Australia's favourite legal snowball continues to grow

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Daily wrap  

• Conduct of Walter Sofronoff, who chaired inquiry into Bruce Lehrmann's prosecution, referred to ACT Integrity Commission - ABC News
   

  • John McMillian AO has been appointed as an Acting Integrity Commissioner effective when “ [Michael Adams KC] cannot for any reason exercise a function or functions of the position and the appointee is notified by the Speaker of the function or functions to be performed and the period during which they are to be performed” - Integrity Commission (Acting Commissioner) Appointment 2024 (No 1) | HTML view
     

• ‘I’ve got the yarn’: Taylor Auerbach cautioned over spending as he courted Bruce Lehrmann, texts reveal | Australian media | The Guardian
   

  • More documents were published on the online court file on Friday - Lehrmann v Network Ten and Ors: Online File
     

  • Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case wraps up in the Federal Court following testimony from former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach - ABC News
     

  • Excerpts of unpublished memoir by Brittany Higgins tendered in Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial documents - ABC News
     

  • How might new evidence heard in the Federal Court this week impact the outcome of Bruce Lehrmann's defamation trial? - ABC News
     

  • With all the excitement of the Auerbach hearing, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s going on | Richard Ackland | The Guardian
      

Editor’s picks

• The Supreme Court of NSW is turning 200. Here are some of its biggest moments - ABC News
   

  • Shark Arm murder 1935 | The Dictionary of Sydney
     

• Why Sam Mostyn’s supporters are despairing - Anne Twomey [The Australian paywall]

  The role of governor-general requires diplomacy, finesse, toughness and a deep sense of duty. But Sam Mostyn’s appointment has had a surprising effect.
   

  • Sam Mostyn’s partner is Sydney silk Simeon Beckett SC
     

• Victoria’s justice system has been routed by police failures - Gavin Silbert KC [The Australian paywall]

  The failure to charge high-ranking members of police command when the special investigator Geoffrey Nettle AC KC believed there was substantial evidence they had committed criminal offences has infected the rank-and-file of Victoria Police such that public confidence and trust has been eroded.
   

• Re-Evaluating GPT-4's Bar Exam Performance by Eric Martínez :: SSRN

  Perhaps the most widely touted of GPT-4’s at-launch, zero-shot capabilities has been its reported 90th-percentile performance on the Uniform Bar Exam. This paper begins by investigating the methodological challenges in documenting and verifying the 90th-percentile claim, presenting four sets of findings that indicate that OpenAI’s estimates of GPT-4’s UBE percentile are overinflated.
   

• Queensland becomes second state to criminalise coercive control - Law Society Journal
   

• Closing loopholes: More changes to the Fair Work Act - Law Society Journal
   

• Practical considerations when issuing a subpoena - Law Society Journal
   

• WAD37/2022 Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC v State of Western Australia & Ors - Livestream from 12:15pm 8 April 2024 - YouTube

  Justice Burley will conduct a hearing in this matter beginning Monday 8 April 2024, at 10:15am AWST.
   

• In Conversation: From Treaty to Settlement, to Treaty Settlements - Mortimer CJ and Williams J (NZ) - YouTube

  In this ‘In Conversation’ event Chief Justice Mortimer and Justice Joe Williams will be discussing New Zealand’s experience of Treaty making and breaking from 1980 until the present time.
   

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