Requesting Legal Advice

Instructions on when and how to seek advice

All legal agreements must be reviewed by the Legal Team. These should be sent with the approved Request for Legal Review memorandum to legal@nd.edu.au (and not directly to individual lawyers). Your matter will be assigned to the bestplaced member of the Legal Team to provide you with assistance.

The term legal agreement includes:

• Contracts
• Agreements
• Licences
• Terms and Conditions
• Memorandum of Understanding; and
• any other document proposed to be entered into with a third party involving legal obligations on behalf of the University.

Requests for Legal advice will be accepted from a Head of School, Director or Senior Executive only. Requests will not be accepted without approval at this level.

Access to Legal Request Memo

The Legal Request Memo can be downloaded at:

Legal Request Memo

Generally, the Legal Team will aim to have your agreement reviewed within 10 business working days (at peak times the turnaround period may extend to 15 business working days).

If a legal matter requires urgent review (for example, it involves a legal action, subpoena, correspondence from a lawyer or requires urgent legal advice), please contact one of the Lawyers to notify them that you are sending or have sent through an urgent request.

Some matters may not be urgent, but may still require a tight timeframe for review. In those cases, please consult the Legal Team to determine whether it is appropriate to send the agreement through for legal review pending other reviews/approvals.

Legal Advice

When a matter has been reviewed the Lawyer will provide advice.

Please remember that much of the advice from the Legal Team will attract Legal Professional Privilege. Please do not share any advice you receive from the Legal Team with external third parties. Again, if you are unsure, please seek our advice on what can be disclosed.

Please ensure the confidentiality of all legal agreements by applying a Confidential mark to the documents and take measures to protect against unauthorised disclosure.

Instructions on signatures and legal documents

The Office or School responsible for the legal agreement must ensure all other approvals are obtained prior to sending the agreement and accompanied documentation to the authorised signatory under the University’s Delegations Schedule.

As a matter of good practice, legal agreements capable of being signed in hard copy, should be signed by hand by the delegated officer in original hard copy format.

The use of electronic signatures should be limited to high volume agreements and circumstances where it is not possible for the authorised officer to sign individual agreements.

1. Where an authorised officer wishes to execute an agreement by electronic signature he or she should seek advice from the Legal Team to ensure that the type of agreement is capable of being properly executed by electronic signature and that consent has been obtained by the other party for the agreement to be signed by electronic signature.
2. Approval for an electronic signature requires the same level of accuracy of the contents of the document and the decision making process as a document signed by hand. Only scanned signatures approved and authorised may be applied to legal agreements. If an authorised officer provides approval to a staff member to apply their electronic signature this must be done in writing and a record kept of this direction.  A separate approval is required for each occasion where an authorised officer approves the use of their electronic signature. It is the responsibility of the authorised officer using the electronic signature to ensure the security of their electronic signature and take measures to ensure it is only used with written approval.

Return of fully executed agreement

The School or Office responsible for the legal agreement must track the agreement process and ensure a fully executed original copy is returned to the Legal Team at legal@nd.edu.au. This will likely require you to have two original signed copies so that each party can retain a copy. Where the agreement requires Finance Office approval, a copy must also be sent to the Finance Office.

Instructions on standing delegations of authority

Dealing with legal matters/documents

Instructions on compliance with the service of legal documents subpoenas.

Service of Subpoenas

The Legal Team has authority to accept service of documents on behalf of the University.  Anyone seeking to serve documents on the University should be directed to Legal Team. Any Subpoena received by mail should be sent immediately to Legal Team together with any cheque for conduct money.  The Legal Team will co-ordinate the Subpoena response with the appropriate school or office.

Subpoenas to the University should be addressed to

The Proper Officer
The University of Notre Dame Australia
c/- The Legal Team
19 Mouat Street
Fremantle  WA 6959

Email
legal@nd.edu.au

Receiving a Subpoena

If a person attempts to serve a Subpoena on the University:

1. contact the Legal Team;
2. check that the Subpoena is for the University before you accept it or sign anything confirming receipt; and
3. forward the Subpoena and any conduct money to the Legal Team immediately for action.

Please include a brief note or memo indicating who received the Subpoena and who Legal Team staff may contact in your area if we need any further information.  The requesting party should not be contacted regarding the documents.