Paul Weiss, Simpson Thacher and Milbank are in panic mode. AI will probably shrink junior lawyer roles, so they're scrambling to lock in the best law students before rivals do, hiring summer associates before students even have a first semester of grades. In Australia, firms are cutting grad intake. But will the same AI pressure spark a similar hiring scramble here? Point Blank

⚖️ Super: Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino has announced sweeping super reforms after the First Guardian and Shield collapses wiped out over $1bn in retirement savings. A new class of adviser will let APRA-regulated super funds and life insurers give simple advice without full qualifications. Banks miss out despite pushing hard for the same rights. Managed investment schemes must now tell ASIC when they restrict investors' access to their money, closing a gap exposed by the collapses. Unlicensed lead generators will be banned from contacting consumers in real time, cutting off the pipeline that funnelled Australians into dodgy funds: Treasury, Capital Brief

⚖️ Competition: Qteq Pty Ltd and its then chairman Simon Ashton have been fined a combined $6m for attempted cartel conduct, even though no deal was ever actually struck. Between 2017 and 2019, they made five separate approaches to rope competitors into market carve-ups and bid rigging, and every single one was rejected. The Federal Court confirmed that an attempt alone is enough to contravene the CCA. Ashton copped a personal $1m penalty, the highest ever for an individual under the Act, and the Court barred him from using insurance or company funds to pay it. He's footing the bill himself: Copper Grace Ward

⚖️ Corporate: Litigation funders have found a new target: directors, via ‘stepping-stone’ derivative actions. The theory lets shareholders sue directors under s 180(1) for failing to prevent a company's own contravention, using that contravention as a springboard to personal liability. ASX now faces a second such claim, after shareholder Rosherville Pty Ltd flagged derivative proceedings over the CHESS replacement saga following ASX's $20.5m ASIC settlement. Unlike ASIC, funders face no public interest constraints, and the company's wrongdoing is often already proven, making these claims cheap to run and lucrative to fund: Piper Alderman

Sydney lawyers, the countdown's on. 🍻

Intralinks and Point Blank's happy hour is this Thursday, 27 August.

Drinks are on us and spots are filling up — come swap billables for beverages while there's still room at the bar.

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Victoria's Liberal party wants to split the court of appeal in two, carving out a dedicated criminal bench stacked with tougher judges, all to engineer harsher sentencing precedents. Liberty Victoria calls it a "dangerous and ignorant thought bubble" while the Law Institute of Victoria says the court already has plenty of criminal expertise: The Guardian

Australia has confirmed its first case of H5 bird flu in a mammal, a fur seal found dead near Beachport, SA. There's no vaccine for mammals yet, anywhere. The Invasive Species Council warns it could hit sea lion colonies hard given how fast the virus spreads mammal to mammal once it takes hold: ABC News

💰 Steadfast Group's $7.7bn take-private just became official, with Amwins, Dragoneer and KKR locking in their $6-a-share offer after weeks of due diligence and zero financing conditions. It's the biggest all-cash financial services deal in Aussie M&A history: AFR

👀 Pepper Money's buyout talk is back, with heavy DD underway as KKR, which already owns 60%, is reportedly weighing a cheaper offer after major shareholder AustralianSuper rejected $2.25 a share earlier this year: The Australian

💵 FireFly Metals is chasing a $180m raise to fund its Green Bay copper-gold project in Canada, with Canaccord Genuity running solo as lead manager on the Monday launch: AFR