Four top tier law firms have been selected by the big banks to represent them in the Maurice Blackburn run class action related to unfair banking fees.
Allens Arthur Robinson, Clayton Utz, Freehills and Blake Dawson have all been tapped on the shoulder to represent Westpac, Citibank, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and ANZ respectively.
The fifth bank to be targeted by the action is National Australia Bank (NAB), but according to documents submitted to the Federal Court in December the bank has not nominated a legal counsel and has instead initiated proceedings using in-house legal advice.
ANZ was the first bank to go to court in relation to the class action, the largest ever to be launched in Australia with 150,000 people now signed up, and has won the initial round in the Federal Court. Maurice Blackburn has filed appeal papers and will have the first appeal hearing on March 12.
The first directions hearing for the remaining respondents will occur on March 9. CBA group general counsel David Cohen told ALB it's likely the matter will sit on the sidelines until the ANZ action has been finally decided. “We anticipate that we and our external lawyers will not be highly active while the ANZ matter wends its way through the court,” he said.
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Blake Dawson enlisted by ANZ in unfair fees class action 29 September 2010