The court battle between Herbert Smith Freehills and its former partners jumping ship to White & Case will move to a final hearing in June.
At a directions hearing on Friday, the NSW Supreme Court set aside seven days for the final hearing starting on June 26.
At the final hearing, HSF and the eight partners are expected to argue over the reasonableness of the restraint clauses in the partnership agreement, which prevent the leaving partners from working for a competitor and poaching clients and employees for six months.
They are also expected to argue over whether the eight partners have been suspended from partnership after they resigned en masse in September last year.
Until the final orders are made, the eight partners will start working at White & Case in March after the court on Thursday temporarily allowed the partners to join the Wall Street law firm. They are still prevented from poaching HSF's clients and employees for the next six months.
Justice David Hammerschlag, who sat over the directions hearing, said he will be excusing himself from the final hearing because of his professional links to the firm.
"I don't consider it appropriate for the reasons we need not discuss," he said.
The South African-born judge emigrated to Australia in 1986 and worked as a partner at then Freehill Hollingdale & Page in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
At his swearing-in ceremony as a NSW Supreme Court judge in 2007, Justice Hammerschlag recalled his humble background in working as a paralegal at the law firm because he had recently emigrated from South Africa and hadn't been admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales yet.
"We couldn't afford Bellevue Hill, it seemed we had no option but to slide into the anonymity of St Ives. The following week I started work with Freehill Hollingdale & Page as a paralegal, pending requalification in New South Wales," he recalled in 2007.
On Friday, Justice Hammerschlag said it was "more than likely" Justice Robert McDougall will be sitting on the final hearing.
Justice Hammerschlag said if the parties did not want the seven days in June, they should tell the court immediately because there might be "people more deserving than you needing more dates".
"Hard to imagine, but could be the case," he said.
misa.han@fairfaxmedia.com.au
