We've crunched the numbers on 2026 senior associate promotions. Allens promoted the most SAs, but on a relative basis, Gilbert + Tobin comes out on top. It has the smallest SA bench of any top-tier firm, but promoted 43 lawyers (a quarter of its ranks) and grew the group 18.3% in a year. Meanwhile, SA pools at Mallesons and MinterEllison are shrinking. Read the full breakdown here: Point Blank

⚖️ Regulatory: The eSafety Commissioner is taking Telegram to the Federal Court, alleging it failed to detect and remove pro-terror material, including footage of the Christchurch and Buffalo mass shootings, with the latter reportedly staying online for nearly three months. eSafety claims Telegram breached the Relevant Electronic Services Standard by being slow to act on reports, not shutting down offending accounts, running weak Terms of Service and leaving complainants in the dark. Telegram now faces penalties of up to $54.6m. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant tied the case to ASIO’s warnings that online radicalisation is fuelling real-world terrorism risk: Capital Brief

⚖️ Employment/AI: The Federal Circuit and Family Court dismissed Mr Ba’s general protections and underpayment claim against Sterling Parts Australia. His case leaned heavily on AI-generated material, including a 38-entry Evidence List of documents that simply didn’t exist, save for one email. Despite written requests and a Notice to Produce, Mr Ba never produced them. The Court called his conduct a ‘pattern of obstruction and prevarication’ that arguably amounted to an abuse of process, coming perilously close to contempt. The Court also took aim at AI, noting chatbots owe no duty to the Court, hold no practising certificate and display a ‘sycophantic tendency’ to prioritise user approval over truth: Piper Alderman

⚖️ Insurance: Nuix has lost its appeal in Nuix v Berkshire Hathaway, with the Full Federal Court confirming how ‘related claims’ clauses work in D&O and IPO insurance policies. The dispute arose after an ASIC investigation into Nuix post-IPO (a Side B claim, $2.5m retention) was followed by shareholder class actions (a Side C claim, $10m retention), which the policy treated as one aggregated claim. Nuix argued that because the Side B claim came first, its lower retention should apply to the whole thing. The Court disagreed — where the policy doesn’t specify which retention governs, the larger one applies, regardless of claim order: Allens

It's our last Clerkship Applications Update from Clayton Utz, as the application windows will close in Brisbane and Melbourne this weekend. Law students applying for clerkships in Brisbane should be aware that the official QLS application window closes at 5pm on Friday, and not at midnight as is the case in other states.

As a Top 5 Graduate Employer in Law, Clayton Utz is one of the best places to start your legal career. Find out more about their seasonal clerkships and send this link to a law student applying this year.

Apply today: https://bit.ly/3QN3uJE

Professional networking platforms like Microsoft's LinkedIn just got swept into Canberra's news bargaining regime, alongside Meta, Google and TikTok. Any platform pulling over $250m in local ad revenue now faces a 2.5% charge (up from 2.25% in April) unless it strikes deals with Aussie publishers: Bloomberg

On Friday, Yung Filly was acquitted of three rape charges over an alleged 2024 Perth assault. Jurors deadlocked on three other rape charges and convicted him on two counts of assault. He's sentenced next month, and prosecutors will then decide whether to run a retrial on the unresolved rape counts: TDA

⚒️ Forrestania Resources is facing two Takeovers Panel complaints over its Zenith Minerals bid. Ida Metal wants shares bought during a standstill period cancelled, while Harvest Lane says an undisclosed $300m mine purchase quietly gutted the value of Forrestania's scrip offer: AFR

💰 Blackstone has lined up $30bn-plus in senior debt from ANZ, NAB, BNP Paribas, Natixis, MUFG, RBC and Standard Chartered to bankroll its $36bn buy of HSBC Australia's home loan book, the largest bank-to-credit-fund mortgage sale globally: AFR