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IT was a post-study trip in the US that inspired Tony van Merwyk to pursue a career in environmental planning law. Mr van Merwyk completed a masters in international environmental law at the University of San Diego in 1990 and was travelling throughout

MAXIMISING a company’s true potential through the leverage of knowledge is the prime purpose of young Western Australian firm Neo Knowledge.

THE lawyers who dominated voting in the intellectual property category illustrate two very different aspects of this field of practice. The top rated lawyer was Freehills partner Tony Joyner, who has a broad commercial law background and moved into the

The team at Fraser’s in Kings Park have decided that having one of the city’s best views isn’t enough ... there’s a new look inside too, as Julie-anne Sprague reports.

One of David Pike’s favourite WA wine industry events is just around the corner – Western Australian Fine Wine.

In the third of a six-part series on corporate superannuation, Mark Beyer looks at industry funds.

JUST as former Labor premier Brian Burke vacated the media spotlight over lobbying, his long-time party pal Kim Beazley came into its beam. State Scene certainly never expected to be re-focusing on Mr Beazley so soon

INDUSTRY speculation has it that the name McCusker is at, or near, the top of the list to head the State Government’s proposed Crime and Corruption Commission.

CRIMINAL law runs through the veins of Robert Mazza, who has followed in the footsteps of his late father. Mr Mazza was articled with his father in the early 1980s and the two worked together for two decades, until Jim Mazza passed away in 1999.

The Legal Elite survey was introduced by WA Business News to highlight and champion the State’s top legal practitioners, as Mark Beyer reports.

MERGERS and Acquisitions was the most keenly contested category in the Legal Elite 2003 survey. Six lawyers attracted substantial support from across the industry and, at the end of counting, they were separated by only a handful of nominations.

MARGARET River wine industry pioneer David Hohnen is on the hunt for a chief executive officer to take over the operations of Cape Mentelle Vineyards the company he co-founded in 1970.

THE past year has provided a fresh change for Perth’s top property lawyer, KPMG Legal partner Ted Sharp. After more than 20 years with Freehills and its predecessor Parker & Parker, Mr Sharp chose to pursue new opportunities at a much smaller firm.

IT is good to note that Fisheries Minister Kim Chance is taking a close interest in the rock lobster industry, one of our most successful niche exports.

WITH more than 20 years under his belt at law practice Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Chris Stevenson is going solo. Considered Western Australia’s elite Native Title lawyer, by his peers, Mr Stevenson is planning a move mid-year to the independent bar

In the final part of the series on web developers, Julie-anne Sprague examines how to get the best value for your money.

MICHAEL Hunt is bemused by his Legal Elite accolade, a little sensitive that it could be just another unwelcome sign of old age. The ‘number one mining lawyer’ tag attaches awkwardly to one not entirely at ease with the general legal clique

THE rapid growth in DMR Consulting’s web solutions team has prompted the international IT consulting firm to move into bigger premises.

SPECIALISING in tax law was a logical move for Robert Sceales. Mr Sceales has been practising as a lawyer since 1971, originally in his native South Africa but for many years in Australia.

MILLEPEDE International Limited, the local designer and manufacturer of plastic cable fasteners, has increased its stake in international subsidiary firms in a move to cash in on

LEE Christensen’s professional fate was decided when he was articled to Ron Harmer, the guru of insolvency law, in 1982. Mr Christensen has never looked back from that point, specialising in

In this week’s report on development Tracey Cook looks at pre-commitment.

AN attraction to the law might have led Mallesons Stephen Jaques partner Rob Lilburne into the profession but the pressure cooker of the Robe River Iron Ore dispute in the 1980s cemented his place in the industrial relations field.

NETWORKING has proved essential for public relations company The Capital Group, ranked fifth in the WA Business News Book of Lists 2003 list of marketing and market research companies.

PAUL Wright is one of several winners in the Legal Elite 2003 survey who left work at a big national firm to establish his own practice. He formed Wright Legal in July 2000 after 17 years as a partner at Freehills and one of its predecessor firms

WITH the lifestyle themes becoming more important in the marketing of residential estates, it is common for these developments to be built around recreational facilities such as golf courses, ornamental lakes or marinas.

Driven by different economic factors, investment into commercial and residential developments tends to follow a cyclical pattern.

One year on from the demise of Andersen, Mark Beyer spoke to former partners and staff to find how they survived and where they are now.

THE 100-metre setback guideline for all development in the State Government’s new coastal planning policy has received a mixed response from the property development industry.

THE collapse of Andersen triggered a change of direction for former corporate finance partner Justin Willis.

In the first instalment of a five-part series Noel Dyson finds out who’s who in market research in WA.

FORMER Andersen audit partner Derek Parkin has racked up a couple of firsts since his old firm collapsed. Of Andersen’s 10 former Perth partners, he is the only one to have added the title of professor to his resume.