SKM Lawyers, Sherine Metry

29/11/2025

DEFEATING INSTITUTIONAL POWER:
SKM Lawyers is proud to achieve Decisive Victory for PhD Student

​At SKM Lawyers, we leverage focused strategic litigation skills and unwavering zeal to secure impactful results for our clients.
​We successfully secured a highly favorable outcome for a PhD student in a dispute against a major university.

23/09/2025

Justice served: SKM Lawyers fighting hard, winning strong!!!

08/11/2024

Welcome to SKM Lawyers on Coptic Connect! 🇦🇺✨

We’re delighted to introduce SKM Lawyers, a highly regarded Australian law firm now connecting with the Coptic community on our platform. With extensive expertise in areas such as family law, immigration, business law, and beyond, SKM Lawyers is dedicated to offering clear, practical, and effective legal advice. Their team prides itself on integrity, professionalism, and a commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes for their clients.

Please join us in welcoming SKM Lawyers to Coptic Connect. Whether you’re looking for guidance on legal matters or simply connecting with trusted professionals, SKM Lawyers is here to help.

https://copticconnect.world/directory/skm-lawyers/

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14/10/2024

WE ARE WINNING CASES!! Great outcome in 4 year complicated Federal Court case.

06/11/2023

We are excited to announce that Sherine Metry is now a certified Public Notary, and ready to serve you. Whether you need documents notarised, signatures verified or legal documents witnesses for international purposes, we are here to assist you.

A Public Notary in Australia is invariably a practising solicitor or attorney who has been practising for over five years, has undertaken further study and been appointed for life by a State or Territory Supreme Court.
The Notary is entrusted with statutory powers to witness documents, administer oaths, and perform other wide-ranging administrative functions both within Australia and internationally.

The Public Notary takes oaths, signs and witnesses a broad variety of documents for local use, but importantly is empowered under a United Nations Convention to perform similar functions in respect of documents for use in foreign countries.

Trading hours:
Monday to Friday
9:00am - 5:00pm
Contact us to arrange a consultation for legal advice

15/11/2022

BUILDING BILL 2022

The purpose of the Building Bill is to create end-to-end accountability for building work in NSW and consolidate and regulate key elements of the building and construction industry. The Building Bill will govern residential and commercial buildings.

The Building Bill will replace, incorporate and build on the regulatory features of the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) (HBA). Key features of the Building Bill include:

expanding the definition of “developer” to align with the definition currently used in the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act 2020 (RAB Act) and thereby expanding the parties liable to consumers for defective building work;
expanding licensing requirements to the commercial sector, as well as to designers, engineers and building inspectors of residential and commercial buildings (rather than just residential builders or those carrying out specialist work);
transferring the building and subdivision certification under the current Part 6 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EP&A Act) to the Building Bill (thereby bringing all certification of buildings post development consent into the building system rather than the planning system);
introducing a new regulatory scheme for pre-fabricated and manufactured housing;
extending consumer protection obligations to manufacturers of offsite construction and pre-fabricated buildings; and
mandating maximum progress payments per stage for home building work and the process for documenting variations for home building work.
The Building Bill will incorporate and consolidate the duty of care provisions from the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) (DBP Act) and the EP&A Act into one piece of legislation;
the duty of care has been explicitly expanded to all types of building work as well as subdivision work. It has also been expanded to include inspection and certification of such work. This means that designers and builders of non-residential buildings or carrying out subdivision works will also owe duties of care to future owners of those buildings (although that is already partly the case following the decision in Goodwin Street Developments Pty Ltd atf Jesmond Unit Trust v DSD Builders Pty Ltd (in liq) [2022] NSWSC 624). It also means that certifiers will become liable for economic loss caused by defects to future owners.
The NSW Government is also considering extending the timeframe for warranting serious defects from 6 years to 10 years and from 2 years to 3 years for other (minor) defects.

Contact SKM Lawyers and let our experienced and dedicated legal team guide you.

22/06/2021

Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021 in NSW: Summary of Insurance and CPD requirements

Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021 (NSW) (Regulation), which comes into force on 1 July 2021. If you perform design or construction work on class 2 buildings (i.e. residential apartments) and intend on making a compliance declaration, you fall within the scope of the Act and you must get registered.

The Act introduces compulsory minimum standards of insurance cover for practitioners and CPD requirements for all classes of practitioner. The key points are:
• there is a two-year transitional period for insurance requirements – while adequate insurance is recommended, from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023 – until 1 July 2023 there are no additional, mandatory insurance requirements for practitioners; and
• once practitioners become registered, they are subject to the CPD requirements detailed in Schedule 3 of Regulation.
The Act aims to provide greater regulation of practitioners involved in building and construction, following a spate of highly publicised residential apartments defects.
Insurance for building practitioners
In contrast to design, principal design practitioners and professional engineers, a building practitioner does not have to hold a professional indemnity policy, rather they must be indemnified under an insurance policy which in the reasonable opinion of the building practitioner provides for an adequate level of indemnity for the liability incurred by the practitioner in the course of doing work. In determining whether a policy provides an adequate level of indemnity, the practitioner must take into account:
(a) the nature and risks associated with the work,
(b) the volume of the work,
€ the length of time that the practitioner has been registered,
(d) a reasonable estimate of claims that could be brought on the basis of paragraphs (a)–(c) above,
€ the financial capacity of the practitioner,
(f) any limits, exceptions, exclusions, terms or conditions of the policy.
CPD requirements
Design and Building Practitioners will need to complete at least three hours of approved and relevant education and training detailed in the Guidelines. These CPD hours must be earned by undertaking courses available from the Construct NSW Digital Learning Platform, and/or the Australian Building Codes Board National Construction Code CPD System.
• keep written records specifying the how the practitioner satisfied the CPD requirements each year,
• maintain the records for at least 5 years.

08/04/2021

Another great WIN for our client, in the Supreme Court of Appeal😊

"Musa v Alzreaiawi [2021] NSWCA 12"

Court of Appeal of New South Wales

Bell P; Macfarlan & Gleeson JJA

Real property - fraud - appellant challenged validity of transfer of appellant's 'joint interest in
land' to respondent - appellant's claim made in reliance on 'fraud exception to indefeasibility' -
appellant contended he did not sign transfer, that signature was forged and respondent was
party to fraud - primary judge dismissed claim - onus of proof - whether primary judge
erroneously required 'too much evidence' from appellant - 'Neat Holdings error' - Neat Holdings
Pty Ltd v Karajan Holdings Pty Ltd [1992] HCA 66 s43 Real Property Act 1900 (NSW) - whether
appellant's case could be accepted on 'findings and evidence' - whether appellant discharged
onus of proof - whether appellant entitled to rely on 'Jones v Dunkel submission' which appellant
did not make at trial - held: appeal dismissed.

View Decision:

EVIDENCE – standard of proof – balance of probabilities – where appellant alleged signature on transfer form was forged – whether necessary to establish “clear and cogent proof” of the fraud – application of Briginshaw v Briginshaw – Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), s 140

29/05/2020

ANOTHER COMPREHENSIVE SUCCESS FOR SKM LAWYERS, DECIDED BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1760789327403615&id=464742030341691

Judgment Just In:

The Supreme Court has dismissed a claim based on alleged fraud by the plaintiff’s former wife. The Court found there was insufficient evidence to establish fraud.

Read the judgment here: https://bit.ly/3esiMe4

Summary: https://bit.ly/2TPu3gD

29/03/2019

SKM in the News!