MinterEllison and Allens hold the top two clerkship spots for the second year running, per the 2026 AAGE rankings. HSF Kramer comes in at #3, Ashurst jumps five places to #7, and Norton Rose Fulbright is the biggest faller, dropping 10 spots to #17. While Minters has the best program this year, it also cut its grad intake by a third, citing AI: Point Blank

⚖️ Contract: The Federal Circuit and Family Court has provided a handy restatement of repudiation fundamentals in McDonald Jones Homes v Driver, where the contract had no express term dealing with repudiation. Manousaridis J confirmed three things worth keeping front of mind. First, repudiation doesn't automatically end a contract — the innocent party must elect to either accept the repudiation and terminate, or affirm and insist on performance. Second, rights and liabilities that have unconditionally accrued before acceptance of the repudiation remain unaffected. Third, termination only operates on the executory portions of the contract, meaning obligations already due for performance survive.

⚖️ Employment: Section 527D of the Fair Work Act protects workers from sexual harassment regardless of who does the harassing, and Eklom v Marshall is a sharp reminder that contractors and customers are fair game. The Federal Circuit and Family Court ordered a contractor and a customer to pay $90k jointly and severally in compensation, plus $13k each in pecuniary penalties, after sustained homophobic and sexualised conduct against a site manager. Employers remain on the hook under Work Health and Safety laws to take all reasonably practicable steps to protect workers from harassment: Cooper Grace Ward

⚖️ Disputes: Australia is quickly becoming a destination jurisdiction for cross-border dispute resolution. Australian courts can grant freezing, search and discovery orders in support of foreign proceedings, meaning substantive litigation can run elsewhere while Australian courts preserve local assets. Arbitral awards from major seats including CIETAC, HKIAC and SIAC are enforceable in the Federal Court under the International Arbitration Act 1974, with courts having very limited discretion to refuse beyond the narrow Article V grounds: Ironbridge Legal

The Fair Work Commission just handed 2.8 million award workers a pay rise: minimum wage up 6% to $26.44/hr from 1 July, with modern award rates up 4.75%. The FWC flagged the Iran conflict as a "wildcard" that made this year's call particularly tricky, given oil prices are already feeding inflation running at 4.2%. AMP thinks the flow-on to services inflation could force the RBA to hike again in November, pushing the cash rate to 4.85%: ABC News

Australia just clocked its first trade deficit since 2017, with the current account gap blowing out to $27.1bn in the March quarter, up $4.1bn from December. Iron and coal exports took a hit from the summer cyclones across Queensland, the NT and WA, while imports jumped on AI data centre equipment: ABS

🚀 SpaceX is set to price its monster IPO as early as this week, targeting a raise of up to US$75bn at a US$1.8 trillion valuation. Elon Musk’s company is negotiating to pay less than 0.75% to its 23-bank syndicate led by Goldman and Morgan Stanley — which still leaves them with around US$500m: Bloomberg

⚡️ Adamantem Capital has lobbed an indicative bid for Zembl, the Sydney-based energy comparison broker helping 30,000 business clients find better rates, with a price tag of $200m-$250m: AFR

💵 oOh!media's auction is thinning out, with iSquared Capital understood to be "pens down" on the $766m billboard play, leaving Pacific Equity Partners as the likely sole suitor: The Australian