Welcome to the Legal Office Website

Our role is to assist you to protect the University's interests. All we ask is that you seek our involvement before you commit the University to any legal relationship and that you provide us with all relevant information.

Who are we?

The Legal Office is within Governance & Legal in the Division of Finance and Administration. Andrea McAuliffe, John Hoggart and Linda Whelan are all graduates of the University of Tasmania. Administrative support is provided by Brooke Gordon who is also the receptionist for the Governance & Legal.

How do you contact us?

We are located on the third floor of the administration building on the Hobart Campus.

What we do

We provide a range of corporate legal services to the administrative and academic divisions of the University of Tasmania. The services most in demand include-

• advising on all contracts drafted by external parties
• drafting standard commercial contracts such as those for the sale and purchase of goods and the provision of professional services
• advising on all intellectual property issues including moral rights and drafting associated documentation including licenses
• advising both staff and students on administrative legal matters such as interpretation and drafting of the University's policies and subordinate legislation and advising generally on the concept of natural justice or procedural fairness
• managing civil litigation in which the University is involved
• advising on Freedom of Information requests.

What we do not do

The Legal Office does not-

• advise on intellectual property issues associated with the commercialisation of intellectual property. While we can provide preliminary advice if required, such issues will be referred to UTAS Innovation..
• provide personal legal advice to University staff or students.

When do we use external solicitors?

If a request for legal services requires either resources or expertise beyond those that we are able to provide, we may, in consultation with the Director Governance & Legal, refer the matter to the University's external solicitors, the Australian Government Solicitor or Sparke Helmore

Some useful links

Standard University Contracts
The University has made available for staff two digitised versions of a standard contract for the provision of professional services. These contracts consist of a long-form and a short form, and are designed to be used in non-research related services such as short-term teaching services or the provision of expert advice. Either version may be used unaltered without recourse to the Legal Office. However, if you require clarification of any aspect of the contracts or wish to amend them in any way to suit your circumstances, please contact John or Brooke. The short-form version is accompanied by guidelines which may also provide limited use for the long-form version.

Legislation
The following sites are recommended for searching legislation-

• Commonwealth legislation
• Tasmanian legislation
• Commonwealth Bills
• Tasmanian Bills
• University legislation
• Public Interest Disclosures Act

Seminar material
The Legal Office has prepared a number of papers for presentation to interested University employees throughout Tasmania. The papers have been made available but cannot be used for any other purpose than private study without consent from the Legal office.

• Contracts for non-lawyers
• Freedom of Information Requests
• Introduction to Contract Law
• Introduction to Intellectual Property

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Created: 30-Jul-2001 | Last Modified: 19-Nov-2008