Corrs' opens new office in tallest tower

Top judge calls AI court use “unsustainable”

The law firms acting on the Ashurst merger

Corrs has opened its new Melbourne office at 120 Collins Street, shifting into Australia’s tallest office tower. The scandi-style fitout was delivered with Buildcorp and Generate Property Group, with CEO Gavin MacLaren saying the move reflects Corrs’ push to build a workplace that better supports its people, clients and guests: Corrs

Australia’s top judge just fired a warning shot on AI in the courts. Chief Justice Stephen Gageler says litigants and lawyers are now flooding hearings with machine-generated arguments, leaving judges acting as “human filters”. He called the surge “unsustainable”, warning it risks public confidence — even as the judiciary has “no option” but to engage with the tech for now: The Australian

Clifford Chance is cutting about 10% of its London business services team. Roughly 50 roles on the line as the firm leans harder into AI and shifts more work to lower-cost hubs in Poland and India. Around 550 staff in IT, HR and finance were told their roles are under review: NB

Simpson Thacher and Davis Polk have been drafted in on the Ashurst-Perkins Coie merger. Davis Polk is advising Ashurst, while Simpson Thacher is steering Perkins Coie. Both BigLaw firms are creating a niche in law firm mergers, after working opposite sides of the A&O Shearman merger: Law.com

Employment/Privacy: The OAIC has ordered $13.5k in damages after a former employer maliciously shared an ex-employee’s medical certificate with a client to discredit them. The regulator found the disclosure was nowhere near an “employment-related purpose”, so the employee records exemption didn’t apply. Instead, the conduct breached Australian Privacy Principle 6, with the OAIC calling the disclosure “malicious, improper and unjustifiable”. The case is a sharp reminder that misuse of staff data can attract damages: Lexology

Property: NSW has introduced the Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, delivering a broad clean-up of strata and community laws. Key changes include exemptions for 2-lot schemes, cutting manager terms to three years, tougher commission disclosure, caps on bonds and fees, and higher penalties for governance failures. The Bill also streamlines EV-charger approvals, voids exit-fee clauses in exclusive supply deals, and imposes stricter record-keeping and expense-allocation rules for building management statements, backed by Supreme Court oversight. A new Strata Hub Fund will support data and compliance. Overall, owners corporations face shorter contracts, tighter governance and more transparency.

Corporate: ASIC has charged Queensland man Brent Young with fraud after he allegedly lodged 10,000 fake invoices to a finance provider to secure $8.3m in factoring advances. Investigators say Young, a bankrupt and therefore disqualified director, posed as a shadow director of HWT Group. He generated invoices supposedly issued to Bunnings, despite having no commercial relationship with the retailer. He now faces up to 20 years’ jail for fraud and 5 years for managing while disqualified: ASIC

NSW’s new Digital Work Systems Bill would let unions inspect AI and algorithmic rostering tools to check whether they push “excessive or unreasonable” workloads — a national first. The Tech Council and Uber warn it could expose IP and slow AI adoption, while the government says it’s about stopping digital systems from quietly burning out workers: AFR

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is already hitting turbulence. Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snap have all refused to publish eSafety’s compliance pledge, fuelling talk of looming legal fights as Google weighs its options. And with just days to go, Twitch has now been added to the ban as platforms scramble to delete under-16 accounts ahead of the December 10 deadline: AFR

AGL: has sold 19.9% of its 20% Tilt Renewables stake for $750m, with HSF Kramer and Allens steering the deal. Existing Tilt holders, QIC and the Future Fund snapped up the slice: Point Blank

Mayne takeover: Treasurer Jim Chalmers has killed Cosette’s $672m bid for Mayne Pharma on national interest grounds, citing plans to shut its Adelaide plant. The move comes despite the Takeovers Panel granting conditions to keep the site running. But the Treasury advised none would mitigate medicine-supply risks. The stock dived 23% as shareholders blasted the call, warning buyers can now weaponise FIRB: AFR

BHP has walked away from Anglo, confirming early talks won’t revive last year’s $75bn play and triggering a six-month no-bid ban under UK rules. With Anglo–Teck’s copper merge-up vote on 9 December, miners are watching whether Glencore or anyone else makes a move as the scramble for copper-heavy assets heats up: AFR

Santos is scrambling to keep Barossa on schedule, after a fault on its BW Opal vessel forced a shutdown and tightened the race to hit first gas by year-end. With ADNOC’s $30bn bid gone and investor patience thin, any slip risks fresh pressure as Santos tries to prove Barossa can still anchor its growth story: The Australian

Bendigo Bank has inked a five-year deal with Google to roll out Gemini across lending, scam-detection and data analysis as it pushes a major shift to the cloud. The move is aimed at lifting productivity and cutting its cost-to-income ratio, putting fresh pressure on the majors as banks double down on AI to stay competitive: The Australian

CBA and Macquarie are clamping down on property investors using trusts and companies, after a wave of “unlimited loans” TikTok hacks raised red flags. With APRA eyeing macro-prude, the majors are tightening standards to head off risky leverage before it spills into the wider housing market: Capital Brief

Ahead of the 2032 Olympics and a surge in Queensland construction, demand for short-stay and permanent rentals is climbing, pushing corporates to hunt for higher-return alternatives beyond traditional real estate: AFR

Australian exporters could score a $1.1bn refund if the US Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s 10% “liberation day” tariffs, already ruled unlawful by lower courts. EY says beef, dairy, horticulture and medical-device makers stand to gain the most. But any payout isn’t automatic, with businesses needing to lodge protest claims to secure a slice: The Australian

Canva’s new Affinity suite is exploding in popularity, pulling in 2 million downloads in two weeks after the tools went free. Co-founder Cliff Obrecht says an IPO is “probably imminent in the next couple of years”, signalling Canva’s gearing up for life as a public company while locking in a bigger slice of the pro-design market: Bloomberg

OpenAI has entered the group chat. OpenAI has rolled out multi-user chats where the bot jumps into your convos to “help”. But users say the bot won’t stop talking, chiming in on almost every message and crowding the chat with long replies. Handy for study or work sessions, less so for normal group chats where the AI quickly becomes the most annoying person in the room: Business Insider