New Paragon Legal research says lawyers would rather work from the couch than chase a pay rise. 61% of US legal pros would cop a pay cut for full remote work, and 48% would give up 10% of their salary for it. Meanwhile, 16% have walked from a job over return-to-office demands in the past year: Point Blank

⚖️ Employment: The Fair Work Commission has made a "very rare" decision to slap an applicant with a costs order after he leant too heavily on AI. In Khan v Aldi, Deputy President Easton found Sadnan Khan built his unfair dismissal case around AI-generated arguments that focused on the wrong date, missing the minimum six-month employment period by just three days. The Commission warned him repeatedly that his case would fail and costs could follow, but Khan kept sending AI-drafted responses instead of simply reading the emails himself. Easton ordered Khan to pay $1,230, Aldi's capped costs, calling the losses "utterly preventable": Lawyerly, FWC

⚖️ Privilege: Two recent cases show how easily companies can lose legal professional privilege over third-party reports. In Korea Midland Power v ACIRL, ALS disclosed just two findings from a McGrathNicol report in an ASX announcement and lost privilege over the entire report, with the Court ordering production bar a few paragraphs. In ASIC v Macleod, Noumi kept its privilege intact after sharing a PwC report with ASIC under a voluntary disclosure agreement. Structure the engagement properly, keep internal documents consistent, and if you have to say something publicly, stick to confirming an investigation exists, not what it found: Clayton Utz

⚖️ Corporate: ASIC is giving companies a heads-up on new director ID requirements landing 1 July 2027. Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Act 2026, companies must start reporting director identification numbers to ASIC through annual reviews and when notifying changes to director details. It's part of a broader push to tighten authentication on the business registers and cut down fraud and identity misuse. Companies and directors should check company details are up to date, confirm all directors are correctly recorded, and cross-check director IDs against ABRS records well before the deadline hits: ASIC

Turns out the humans behind legal AI have a bar tab.

Point Blank's networking night for Sydney's legal and legal tech crowd, sponsored by Atto. Drinks and nibbles on us!

Tuesday, 1 September | 6:00PM AEST | Sydney CBD

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AEMO reckons data centre power use will nearly sevenfold by 2036, going from 3% to 13% of all grid demand, right as coal plants shut down. Trouble is, a new Capital Brief/DemosAU poll shows only 23% of Aussies actually want one nearby, and 68% reckon it'll spike their bills: Bloomberg, Capital Brief

Trump's family is about to have its own bank. World Liberty Financial, backed by his sons, just won conditional approval from the OCC to open one, part of a deregulation push that's seen 22 new bank charters handed out in 19 months, more than the past five years combined: Bloomberg

🎬 EVT, owner of Event Cinemas and Rydges Hotels, has hired Rothschild to review a break up or sale of the $2.5bn group. Blackstone has reportedly spent six months weighing a full buyout, though it's unclear if it's still keen: The Australian

🎰 SkyCity is in early talks with Oaktree Capital over a possible buyout, though no bid's landed yet. SkyCity's share price has more than halved amid debt troubles and Austrac fines, while Oaktree has a track record of lowball tilts at Star and Crown: The Australian