continuously in contact with key people in the industry, Marks & Sands understands the intricacies of the health sector and is thus able to deliver adept commercial advice grounded in sound industry knowledge.
Marks & Sands has a proven track record in delivering first class legal services to the health industry. We have long standing relationships with health clients, industry associations and government agencies.
The face of healthcare in Australia is rapidly changing. Technological developments, an aging population and an increased emphasis on healthy living provides the main impetus for such change and the surrounding legal framework is elaborate and complex. Marks & Sands meets these challenges with a wealth of experience and innovation.
Harnessing the diversity of skills in our health team, we offer a familiarity with the business and regulatory environment and a comprehensive knowledge, providing an efficient, cost effective and coordinated service to clients. Our business strength lies in practical legal solutions, personalised service and efficient turnaround in plain English documentation.
At Marks & Sands we have a particular interest in remote and rural healthcare. We are experienced in handling the divergent legal issues which arise in servicing the needs of communities outside the metropolitan countries. Our lawyers act for remote and rural health services throughout the country.
Major Services Include
- Valid consent and informed decision making;
- Privacy, access to medical records and Freedom of Information;
- Patents and intellectual property protection;
- Medical malpractice defence and other liability claims;
- Industrial relations and employment law including - awards, enterprise agreements, employment contracts (including recruitment of medical staff within Australia and from overseas, unfair dismissals, discrimination, criminal record checks, workers compensation, and requirements of Child Protection legislation);
- Occupational health and safety;
- Processing of surgical devices, accreditation and credentialling issues;
- Conduct liability audits;
- Interpretation of legislation and compliance;
- Outsourcing of health services;
- Collocation of public and private hospitals;
- Residential and aged care;
- Public hospitals and area health services funding;
- Telemedicine;
One of our largest and most specialised areas of law is our Family Law Section.
Our Family Law team offer their professional services and expertise not only on Divorce, but also in areas of pre-nuptial agreements child contact issues, property settlement and adoption.
Our specialist team have extensive experience in separate representation for children in family law matters and are available to their clients 24 hours.
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Marks & Sands undertake a variety of work relating to Employment Law and Industrial Relations. We have a team of experienced professionals, working in this field, including a partner, a consultant, a solicitor, an articled clerk and a paralegal.
We have a broad range of experience in matters arising under the Industrial Relations Act (WA) 1979 and the Workplace Relations Act (Cth) 1996 We have provided advice and representation to a variety of clients in relations to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (WA) 1984 and associated regulations.
Major Services Include
In assisting our clients, we have dealt with the following:
- enforced securities by the appointment of receivers, administrators and agents of mortgagee in possession
- recovered possession of secured properties
- prepared deeds of company arrangement
- assisted administrators in preparing reports to creditors
- acted for liquidators on the recovery of void dispositions
- acted for insolvency administrators on the realisation of distressed assets
- conducted proceedings for recovery of assets and damages
- advised on and drafted trading terms incorporating retention of title and assisted with the enforcement by recovery of retention of title stock
- re-negotiated ongoing contracts with receivers and managers
- acted for creditors in retention of title claims, preference claims, priority disputes and other insolvency matters
The increasing demands of a sophisticated public and ever more complex and sensitive litigation make the practise of insurance law the domain of true specialists. Marks & Sands knows the insurance industry, the marketplace and the law.
Our understanding of the insurance environment, as well as insureds' business interests, means we can provide effective commercial insurance advice to both insurance companies and to our commercial clients regarding their insurance and risk management programs and concerns. We take a strategic approach to case management and claims resolution and utilise customised technology and insurance practice management systems.
Major Services Include
Our lawyers are well-equipped to advise on all types of insurance claims and coverage disputes, particularly in relation to those involving:
- CTP
- public and products liability
- professional indemnity
- directors' and officers' duties
- personal injury
- policy interpretation and drafting
- claims assessment
- statutory and compliance issues
- commercial litigation
- corporate insurance advice
- corporate insurance and risk review for major projects
- risk management
- occupational health and safety
- Corporations Law
- trade practices
- alternative dispute resolution
- marine and aviation
- tort-based litigation
There has in the last two decades, been a dramatic global growth in the development and use of privacy-threatening technologies.
Such technologies include the Internet as a commonly used vehicle for social and commercial transactions, video surveillance technology, biometric measurement, genetic testing, geographic information systems, caller number identification, RFID, EFTPOS, intelligent traffic systems and decentralised computer super-databases.
Databases containing personal information have proliferated in both the private and public sectors, and have become highly commercially valuable. Personal profiling has become a multi-billion dollar industry world-wide.
The response to this, both in Australia and overseas, has been the enactment of a broad range of regulatory regimes, as well as the development of common law jurisprudence. In Australia, there have been legislative responses at the Commonwealth and State levels, with industry specific regimes in the telecommunications and health sectors. Following recent amendments, the Commonwealth Act now applies with some exceptions to information in private sector enterprises. Most jurisdictions have enacted legislation to regulate the use of listening or surveillance devices. Human rights jurisprudence internationally has also contributed to the development of common law privacy protection as reflected in recent High Court judgments.
Marks & Sands has a Privacy Practice Group with extensive expertise in privacy issues across a broad range of industry sectors, including health, telecommunications, government and general corporate/commercial. Marks & Sands has provided advice in relation to the operation of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as well as State privacy legislation and industry specific privacy regimes. The firm has particular expertise in the application of these regulatory requirements as well as the common law, to novel situations arising in the context of the new information economy.
Major Services Include
- legal and practical advice in relation to the operation of a range of legislative regimes which regulate privacy, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), as well as specific industry sector privacy regulation such as under the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Scheme, State health privacy laws such as the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 (ACT) and general State privacy regulation generally;
- advice in relation to common law privacy rights;
- advice in relation to specialised privacy issues arising in the context of the Internet, electronic surveillance and interception, RFID, intelligent traffic systems, customer profiling and employee e-mail policies.
- preparation or review of corporate privacy policies;
- preparation or review of corporate privacy statements and website privacy statements;
- conduct of corporate privacy audits.
The increasingly sophisticated demands of commercial property clients and ever more complex legislation make the practice of commercial property law the province of true specialists. Marks & Sands knows the property industry, the marketplace and the law. Our national property practice provides advice on all types of property transactions.
The experience of our property team spans from sales and purchases, leasing and licensing, developments and due diligence through to structuring, syndication, financing and taxation-gained from acting in a variety of commercial, retail and industrial projects.
Our property team draws on its knowledge and experience of working with a wide range of clients including corporate and institutional owners, rural landholders, property developers, mortgage financiers, private client owners, to resort/hotel owners. Matters that we have conducted and managed for these clients range from small, simple transactions to complicated, multi-million dollar projects.
We recognise that property transactions and related issues require a quick and effective response. Careful and efficient negotiation, clear communication and concise documentation are key features in our approach to property law.
Major Services Include
The areas of expertise offered by our property team include:
- Acquisition, development and disposal contracts
- Building and construction contracts
- Commercial, industrial and retail property leasing and licensing
- Planning and environmental law
- Crown land native title
- Syndicated property investments
- Consolidation and subdivisions
- Due diligence
- Property trusts
- Joint ventures
- Liquor licensing
- Retail tenancies/rates, land tax, GST, stamp duties and other property taxes and charges
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