Australia’s top firms added 299 new partners in the six months to July, the biggest intake since at least 2020. Disputes, energy and AI advisory work are driving the push. G+T led the Big 8 on partnership growth at 7.7%, with Allens close behind at 7.6%. More than 67% of new partners were salaried, the highest proportion on record. That’s in line with a broader trend that equity partnership is becoming rarer by the day: AFR

⚖️ Employment: The WA Court of Appeal has confirmed that a labour hire company can't escape workers' compensation liability by outsourcing payroll to another firm. In Moon Recruitment v Horne, Moon Recruitment found and placed the worker, conducted interviews, and handled all pre-engagement dealings. Execom processed the paperwork and paid wages. Applying the objective theory of contract, the Court found Execom was merely Moon Recruitment's agent. Moon Recruitment engaged Horne, on-hired his services to a host employer, and was deemed the employer liable for workers' compensation.

⚖️ Class Actions: Federal Court Justice Beach has approved a $550m Robodebt settlement but cut litigation funder Omni Bridgeway's commission nearly in half, from $71m to $35m. The settlement includes $475m in compensation for 120,000 group members, $13.5m in legal costs for Gordon Legal, and up to $60m in administration costs. Omni Bridgeway had sought a 15% commission, warning that reducing it below 10% of the settlement sum would be unprecedented and unsettle the funding market. Beach J wasn't convinced, finding the case's unique risk profile and record settlement sum made it an outlier justifying a lower return: Lawyerly

⚖️ Privacy: The Australian Privacy Commissioner has found that Medmate and Monash IVF breached the Privacy Act. Both deployed third-party tracking pixels on their health-related websites to collect sensitive health data and retarget users with social media advertising, without obtaining consent. The determinations confirm that sophisticated tracking tech doesn't escape privacy law, and that using pixels to collect sensitive information requires express user consent. The OAIC has also published a report reviewing 50 health provider websites: OAIC

Today presenter Karl Stefanovic is out at Nine immediately, after his independent podcast interview with British far-right activist Tommy Robinson proved to be a deal-breaker for the network. He'd already agreed to leave at year's end, but that got accelerated pretty quickly. Stefanovic is calling it a free speech stand, while Nine is calling it a brand problem: The Guardian

GPUs are the new gold, and finance has caught on. Companies now spend more on AI processing power than on wages, so traders want in. CoreWeave is using its chips as loan collateral, two startups are racing to launch compute futures on major exchanges, and ETF providers are already filing paperwork to follow. The asset class that barely existed a decade ago is getting a full derivatives market: AFR

🏗️ FDC Construction & Fitout has priced 2026's biggest IPO yet, with UBS and MA Moelis underwriting a $400m raise at an implied $970m market cap. Founder Ben Cottle pockets $168m while retaining 28.1%, with staff allocated $110m under escrows running to FY32: AFR

🎬 Gilbert + Tobin steered Paramount Skydance through ACCC clearance on its A$156bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, wrapping Phase 1 in under two months, no conditions attached: Point Blank