KWM might be plotting a split

NSW appoints two new judges

Ashurst, KWM steer RAMS sale

While HSF Kramer and Ashurst Perkins Coie chase US scale, KWM Australia is moving the opposite way — Capital Brief reckons it’s edging toward a formal split from KWM China to reposition itself as an independent player ready to partner with top US firms. With no real inbound work from China and US-linked PE deals surging, a full return to “Mallesons” may be coming: Capital Brief

NSW has reshuffled its top bench. Senior silks Edward Muston SC and James Emmett SC have been tapped for the Supreme Court. And Justice Natalie Adams is stepping up to Judge of Appeal and Chief Judge of the Common Law Division, replacing Justice Ian Harrison: Point Blank

Corporate goodies are thinning out, but some firms once went big — Slaughter & May famously ran a MasterChef-style cook-off for vac schemers, with prizes from chocolates to bottles of fizz. That all stopped in 2022. Now, as budgets tighten, companies are pulling back, signalling the slow fade of the corporate goodie bag era: Financial Times

Australia’s “fair go” is slipping. A new Rule of Law poll shows only 47% of Aussies think the legal system treats everyone equally – with Victoria last at 40%. Two-thirds say certain groups get special treatment. Trust in Australia’s equal justice system is evidently cracking: The Australian

Employment: Turns out, your employer can reject your resignation letter. An employee’s resignation only takes effect if it complies with the contract, meaning an employer can refuse a defective resignation that doesn’t meet notice or form requirements. If an employee gives too little notice, or resigns verbally where written notice is required, the employer can either accept it anyway or affirm the contract, keeping the employment relationship alive. Until it’s accepted, the employee can withdraw the defective resignation. Where a contract doesn’t specify notice, employees must give “reasonable notice” based on their role and length of service. But once a resignation is validly given under the contract, award or EA, employers cannot refuse it: Hall Payne

IP: The Federal Government has rejected a text and data mining exemption, keeping Australia’s fair dealing regime far narrower than the fair use model adopted in places like the US. A TDM exemption would have let AI companies train models on copyrighted works without consent. Instead, AI developers must still obtain permission from rights-holders, even though the Productivity Commission says large models are already training on copyrighted material. The contrast with the US is stark: in Bartz v Anthropic, a federal judge held that ingesting books to train Claude was “quintessentially transformative” and lawful. In Australia, that use wouldn’t fit any fair dealing purpose, meaning it would likely infringe copyright: Spruson & Ferguson, NRF

Consumer: Gucci, Chloé and Loewe have been fined €157m in the EU for forcing retailers to stick to their set prices and discount limits. Regulators called it classic resale price maintenance, and the same conduct is flat-out illegal in Australia, no matter the industry. The ACCC is taking a twin approach: big penalties (like Techtronic’s $15m fine) and educative action, with recent undertakings against businesses that restricted how retailers priced product. The rule is simple: suppliers can’t set or police minimum resale prices, pressure retailers to “stay in line”, or cut supply when they don’t. Recommended pricing is fine only if clearly optional. With regular ACCC actions every year, suppliers should review pricing policies now: Addisons

Mining bosses are raking it in, according to the AFR’s 2025 CEO pay rankings. Develop Global’s Bill Beament topped take-home pay with a $59.6m haul after cashing in 14m options, while WA1’s Paul Savich banked more than $20m off a niobium discovery. Even Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanayake – still Australia’s highest-paid on reported pay at $29.3m – was only fifth on actual take-home: AFR

So much for Nvidia killing AI-bubble fears. After a hot open, Wall Street went into full reversal mode — at one point, the S&P 500 was wiping out $15bn a minute as investors panicked over hyperscalers burning too much cash on AI infrastructure. The index closed down 1.6%, Nvidia slipped 3.2%, and Bitcoin tumbled almost 5%: The Guardian, News.com.au

KWM and Ashurst: are front and centre on Westpac’s $21.4bn sale of its RAMS mortgage book, one of Australia’s biggest ever loan portfolio transfers. Ashurst advised Westpac, while KWM acted for Pepper Money and its backers KKR and PIMCO. The asset-sale structure gives Pepper the loan book without inheriting RAMS’ compliance baggage. Completion is slated for 2H 2026: Point Blank

Insignia Financial: is still stuck in FIRB purgatory as CC Capital’s $3.3bn buyout waits on approval nearly four months after signing. ACCC and the FCA have already waved it through, but FIRB is taking a closer look at CC, a relative unknown in Australia, given Insignia’s sensitive superannuation footprint: The Australian

MinRes has scrapped its CEO succession deadline. Chris Ellison will now stay on indefinitely, after chairman Mal Bundey tore up last year’s April 2026 exit plan. Ellison told shareholders he’ll ignore the noise from governance scandals and keep running the business while lithium prices surge and Onslow Iron ramps up: The Australian

ConocoPhillips has struck gas in its first Essington-1 well off Victoria, hitting two reservoirs in a $100m drilling campaign that could deliver one of Australia’s biggest finds in years. The discovery is being closely watched amid warnings of east-coast shortages, though any new supply is unlikely before 2030: AFR

KKR is chasing up to US$15bn for its new Asia PE fund, kicking off investor marketing this week. The raise — one of the region’s biggest — will target consumer, life sciences, financial services, healthcare and industrials. KKR has already returned US$7.3b to investors this year and may exceed the fund’s target if demand runs hot: Capital Brief

Westpac is pitching itself as a key lender for Australia’s critical minerals push, and says it could even back new gas projects if the government rules they’re in the national interest. CEO Anthony Miller insists the transition remains on track despite political noise, arguing Australia already has enough gas and should prioritise domestic supply: The Australian

Assembly Funds Management has reopened its ADPF2 vehicle for a quick pre-Christmas raise, as Michael Gutman looks to reload capital for 2025. The fund has already pulled in $165m of its $350m target, deployed $110m, and is chasing value-add plays across retail, office and living: AFR

Sydney property veteran Phil Wolanski has snapped up a six-level Surry Hills office at 79 Commonwealth Street for $32.6m, signalling renewed appetite for fringe commercial assets. The asset was sold via Knight Frank and JLL: The Australian

ByteDance just hit a US$480bn valuation after Capital Today snapped up a US$300m stake in a hotly contested secondary auction. The block was originally pitched at a US$360bn valuation, but multiple bidders pushed the price up. It comes as ByteDance navigates a potential forced sale of TikTok’s US ops, with the latest deal signalling investor confidence: Bloomberg

Indeed’s latest data shows tech hiring is in a deep chill, with data and analytics roles down 40% on pre-pandemic levels. Applications keep climbing, gen AI is doing more of the heavy lifting, and years of data-science training have left a glut of talent. For candidates, it means a brutally tight market and softer wage growth ahead: Business Insider