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Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors to focus solely on workplace and employment law
Mid-tier firm Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors (ABLA) has closed its corporate and commercial practice and is set to focus just on workplace relations and employment law moving forward.
Jerome Doraisamy
Last Friday (3 March), Lawyers Weekly reported that BigLaw firm Hall & Wilcox had added a team of five senior lawyers from ABLA. The mid-tier practice has shuttered its corporate and commercial practice, as of the end of last month — a process it had commenced early last year, starting with its Sydney office’s practice in that space.
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The firm remains committed, it said, to serving employers across Australia from its offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Newcastle.
ABLA chief executive Nigel Ward (pictured) said that the move to a “single focus” will benefit businesses, in that the firm will be offering dedicated workplace relations and employment advice.
“Workplace relations and employment law has been ABLA’s principal area of practice for more than a decade and has continued to grow significantly over that time,” he explained.
“We can better serve our clients with our energy and resources focused on this important and ever-changing area.”
The Albanese government’s proposed industrial relations changes and new legislation, Mr Ward went on, is the biggest IR reform in more than a decade and will impact all workplaces.
“There has already been huge demand for information from the business community on the Secure Jobs, Better Pay reforms, with ABLA’s team speaking at many business events already this year to bring employers up to speed on the changes,” he said.
“We continue to be involved in significant test cases and workplace policy discussions with clients and at a national and political level.”
In 2021, ABLA won the Workplace Relations and Employment Team of the Year category at the Australian Law Awards.
“While our focus area has sharpened, our motto of being ‘experts make things simple’ remains, as does our approach of mutual respect and collaboration with clients,” Mr Ward concluded.
