Legal500 accidentally published unredacted client reviews of dozens of top UK barristers, and they weren’t pretty. One was “sloppy”, another “disorganised and indecisive”, and one KC merely “adequate”. Asked about one silk, a reviewer praised the “impressive building and facilities” instead. Legal500 blamed an “error in the upload process” and quietly pulled them: AFR

⚖️ Construction: In TQM Design & Construct v East End Stage 2, TQM obtained a $6.3m judgment enforcing an SOP Act adjudication against developer East End. East End then asked the NSW Supreme Court to let it pay in instalments over 18 months while it pursued separate proceedings claiming a third party had already paid TQM. It also sought TQM's financial records to prove it. Schmidt AJ dismissed both motions. The judgment binds until it's set aside, and an instalment application depends only on the debtor's financial position, not the merits of its contract claim. It didn't help that East End's $50m in assets could easily cover the debt: Supreme Court of NSW, MinterEllison

⚖️ Disputes: Two NBL clubs, including Illawarra Basketball Club, sought preliminary discovery against National Basketball League Pty Ltd. Their licence agreements contained an arbitration clause, plus a promise not to sue anywhere other than the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The application fell outside the arbitration clause, but within that promise not to sue, so the primary judge, Peden J, permanently stayed it. The NSW Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal. It found the promise was very broad, and a separate clause giving the Victorian courts non-exclusive jurisdiction didn't narrow it. Courts remain reluctant to intervene where parties have agreed to resolve disputes elsewhere: Supreme Court of NSW

⚖️ Corporate: ASX has relaxed the timing for disclosing one type of waiver. Since September 2025, listed entities granted a waiver have had to announce what it is, what it does and why they sought it, usually by the next business day. Some waivers relate to what a notice of meeting must contain, such as under Listing Rules 7.3, 10.12 and 10.15. Entities told ASX that announcing these before the notice was released made little sense on its own. ASX agreed. These waivers can now be disclosed in or with the notice of meeting itself, rather than earlier: ASX

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China has issued its first government ID card to an AI digital human. Yuri, a virtual pop idol with 100k fans, now has an official name, birthday, address and her own digital currency wallet. Beijing wants every digital human registered, with 1.3 million Chinese firms now in the $10bn digital human industry: ABC News

Also…

Aussies haven’t felt this gloomy since the 1990s recession. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index crashed to its worst reading this century among those surveyed after the RBA’s fourth hike this year took the cash rate to 4.6%: AFR

🏗️ Mallesons and HSF Kramer acted on Heidelberg Materials’ $1.7bn buy of Maas Group’s construction materials business, a deal that’s now complete. It made ACCC history as the first deal to land a conditional Phase 1 approval under the ACCC’s new merger regime: Point Blank

💸 Wall Street is on track for a record year, with profits for New York’s trading and investment banking firms tipped to top US$90bn, smashing last year’s US$65.1bn high. Underwriting revenue jumped 68% in the first half, and bankers can expect record bonuses in the new year: Bloomberg

💰 OpenAI is in talks with UAE funds, including Abu Dhabi’s MGX, to anchor a US$30bn (A$43bn) raise at a valuation of around US$1.4tn. That’s a hefty jump from the US$852bn mark on its US$122bn March round: Capital Brief

China has warned that Labor’s gas market interventions are hurting Australia’s reputation with investors. In a submission on the new national gas reservation scheme, the Chinese Embassy asked Canberra to ease supply obligations and treat all LNG exporters and foreign investors equally: AFR

Humm has called in lawyers, reportedly tapping Gilbert + Tobin to review its governance and probe serious employee complaints, including concerns about director Andrew Darbyshire’s close ties to founder Andrew Abercrombie. It comes as ex-CEO Stuart Grimshaw sues the company and Abercrombie: AFR

David Jones is struggling under heavy debt, wiht landlords bracing for a possible insolvency. To make matters worse, Country Road Group, owner of Witchery and Mimco, is pulling nearly 100 of its 283 in-store spaces from David Jones in February. It follows luxury labels Dior, Gucci and Chanel quietly scaling back too: The Australian, AFR

OpenAI flew in chief strategy officer Jason Kwon to apologise to a parliamentary AI committee after its agents poked around non-public government websites. But the bigger issue was copyright. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google all warned that without law reform, Australia may only host AI inference infrastructure, with model training staying in the US under fair use: Capital Brief