Law firms are pitching themselves as AI pioneers while their lawyers battle dying laptops. Legal Cheek’s survey of 2,000+ UK juniors found that Harvey and Claude are running on machines that can’t cope. One rookie says their laptop screen physically fell off. Another nailed it: “AI is only going to get you so far if you can’t even open an email”: Legal Cheek

⚖️ Employment: Lying in a workplace investigation can turn a policy breach into a sackable offence. A senior CBA home lender has lost his unfair dismissal claim after misleading internal investigators about a man named “Hugo”. Shun Wang said he’d never heard of Hugo, an unaccredited third party (allegedly a mortgage broker) who was receiving payments from Wang’s customers. But Hugo was saved in Wang’s work phone, and the pair were in a WeChat group chat sharing loan updates. Deputy President Boyce described Wang’s evidence as “a chaotic collection of lies” and found the dismissal wholly justified: FWC

⚖️ M&A: Family offices are becoming major players in Aussie M&A. They now make up just over 40% of active Australia-based private capital investors, up from around 20% in 2021. They also do deals differently from private equity. They typically hold investments for 10 years or more, are more flexible on deal terms like earn-outs and vendor rollovers, and often negotiate directly with sellers rather than through bankers. Tax structuring is the main complication. Discretionary trusts are back in the spotlight after the 2026-27 Federal Budget. It replaces the CGT discount with indexation from 1 July 2027 and proposes a 30% minimum tax on discretionary trust income: Mallesons

⚖️ Resources: A vague objection to a mining lease won’t cut it. In Re Jenkins & Anor, the Land Court of Queensland recommended approval of a 15-year mining lease near Clermont for two miners planning a scrape and detect gold operation on State Forest land. The only objector, Raymond Scuderi, raised general concerns about the environment, land use and the local community. He also chose not to participate in the hearing. President Stilgoe found the existing Environmental Authority conditions, which regulate dust, noise, erosion and nature conservation, were enough to address his concerns: Land Court of Queensland

Your juniors’ work is right. So why are your partners still rewriting it?

Power Writing gives graduates and junior lawyers a practical system for leading with the answer, cutting the fluff, and explaining complex issues clearly to partners and clients.

The course can be rolled out across a graduate cohort or junior-lawyer development program, with self-paced lessons, practical assignments and personalised feedback.

For firms, that means clearer drafts and fewer tracked changes.

Juniors: Get 25% off with code POINTBLANK.

L&D Teams: Reach out for corporate programs.

Write like an elite professional →

PS. Most firms’ L&D budgets already cover the cost!

The RBA has hiked for the fifth time this year, taking the cash rate to 4.85%. But the board was split six-to-three, and Michele Bullock quietly dropped the line about being ready to go again. She says the impact of the last couple of rises hasn’t hit yet. Cotality doesn’t see cuts before late 2027: Bloomberg

Trump says the US will stop funding Israel after this year, under a deal with Netanyahu. He says it’s partly to take away a “bad talking point” for left-wing Democrats. But he didn’t say how. Israel’s US$3.8bn a year in military aid is locked in until September 2028, and the two leaders had been planning to phase it out over several years: WSJ, ABC News

⛽️ XRG, the investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s state oil company ADNOC, is buying Shell’s 16.7% stake in the North West Shelf gas project for at least US$1.45bn (A$2.08bn). It’s XRG’s first move into Aussie LNG after it walked away from a $36.4bn bid for Santos last year: AFR

🤖 Anthropic has lined up eight brokers, including Macquarie and CBA’s CommSec, to sell shares to Aussie retail investors ahead of its Nasdaq debut before US Thanksgiving. Australia’s one of the few markets outside the US getting direct access: Bloomberg

🏠 Blackstone’s $36bn buy of HSBC’s Aussie mortgage book is shrinking before it’s even closed. Rivals including Macquarie and Bank of China have poached about $6bn in loans with cashbacks and cheaper rates. The deal’s due to close early next year: AFR

Woodside is plotting its first dividend policy shake-up in over a decade, with analysts tipping a shift to free cash flow-based payouts at Thursday’s investor briefing. Payouts could swell as Scarborough comes online, but shrink during heavy capex: AFR

ANZ, CBA, NAB and Macquarie paid their Indian subsidiaries about $1.9bn last year and now directly employ 23,000 staff there, mostly hired in the past five years. The banks say it’s about skills, not just cheaper wages. But with NAB cutting 2,500 local jobs, staff and Labor MPs are pushing back: AFR

Cherrie Aviation, Vietjet’s Aussie offshoot, wants to take on Qantas and Virgin from mid-2027. First, it needs CASA approval to fly. Its parent also lost a $354m UK court case, with receivers now controlling its plane orders. CEO David May says that won’t matter as Cherrie is a separate legal entity: AFR

Canva is restructuring 1,271 roles, or 22% of its workforce, in its first-ever company-wide redundancy round as growth slows. Some staff will be cut, others relocated. Departing staff get at least 6 months’ salary and keep their MacBooks. CEO Melanie Perkins called it “the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history”: SMH