MinterEllison has knocked Allens off the top spot to claim most sought-after firm in Lawyers Weekly's annual survey. The survey asks lawyers which firms they'd consider moving to, and Minters came out on top. But the real story is further down: Macpherson Kelley surged 33 places, Gilchrist Connell up 26, Arnold Bloch Leibler jumped 22. The mid-market is having its moment. See the full rankings here: Point Blank

⚖️ Contract: Got a contract with no end date and want out? Don't bank on implying a termination right. In Impact Healthcare v St Vincent's Private Hospitals, the Queensland Court of Appeal reversed a first instance finding and held that a right to terminate on reasonable notice couldn't be implied into an indefinite commercial contract, either by law or in fact. "Commercial contracts of indefinite duration" aren't a recognised class capable of attracting implied termination rights at law, and on the facts, the express termination clauses were exhaustive, covering only limited circumstances. The decision has been appealed, so watch this space: McCullough Robertson

⚖️ Corporate: Dexus is staring down a forced sale of its $4.5bn stake in Melbourne Airport. Justice Hammerschlag found it breached the shareholders' deed by giving around 130 prospective bidders access to confidential information belonging to Australia Pacific Airports Corporation, the owner of Melbourne and Launceston airports without compliant confidentiality deeds in place. The breach was irremediable: recipients can't "unlearn" what they've read. One lesson stands out. Before embarking on any sale process, review the shareholders' deed and any other governance documents to identify and implement the precise permitted process for disclosing confidential information to third parties, and document compliance before any data room access is granted: Corrs Chambers Westgarth

⚖️ Regulatory: ASIC has issued infringement notices totalling $596k against Zara, H&M and Sephora for failing to lodge financial reports on time, with each retailer copping a $198k penalty. Zara filed its accounts roughly 10 months late, Sephora was similarly tardy, and H&M was about a month behind. The trio join Mecca ($600k) and Canva ($800k) in ASIC's growing wall of shame. Financial reporting compliance is an express 2026 enforcement priority, and ASIC's Commissioner has flagged that targeted, data-driven surveillance is ongoing: The Australian

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Australia's under-16 social media ban has gone from controversial experiment to international blueprint, with Britain's PM Starmer expected to announce his own version within days. 61% of Australian kids aged 12–15 reportedly still found a workaround, so the policy's record is mixed at best. That hasn’t stopped the UK, Greece, France, Denmark and Poland from working up their own policies: BBC, AFR

Also…

Unis are pumping out graduates who can't use AI, and employers are picking up the slack. The Future Skills Organisation told a Senate inquiry that entry-level hires in finance, tech and business are arriving "not job ready", with gaps in AI fluency, communication and professional judgment: AFR

🪧 oOh!media has a third suitor sniffing around, with Bain Capital submitting a non-binding offer roughly two weeks ago. That puts Bain up against Macquarie-advised PEP ($1.40/share) and JPMorgan-backed I Squared ($1.45/share), both knocked back in May but granted limited DD: AFR

🤖 OpenAI has filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC, flagging a potential listing that could rank among the biggest tech IPOs in years. The company pre-empted the inevitable leak by announcing it themselves. Timing is unconfirmed: Capital Brief

💻 Gilbert + Tobin advised Megaport on its $827m fully underwritten entitlement offer, priced at $14.30 a share, funding four new US-based AI inference contracts worth $458.9m and an Nvidia GPU pool to be rented out to customers processing AI queries: Point Blank