New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LEGAL PROFESSION UNIFORM LAW (NSW) - SECT 170

170 Commercial or government clients

(1) This Part does not apply to--

(a) a commercial or government client; or

(b) a third party payer who would be a commercial or government client if the third party payer were a client of the law practice concerned--

but this section and sections 181(1), (7) and (8), 182, 183 and 185(3), (4) and (5) do apply to a commercial or government client referred to in paragraph (a) or a third party payer referred to in paragraph (b).

(2) For the purposes of this Law, a
"commercial or government client" is a client of a law practice where the client is--

(a) a law practice; or

(b) one of the following entities defined or referred to in the Corporations Act--

(i) a public company, a subsidiary of a public company, a large proprietary company, a foreign company, a subsidiary of a foreign company or a registered Australian body;

(ii) a liquidator, administrator or receiver;

(iii) a financial services licensee;

(iv) a proprietary company, if formed for the purpose of carrying out a joint venture and if any shareholder of the company is a person to whom disclosure of costs is not required;

(v) a subsidiary of a large proprietary company, but only if the composition of the subsidiary's board is taken to be controlled by the large proprietary company as provided by subsection (3); or

(c) an unincorporated group of participants in a joint venture, if one or more members of the group are persons to whom disclosure of costs is not required and one or more members of the group are not any such persons and if all of the members of the group who are not such persons have indicated that they waive their right to disclosure; or

(d) a partnership that carries on the business of providing professional services if the partnership consists of more than 20 members or if the partnership would be a large proprietary company (within the meaning of the Corporations Act) if it were a company; or

(e) a body or person incorporated in a place outside Australia; or

(f) a person who has agreed to the payment of costs on a basis that is the result of a tender process; or

(g) a government authority in Australia or in a foreign country; or

(h) a person specified in, or of a class specified in, the Uniform Rules.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(b)(v), the composition of the subsidiary's board is taken to be controlled by the large proprietary company if the large proprietary company, by exercising a power exercisable (whether with or without the consent or concurrence of any other person) by it, can appoint or remove all, or the majority, of the directors of the subsidiary.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), the large proprietary company is taken to have power to make an appointment referred to in that subsection if--

(a) a person cannot be appointed as a director of the subsidiary without the exercise by the large proprietary company of such a power in the person's favour; or

(b) a person's appointment as a director of the subsidiary follows necessarily from the person being a director or other officer of the large proprietary company.