Last week, Revolut's CLO Tom Hambrett scrapped its static law firm panel in favour of a new model called Revolut Partners, where firms are assessed quarterly against metrics like billing, responsiveness and advice quality. No one’s position is guaranteed. It’s the sharpest public signal yet of a broader shift already underway: CLOC finds 38% of legal departments globally now run structured annual outside counsel reviews. Is this the end of the traditional panel model? Point Blank

⚖️ Contract: Two recent decisions have commented on the role of surrounding circumstances in contract interpretation. In Campbelltown, Bennett J confirmed that surrounding circumstances must be known to all parties and only objectively demonstrated facts count — the parties' own statements or actions reflecting their actual intentions are off limits. In S.N.A Group, McElwaine, Feutrill and Wheatley JJ reinforced the same principle. The ultimate question is what would be objectively communicated to people in the position of the parties, and private thoughts or intentions simply can't establish a mutual intention to contract on particular terms: Maddocks

⚖️ Regulatory: ASIC's proceedings against Westpac have yielded a $26m penalty after Justice McEvoy found the bank failed to respond to hardship applications on time on 277 occasions. McEvoy J described Westpac’s conduct as "truly scandalous". The failures stemmed from a decade of underinvestment in IT systems, with vulnerable customers left without a response within the 21-day period required under the National Credit Code. Some customers were told their applications didn't exist, while others faced debt collection action while still waiting. The penalty lands higher than the $15.5m NAB copped for similar conduct involving 345 mishandled hardship applications. Clayton Utz acted for Westpac: ASIC

⚖️ Disputes: The Victorian Supreme Court in Agnello v Heritage Care Pty Ltd (No 3) has confirmed that category-based discovery is preferable to general discovery in large, complex group proceedings. The Court ordered category-based discovery in a COVID-19 aged care class action arising from the Epping Gardens outbreak. Baker JR found that where parties hold fundamentally different views on relevance, general discovery creates costly misalignment and risks multiple rounds of disputes. Categories "front-load" the relevance debate, give both sides a clear picture of what will and won't be searched, and maximise the chances of getting discovery right first time.

Trump was telling everyone talks with Tehran were going "nicely" — then US and Israeli jets hit Iranian vessels and missile launch sites in the Strait of Hormuz anyway, killing several Iranian personnel. Central Command calls it defensive; Iran calls it an ambush mid-negotiation. Delegations were in Doha hashing out a ceasefire extension and strait reopening when the strikes landed: Bloomberg

NSW Fair Trading's Rental Taskforce just clawed back $180k for over 3,000 renters slugged with illegal fees, after the Minns Government's rental reforms banned background check charges and payment fees. One platform quietly charged nearly 2,400 applicants $19.95 a pop for background checks; another agency racked up $124k in illegal dishonour fees since 2020: TDA

💰 Independent expert Kroll has told Atlas Arteria shareholders to reject IFM Investors' $4.75-per-share takeover bid, valuing the toll-road operator at $5.39 to $6.20 per share, nearly $1bn above the $6.9bn offer. IFM, which already holds 34.5%, isn't backing down. Both sides have taken runs at the Takeovers Panel, which has so far rejected complaints from each camp: AFR

🚀 FTSE Russell has updated its rules to fast-track large IPOs into its indexes after just five trading days, ditching the old quarterly review process. The move follows a similar tweak by Nasdaq earlier this year, with SpaceX's expected US$75bn IPO the obvious catalyst: Bloomberg