FAQs and Useful Information

Staff members in OGC cannot provide legal advice or services of a personal nature to individual staff or students.  If staff or students have a concern or a complaint involving the University, they can contact the University's Complaints Resolution Unit (opens in a new window).

Students can go to the 'Getting Help' page on the University website to find out where to obtain help for any matters affecting their studies.  Students may also be able to seek assistance from Student Legal Services (opens in a new window).

Things you will need before contacting OGC for legal advice:

1. Dean/Director approval
2. All documents relating to the dispute/transaction (including approvals and background information)
3. Name of the person who will be instructing us (so that we can refer to them when we need to clarify details)

Please note, our approach is to deal with matters in order of receipt or based on our assessment of their urgency, for instance, meeting any deadlines imposed by a court or time limits imposed by legislation.

Legal professional privilege (sometimes called client legal privilege) is a rule of law that is designed to protect the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients made for the dominant purpose of obtaining or giving legal advice or in connection with existing or anticipated legal proceedings.

Legal professional privilege is a very important principle that allows clients and lawyers to communicate candidly with one another.

However, the protection is not absolute and can be taken to have been waived or lost if some precautions are not taken. It is not simply enough to mark a document "privileged" or "confidential". Particular care needs to be taken with email communications and text messages.

Legal professional privilege can be claimed for communications between OGC lawyers and University employees and officers seeking legal advice on behalf of the University.

To minimise the risk of challenge, we recommend you always take these precautions:

• Any requests for legal advice should be in writing and marked confidential;
• Any communications should only be sent or copied to people within the University who are directly involved in the issue which is the subject of legal advice;
• These communications should NEVER be sent or copied to anyone outside the University;
• Any legal advice should not be copied into, or summarised or commented on, in other documents (such as minutes of meetings, memoranda and so on). Instead, the advice should be attached separately.

Please contact OGC if you have any questions or concerns about legal professional privilege.

The ABN for the University is 53 014 069 881.
The University should be described in all legal documents (including contracts) as follows:
WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY ABN 53 014 069 881.

The University is a public university and a statutory corporation pursuant to the Western Sydney University Act 1997 (opens in a new window)(NSW). Its functions and powers are prescribed in that Act and the Western Sydney University By-Law 2017 (opens in a new window)(NSW). The governing body of the University is the Board of Trustees.

Intellectual property rights are the manifestation of a person's intellectual efforts. They can be an invention, copyright in an artistic, musical or literary work, a design, plant breeder's rights or the practical application of an idea. Intellectual property rights are very important in the University environment.

The University has implemented an Intellectual Property Policy (opens in a new window) that applies to all staff and students. For further information about intellectual property rights generally, please contact IP Australia (opens in a new window).

If you receive legal advice from the in-house legal counsel for University related matters, your unit won't be charged. For more information, refer to the Legal Services Policy (opens in a new window).

The Delegations Register (opens in a new window) is an online database of all staff that hold delegations (the ability to approve actions on the University's behalf) in a substantive or acting capacity.

In the Register, you can find who can sign documents for your unit or other units of the University.

The Register enables you to ascertain who holds a delegation for a particular cost centre or organisational unit, what the level of their delegation is, and when that authority was or is effective.

If these relate to a University matter (and not a personal matter), please send them immediately via email and internal mail to:

legal@westernsydney.edu.au

Office of General Counsel
Building EQ
Parramatta South campus

We will allocate your matter to an OGC lawyer within 2-3 business days (or earlier if your matter is specified as urgent) after receiving all relevant documentation and approvals. You should then receive a follow up email notifying you of the name and contact details of the OGC lawyer handling your matter.

The University is constituted for a charitable purpose (education) and is able to conduct charitable appeals without the need for an authority under the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991 (NSW). However, controlled entities of the University that conduct fundraising activities must obtain an authority. For more information, please contact Shubha Devadasen (opens in a new window), Company Secretary (Entities).

The University is also a deductible gift recipient for the purposes of Australian tax laws. Donations of AUD$2.00 or more to the University may be claimed as tax deductions in the hands of the donor. For more information about donations generally, please seek assistance from the Australian Tax Office (opens in a new window).

The University has established 'Giving to Western Sydney University'. For more information please go to the Giving to Western Sydney University (opens in a new window) website.

What is the Address for Services of Notices for the WSU to be included in WSU and third party contract as approved by OGC?

With the exception of OEC contracts, the following address should be included for all WSU agreements and contracts:

Address for Service of Documents for WSU:Building EQ, Level 1
Office of the General Counsel and Company Secretary
Western Sydney University, Parramatta South Campus
Corner of James Ruse Drive and Victoria Road
Rydalmere NSW 2116

or

Registered address of WSU:Western Sydney University
Locked Bag 1797
Penrith NSW 2751
Australia

• Western Sydney University Academic Staff Agreement 2017 - 2021 (opens in a new window)
• Delegations of Authority Policy (opens in a new window)
• Western Sydney University Professional Staff Agreement 2017 - 2021 (opens in a new window)
• Intellectual Property Policy (opens in a new window)
• Policy DDS (opens in a new window)

• Australasian Legal Information Institute (opens in a new window)(AustLII)
• Australian Government: Public Safety and Law (opens in a new window)
• ComLaw (opens in a new window)

• Higher Education Services Australia (opens in a new window)
• Universities Australia (opens in a new window)
• University Chancellors Council (opens in a new window)

• IP Australia (opens in a new window)
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (opens in a new window)

• Independent Commission Against Corruption (opens in a new window)(ICAC)
• Lawlink (opens in a new window)
• NSW Anti-discrimination Board (opens in a new window)
• NSW Fair Trading (opens in a new window)
• NSW Information Commissioner (opens in a new window)
• NSW Ombudsman (opens in a new window)
• NSW Parliamentary Counsel (opens in a new window)
• NSW Privacy Commissioner (opens in a new window)

• Australian Business Register (opens in a new window)
• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (opens in a new window)(ACCC)
• Australian Human Rights Commission (opens in a new window)(formerly HREOC)
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (opens in a new window)(ASIC)
• Australian Taxation Office (opens in a new window)(ATO)
• Commonwealth Ombudsman's Office (opens in a new window)
• Fair Work Commission (opens in a new window)
• Overseas Student Ombudsman (opens in a new window)
• Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (opens in a new window)(TEQSA)