Aussie law firms are the world's most growth-hungry, 41% are laser-focused on revenue, the highest globally, but only 20% use legal AI daily, dead last of every region surveyed. Meanwhile, the UK sits at 31%, the US at 27%. It’s a trust problem — 24% Aussie lawyers don't trust legal tech providers, compared to just 9% in the US. The firms most desperate to grow are the least willing to use the tools that might get them there: Point Blank

⚖️ AI/Privilege: Using public AI tools for privileged legal work is a serious LPP risk in Australia, and recent overseas decisions are sharpening the point. In the US, a court refused privilege over documents created using a public AI platform in Heppner, citing three reasons: no lawyer-client relationship with the AI, lack of confidentiality under the provider's data terms, and work not done at a lawyer's direction. In the UK, Munir went further, stating that uploading confidential documents to an open-source AI tool places them in the public domain and waives privilege outright. The Federal Court's GPN-AI Practice Note makes expectations explicit for Australian litigants, warning that confidentiality and privilege can be compromised by inputting privileged material into public tools: Clayton Utz

⚖️ M&A / Insurance: W&I insurance is now a fixture in Australian private M&A, featuring in nearly 80% of deals over $100m in FY24 and FY25. Three trends stand out from Mallesons' analysis: (1) underwriting processes are compressing, with some completing in under a week; (2) sell-side "flips" are growing, where a seller-appointed insurer pre-underwrites the deal before it transfers to the winning bidder, shortening timetables and improving coverage certainty; (3) and new market entrants are driving better pricing and broader jurisdictional coverage. On the risk side, APAC claims are up sharply, with 60% of 2024 notifications expected to breach retention thresholds, compared to just 23% in 2023: Mallesons

⚖️ Privacy: The Privacy Commissioner has found that InspectRealEstate's 2Apply rental platform breached Australian Privacy Principles by collecting more personal information than necessary — think gender, visa status and living history and doing so by unfair means. The platform used manipulative form design, including guilt-tripping language and bundled consent, to pressure renters into handing over more than they otherwise would. IRE agreed to clean up its practices without admissions. The Commissioner was clear this isn't just an IRE problem: all RentTech providers should treat the decision as a compliance prompt: OAIC

The High Court's 34-year-old implied freedom of political communication doctrine is doing real damage, and the ANU's research into crumbling democratic trust is why. NSW Premier Minns wants to ban "globalise the intifada" but won't legislate until Queensland's similar law survives a High Court challenge first. Fair enough, given the implied freedom of political communication already torpedoed two of his earlier attempts, including laws protecting places of worship and restricting protests after the Bondi terror attack: The Australian

Looks like the property market might be turning. Cotality says national growth hit just 0.3 per cent in April, its slowest in a year, with Sydney and Melbourne already down 0.6 per cent. Two more rate hikes look likely, which should tip the national number negative. Tight supply's the only buffer keeping this from a proper crash, but it won't hold the line entirely: AFR

🛢️ Apollo, Blackstone and KKR are the last three standing in Shell's auction of a chunk of its 40% stake in LNG Canada, the first major Pacific-facing LNG facility in North America: Reuters

💨 AirTrunk is dropping $4.2bn on two new Johor data centres, pushing its Malaysian footprint past 700 megawatts and total in-country investment to $9.6bn. Both existing campuses hit near-full capacity in under two years: AFR

⚡️ Xpansiv is touring Sydney and Melbourne with Morgan Stanley and Macquarie Capital, pitching a $US50m-$US150m raise, partly to fund an Aussie energy markets acquisition: AFR