Deutschland, Deutschland, Über Alles

New name for Wentworth's 7-Up ... Victorians get to grips with litigation costs ... No pillow talk about Canberra sex workers 

Everything old is new again

Yes, the 7-Up floor in the Deutsche Bank building ($1,600 a metre) breaks away from the motherland at the end of this month and after innumerable focus groups, brand consultants and identity agencies, it looks as though it has settled on the name "New Chambers". 

It's fresh, exciting and gives a sense of, er ... newness. 

Let's hope it is not readily confused with the Greek restaurant in The Shire, also trading under the name New Chambers. 

The Hatzikiriakos' is serving hot and cold mezedes, kypia faghta, thalassina and piatelles - much the same sort of stuff you'll get at 36/126 Phillip St. 

New Chambers
One of the reviews on Urban Spoon said the "chips looked like the had been fried five times".  

This sort of thing could soon muddle people seeking to brief members of New Chambers. 

See previous 7-Up reports here and here 

Conferenceville

Mega-expensive silks and fat law shops are being herded together by VicBar and the LIV to get to grips with their favourite topic - how to reduce the cost of litigation. 

This not-to-be-missed event is called High Stakes Law in Practice and the Courts and is set down for an entire day on October 17 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.  

The spruikers at the session on cost effective litigation include some of the profession's most cost conscious entities: Allan Myers AO QC and people from Allens, Mallesons and the National Bank. 

The registration fee of $580 is worth every penny. 

There's also a whole pile of silks and partners from big end firms chatting about Class Actions - the way of the future? Ooooh, that could be profitably spent hour-and-a-half. 

Other High Stakes topics include, Litigation funding - the future and The collision of public relations and the law - managing strategic, legal and PR objectives. 

In a special message to prospective attendees, the bar's Willy Alstergren and Geoff Boyer from the Conveyancers' Club say: 

"Our profession is at an interesting time when we are required to balance the pressures of cost effective litigation with the ever increasing ethical obligations being placed on us." 

Sadly, the hour-and-a-half consumed by the state attorney general's closing remarks followed by drinks and canapés does not generate a single CPD point. 

Brothel bulletin 

It turns out this week that Helen Murrell, the CJ of the ACT Supremes, discovered while flicking through an annexure to a document filed during an application to vary David Eastman's bail conditions, that her present husband was a witness for the crown at the Eastman murder trial in 1995.  

She has stood down from Monday's hearing on Eastman's bail and Steven Rares will pick-up the reins. 

Murrell sat from late last year presiding over a three person bench on a DPP application to have the Martin inquiry into Eastman's conviction closed down. 

Apparently, the pillow talk at Chez Murrell does not extend to murmuring about the cases in which hubby and wife have been engaged. 

The CJ's husband is Paul Westwood, a "forensic document examiner". He testified 19 years ago to his belief that Eastman had erased a name in his diary. 

Paul Westwood (right) at an awards ceremonyUnder close examination he discovered that the missing words were: "Kelly, blonde, boobs." This proved to be a hooker working at a Fyshwick knock-shop who had had an engagement with Eastperson on the night  ACT Police Commissioner Colin Winchester was murdered. 

One can quite understand, after the heavy daily load of judicial duties, that the last thing a chief justice would want to do is listen to her husband rabbiting on about Canberra brothels.