Justice Meek quotes Goldilocks and Oliver Twist

Daily wrap  

• Judge references Oliver Twist, Goldilocks in EY win over defections [AFR paywall]

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  • Larocca v Alvarez & Marsal Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 687 (1 July 2025)

    [3] Fairy tale analogies, much less fairy tale endings, are not generally the vernacular readily invoked in contested litigation involving international tax firms. Yet the “Goldilocks Zone” was parlance deployed by EY’s senior counsel to explain a dilemma in the case. Put simply, he contends that EY knows enough to be concerned but not enough to make a sensible and informed decision about whether or not to commence substantive proceedings against the defendants.

    [4] In Goldilocks terms, he contends that EY’s knowledge (a word which I note rhymes with porridge) “is just right”, allowing for a fairly broad scope of “temperature”. In Southey’s original story, the porridge of Wee Bear being “just right” was a close to ideal state, but did not satiate the old Woman as the little porridge-pot “did not hold enough for her”. Unlike Goldilocks, but like the old woman, EY wants more information or knowledge. Pressing the literary porridge theme imperfectly further, essentially EY comes to the Court, a little like Oliver Twist saying “Please sir, I want more [gruel]”, i.e. here the request is for more knowledge.

    [see also footnotes for above paras]
     

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