Anthropic Associate GC Mark Pike says its strategy for Claude for Legal was simple — give general-purpose models access to the same tools that lawyers use. He described it as "like giving an engineer a legal degree". Harvey's Weinberg admitted they always knew they'd "end up competing with the model companies." Legora’s Junestrand said that "capable models alone" won't cut it. Only time will tell whether firms will start shifting to model companies — Freshfields already has: Business Insider, Point Blank

⚖️ Costs: Mayne Pharma has been knocked back trying to access Corrs Chambers Westgarth's invoices during a costs hearing in the NSW Supreme Court. Mayne had successfully challenged Cosette's attempt to walk away from their collapsed $672m merger, and is now seeking $13.6m in costs, against Cosette's position of $10.5m. Justice Brereton set aside Mayne's notice to produce the 922 pages of Corrs invoices. Brereton J found that the losing party's spend isn't a benchmark for what's reasonable to award the winner. Even if Cosette ran a "Rolls-Royce" case, Mayne can't expect Cosette to fund the same luxury: Lawyerly

⚖️ Privilege: Sportsbet scored a partial win in Bergman v Sportsbet Pty Ltd, a proceeding over its allegedly illegal Fast Code betting service. The plaintiff tried to waive privilege over a single solicitor conversation on 17 July 2024, but Matthews J wasn't having it. Relying on Attorney-General SA v Seven Network, his Honour held that once the plaintiff's state of mind became a live issue in the pleadings, the waiver extended to all solicitor communications in July 2024 touching on his knowledge of the Fast Code Service's legality. If you selectively deploy a privileged communication to advance your case, it opens the door to waiving privilege on related communications.

⚖️ Public M&A: Justice Brereton has endorsed a structural workaround in HMA International Ltd for scheme transactions where different shareholder groups receive different consideration. Instead of one scheme with contested class composition, the proponents ran two inter-conditional schemes: a Management Scheme (offering cash, scrip or a mix) and an Ordinary Scheme (cash only for remaining shareholders). Each cohort votes on its own scheme. Neither proceeds unless both are approved: Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Chalmers' budget was supposed to help young Australians, but scrapping the CGT discount and negative gearing has young investors fuming. The 30% minimum CGT rate actually hits lower-income earners hardest, and with property already out of reach, shares were the only wealth-building ladder left. Now that's been kicked away too, and landlords will just pass the negative gearing hit straight to renters anyway: The Australian

Ye just got hit with a $438k copyright verdict after a jury found he sampled an unreleased demo in "Hurricane" and played it to 40,000 fans at his Donda listening party without clearing it first. Pocket change for him, but a genuine win for the small artists who took on one of music's biggest names: AbovetheLaw

🎨 Canva went on a four-deal shopping spree between June 2025 and April 2026, snapping up AI and adtech targets as it edges toward a public listing. Allens advised on all of them, led by Dominic Anderson. The haul: MagicBrief, Doohly, Simtheory, and Ortto: Point Blank

💰 Anthropic is in early talks to raise at least US$30bn at a valuation north of US$900bn, which would leapfrog OpenAI's recent US$852bn mark. The round's expected to close by month's end, though no term sheet's been signed. And an IPO reportedly on the cards for as early as October: Bloomberg

🏢 Charter Hall is quietly building a stake in Abacus Group, now sitting at 5.8%, with market chatter pointing to a full $900m takeover once Abacus completes its Storage King internalisation: The Australian