Biggest merger ever. Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader have officially signed off on what they're calling the largest law firm merger in history, going live on 1 July as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader. The combined firm hits $3.6bn in revenue and 3,100 lawyers across four regions, making it the world's fifth largest. Cadwalader's loss of a 37-lawyer team to Orrick last year looks a lot less painful now: NB

⚖️ ECM: The Australian IPO market continued its recovery in 2025, with three billion-dollar-plus listings, Greatland Resources, Virgin Australia and GemLife, each raising over $400m. Total IPO numbers remain below pre-2022 averages, but a sizeable cohort of candidates delayed by market conditions is still actively engaging. ASIC's June 2025 fast-track reforms are cutting timetables for eligible issuers with market caps above $100m — Carma achieving prospectus-to-trading in under 15 business days. Metals and mining dominated by volume, with 23 IPOs in 2025: HSF Kramer

⚖️ Native Title/Compensation: The Federal Court has handed down a landmark native title compensation ruling in Davey v Northern Territory (the McArthur River case), awarding the Gudanji, Yanyuwa and Yanyuwa-Marra Peoples $54m for cultural loss, plus $743k for economic loss. The Court assessed cultural loss holistically, finding the mine's impacts were widespread, intergenerational and enduring. Benefits under an ILUA reduced the cultural loss award by 10%, but only to the extent they addressed the same loss: Holding Redlich

⚖️ Data Centres/Regulatory: NSW is home to over 90 operational data centres and a pipeline of State Significant Development applications worth $29.4bn, but the sector faces growing regulatory heat. A wide-ranging NSW parliamentary inquiry has drawn nearly 70 submissions, with energy demand, water consumption and land use conflicts dominating. Sydney data centres currently draw from the public drinking water supply, with some councils calling for moratoriums on approvals until water impacts are resolved. The NSW Government is signalling a performance-based approvals framework, targeting Power Usage Effectiveness and Water Usage Effectiveness benchmarks: Clayton Utz

A decade-long family saga finally landed in the WA Supreme Court this week, with Hancock Prospecting partly losing a royalty fight over the Hope Downs iron ore hub to Wright Prospecting, descendants of Gina Rinehart's father's old handshake-deal business partner. Ownership stays with Hancock, but Wright pockets up to $900m in royalties. The cherry on top is that Rinehart's own kids John and Bianca sued their mum over the same assets, and got nothing: Bloomberg

Albo's dropping $53bn on defence over the next decade, with some of it funded "off-budget". That’s the accounting trick where spending gets rebranded as investment so it doesn't ugly up the deficit. Still, it’s only about 2.3-2.4% of GDP by 2033, well short of the 3.5% that Trump is demanding: AFR

📈 22 deals worth US$10bn-plus closed in Q1 2026, smashing the previous record of 21 set back in 2015. In the US, Trump's demolition of Biden-era antitrust enforcement gets most of the credit, with boards rushing deals they'd been sitting on for years: FT

🏥 RadPartners, the US radiology giant, has been in talks with Permira about acquiring I-MED ahead of its planned ASX listing, in a potential $3bn deal. With volatile markets making IPOs increasingly difficult, a trade sale is looking attractive. Permira has Barrenjoey, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley on the IPO, but clarity on which path it takes is expected within a fortnight: The Australian

🏠 Tanarra Capital's John Wylie is taking a controlling stake in Landchecker, the property data platform that's grown revenue 70% in the past year, as PEXA exits its 50% stake after four years. RACV remains a minority investor, with Tanarra backing the AI-driven platform to take on REA and Domain: AFR