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REDACTED: Defections, Claire Winton Burn & Trust in Clayton Utz ‘Relationship Contracting’
Posted by The Spy | Posted in Clayton Utz, Firm Gossip | Posted on 06-08-2010
Occasionally we get it wrong with our stories and this is one such instance.
No, we don’t think the content we previously published was inaccurate, it was just way too personal and irrelevant.
We agree with the comments from Marco below and have thus withdrawn the post.



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Here at the Firm Spy, we tend to take delight in the misfortune of greedy partnerships, especially those who we consider mistreat junior staff when times are tough. During the GFC, for example, we thought Clayton Utz consistently exemplified the brand of corporate behaviour that warranted our reproach. By way of example, the firm reportedly found it necessary to make many staff redundant in a year financial year where revenue skyrocketed by an incredible 4.9%. After long hours in the office (yes, we work too!), we therefore enjoyed spending our spare time methodically publishing the revilement of Clutz juniors in an attempt to mete out a measure of justice against a partnership that scarcely receives censure.
But set against this ideological bedrock of finding pleasure in corporate partner pain, and notwithstanding the thoroughly reprehensible corporate conduct of the firm over the last couple of years, even we are struggling to find enjoyment in the current plight of national top tier law firm Clayton Utz.
Yes folks, it gets worse. Much worse. [And this is despite the fact that the Clutz tech team were able to update their sorely out-of-date website “ranking” information yesterday afternoon. Well done team!]
It has emerged that Clayton Utz is currently faced with more legal action. Moreover, The Australian reported yesterday that global advertising group WPP is considering court action against Clayton Utz based on the firm’s conduct in a prior court action. As reported by The Australian:
The emergence of these alleged proceedings comes after The Australian reported last week that Clayton Utz is the subject of another proceeding in which a lawyer is seeking to enjoin the firm from operating in India:
By our count, that’s a total of FOUR court proceedings either currently afoot, or in contemplation, involving Clayton Utz. There’s Trench, WPP, some Indian dude called Balaji, and, the most explosive of the lot, the proceedings involving mastermind defector Grant Fuzi. On the subject of the Fuz Ball, rumours keep trickling in. We received the following comments from an anonymous Clutz spy last night about how Mr Fuzi intends to defend allegations of a breach of fiduciary duties:
We agree, and we didn’t even need the following comments, also received last night from an anonymous spy, to convince us (but boy, they do help!):
Yes, we recall seeing comments to that effect too. If we’re right, the equitable proceedings would amount to a curious about-face from CEP David Fagan, a man we’ve always regarded as speaking his mind. For example, when Clutz made up a handful of new partners in the wake of the A&O defections, he said:
Hmmm… all of that looks watertight when read in light of the following comments sent to us from an anonymous Clutz spy yesterday:
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