Tecnicas Reunidas SA v Andrew

[2018] NSWCA 192

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Contract
2. › Discharge of contract
3. › Discharge by agreement
4. › Abandonment
5. › Inferred agreement from conduct
6. › Whether solicitor-client retainer abandoned where client failed to respond to overtures and retained another firm
7. › No need for express offer and acceptance
1. Solicitors
2. › Retainer
3. › Termination of retainer
4. › Whether retainer terminated by mutual abandonment
5. › Client retained another firm for arbitration
6. › No response to solicitor's overtures to continue acting
1. Solicitors
2. › Duty of loyalty
3. › Distinction between current and former clients
4. › Whether duty of loyalty owed to former client
5. › Whether Victorian authorities recognising duty of loyalty to former client should be followed
1. Solicitors
2. › Confidential information
3. › Former client's confidential information
4. › Information barriers
5. › Onus on firm to show no real risk of disclosure
6. › Whether onus discharged by unchallenged evidence of information barriers

Quick Take

A solicitor-client retainer may be discharged by inferred mutual agreement (abandonment) where the client retains another firm and fails to respond to the first firm's overtures, without any formal written termination; and the court's inherent jurisdiction to restrain solicitors from acting is not engaged merely by a firm acting against a former client in the same dispute, absent any identified threat to the administration of justice.