In Gujarat NRE India v Wollongong Coal [2017] NSWSC 209 the Supreme Court held that a solicitor who had formerly acted for two of the parties to a series of transactions, which was now the subject of litigation between those two parties, was not in a position of conflict such that he should be restrained from now acting for one of the parties to the litigation.The parties were under common ownership at the time of the transactions and now were not. The Court in its inherent jurisdiction applied the “proper administration of justice” test from Kallinicos and determined that the solicitor’s actual knowledge and memory cannot or will not be deployed into the litigation to Wollongong’s disadvantage.
Declan Jarrett appeared for Gujarat led by David Pritchard SC