They say don’t mix work and marriage. Well, a former DBH Lawyers partner is facing a misconduct inquiry after allegedly forwarding 20+ confidential client emails to her husband, SA Court of Appeal president Justice Mark Livesey, according to reports in The Advertiser. The emails generally touched on matters before the Supreme Court, though not his active cases. She says she was just seeking guidance from a senior lawyer. DBH discovered them when she resigned over an unrelated issue, stood her down immediately and referred the breach to the Law Society: AFR

⚖️ Litigation/Capital Markets: Australian securities class actions have long struggled to get over the line at trial, but Southernwood v Brambles Limited (No 3) has changed that. For the first time, an Australian court has found both liability and loss in a securities class action — Murphy J applying market-based causation to award damages without each shareholder needing to prove individual reliance. The case came from Brambles, maintaining its FY17 earnings guidance without reasonable grounds, breaching its continuous disclosure obligations and engaging in misleading conduct. Loss was quantified at approximately $1.57–$1.85 per share: Ashurst

⚖️ Competition/M&A: The ACCC has published its first quarterly report card on the new mandatory merger control regime, and the early numbers are solid. In the first three months to 31 March 2026, the ACCC received 50 notifications and 108 waiver applications, approving 39 notifications at Phase 1 (average 18 business days) and granting 70 waivers (average 11 business days). Two deals, Ampol's acquisition of EG and Coles' acquisition of a Kalgoorlie supermarket, progressed to Phase 2. Overall, 91% of decisions landed within 20 business days, comfortably beating the ACCC's 80% target: ACCC

⚖️ Resources/Construction: Seven weeks into the Iran conflict, elevated diesel prices and supply chain disruption are a daily reality for Australian construction and mining services companies, and most contracts weren't built for it. Fixed-price structures remain the norm, meaning contractors wear increased input costs unless the contract says otherwise. Price escalation clauses are the most useful tool available but are rare, absent from standard AS contracts, and must be specifically negotiated. Variation claims won't get you far either: WA tribunals confirmed post-COVID that market-driven cost increases don't constitute a variation. Notice obligations are critical throughout, and frustration remains a near-impossible threshold to meet: HopgoodGanim

The International Monetary Fund is warning that a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could tip the world into its third recession this century. It says global economic growth will fall 2% — the threshold for a global recession — if oil averages $US110-125 a barrel in 2026-27. It’s also taking a pointed swipe at Chalmers, cautioning that untargeted cost-of-living relief, like the recent decision to halve the fuel excise at a cost of $2.55bn, is usually "poorly designed and costly" and risks fuelling the very inflation it’s meant to ease: AFR

KPMG reckons Australia is perfectly set up to win the AI productivity race, just not yet. Only 35% of big Aussie businesses are seeing AI-driven productivity gains, trailing the US at 62% and even Japan at 40%. The good news is that KPMG Australia CTO John Munnelly thinks 2026 is when it clicks, and the Anthropic MOU means the models are finally landing onshore: Capital Brief

⛏️ Yancoal has signed a binding SPA to acquire an 80% stake in Queensland's Kestrel Coal Mine for up to US$2.4bn ($3.37bn), with US$1.85bn upfront and US$550m contingent on coal prices post-completion: The Australian

💳 Pay.com.au has pulled the pin on its ASX float, opting for a $20m private placement at $0.89 per share, valuing the B2B payments platform at $753m. Macroeconomic volatility and the Iran conflict are the culprits, with the board flagging it'll revisit listing timing as conditions settle: The Australian

⛽️ Shell is in advanced talks to offload its 600 South African retail fuel stations to Abu Dhabi's ADNOC in a deal tipped at ~$1bn. ADNOC emerged as the preferred bidder after talks with Gunvor fell through, with a deal potentially landing this quarter. The sale would give ADNOC around 10% of the South African market, as Shell continues to unwind its downstream presence in the region: Reuters