McDermott & Associates has acted on a successful appeal to the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the New South Wales Court of Appeal, on behalf of a commercial client who wanted to overturn a decision of a Local Court Magistrate, resulting in a precedent for the interpretation of Section 68 of the Retail Leases Act for the first time in New South Wales.

McDermott & Associates has acted in relation to many Will disputes and estate litigation. One client we recently acted for was the second wife of a man who passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack, leaving behind two children of his first marriage and two children of his second marriage. After his death it was discovered that he also had a de-facto partner living interstate who gave birth to their first child just a few days later, and another partner living overseas.

Despite the emotional stress on each of these woman, and the resentments which arose following the man’s death, McDermott & Associates was successful in working with the solicitors for the first wife and the de-facto partner to negotiate a unique settlement of the estate, using a formula based on the respective ages of the five children and their needs for care, avoiding the significant time and cost which would have been involved in contested Court proceedings.

McDermott & Associates has for a number of years acted on behalf of a business owner, who has been transferring portions of a commercial strata unit into a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF) with ongoing rental payments from the transfers representing annual income, increasing the value of the funds held in the SMSF. This has been part of a wider transition to retirement strategy including the drafting of appropriate Wills, Powers of Attorney and Appointments of Enduring Guardian.

McDermott & Associates has extensive experience acting for property developers. One recent matter involved a site amalgamation, an option to purchase real estate, negotiating simultaneous settlements and obtaining an appropriate tax result, having first worked with a specialist accountant to put in place leases to ensure proper classification as a “going concern”.

McDermott & Associates recently acted for a shareholder in a small company. Our client ran into difficulties with another shareholder when he wanted to invest money to grow the business, but she wanted to wind down in preparation for retirement. Although the other shareholder commenced proceedings in the Federal Court, McDermott & Associates was successful in mediating an outcome which resulted in a much quicker, cheaper and commercially advantageous outcome for our client than would have been possible had the matter been decided by the Court.