Top Aussie law firm partners are nearing a $10 million payday, with Corrs and G+T as the frontrunners to get there first. According to Capital Brief, there may even be ten top-tier partners already earning that much. Corrs' CEO Gavin Maclaren is to blame, shifting the firms' pay model to favour top earners, and dragging the rest of the market with him: Capital Brief

⚖️ Corporate: The Federal Court has confirmed breach of duty and statutory oppression are separate questions in Our Jim & Felicja Superfund v Lindenfels. Minority shareholders of Batchfire Resources argued that proving a fiduciary breach shifted the onus onto the defendants to prove the conduct wasn't unfair. Halley J disagreed — the onus stays on the plaintiff, and unlawfulness doesn't make unfairness any easier to establish. Oppression depends only on commercial unfairness, assessed independently. Conversely, conduct can still be oppressive even if it's entirely lawful: JWS

⚖️ Resources: Western Australia now has a formal regulatory framework for carbon capture and storage, with new GHG Regulations having commenced on 28 May 2026. Previously, storage was only regulated on a project-specific basis for Gorgon. Now, titleholders can apply for a Ministerial Declaration over an “identified GHG storage formation” and must then get a site plan approved before injecting anything. Applications require detailed subsurface modelling, migration pathway analysis and risk assessments. Once approved, site plans must be reviewed every five years, and any departure from predictions triggers mandatory notification to the Minister: Clayton Utz

⚖️ Regulatory: APRA is consulting on a new draft Prudential Standard CPS 510, set to replace existing governance, fitness and conflicts standards for banks, insurers and super trustees from January 2028. It softens some earlier proposals, with the tenure cap now at 12 years, not the original 10. But plenty of prescriptive requirements remain: a non-delegable list of board responsibilities, a revised independent director definition aligned with ASX principles, a 20% shareholder representation threshold, and a minimum of five directors for RSE licensees. Significant institutions also face external board performance reviews every three years. Submissions close 28 August 2026: Allens

Law firm recruiters across the country will be starting to read thousands of CVs this week, as the application windows for clerkships in Sydney and Canberra have officially closed.

Good news for law students in Brisbane, as clerkship applications open today in the Sunshine State. But you'll need to act fast, as they’re only open for four short weeks until 7 August.

The application windows in Melbourne and Perth remain open, so there's still time to apply. If you're a penultimate-year law student, check out the market-leading clerkship program at Clayton Utz and apply now.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4oIkRIk

Albo will deliver a speech in Sydney this week to pivot federal Labor toward a more interventionist AI policy, arguing AI needs to "earn its social licence" rather than get a free pass. It covers everything from Defence to workplace rights, with Labor's draft national platform now proposing that workers are consulted whenever employers roll out AI: AFR

New Capital Brief/DemosAU polling shows Pauline Hanson's "monoculture" line flopped: 51% disagreed, only 25% agreed — not shocking given most Australians have a parent born overseas. Immigration's another story though: 61% want it "substantially reduced", just 21% against: Capital Brief

⛏️ Regis Resources has walked away from its tilt at Vault Minerals, declining to counter Genesis Resources' superior $5.6bn bid that trumped Regis' own $4.7bn offer. Vault will terminate the scheme implementation deed, triggering a $50.7m break fee for Regis: ASX

💊 Mayne Pharma shareholders are pushing for a split, with Adelaide and North Carolina manufacturing sites tipped to go to the highest bidders. Shares have halved since Cosette's $672m bid was blocked by Chalmers: AFR

⛽ Allegro's Gull has merged with rival NPD to create NZ$1bn ($830m) fuel giant NPDGull, pooling 240-plus sites and over a billion litres of fuel a year. It's a neat exit play for Allegro, which bought Gull for NZ$572m in 2022: AFR