King & Spalding launches in Australia

Vic gov spends $100k in fees to block FOI

Court rejects Cosette’s $672m walkaway bid

King & Spalding has finally made its Australian debut, opening a five-partner Sydney office at Gateway Tower. Led by Darren Gardner, the US$3.5bn Atlanta firm plans careful local recruitment, calling its launch team “SEAL Team Six, not an army.” It’s the first major new entrant since Dentons’ 2016 launch: Point Blank

The Vic gov is spending $100k to keep its wind docs a secret, the AFR reports. The Vic’s Port of Hastings Corp has hired Hall & Wilcox to fight a two-year FOI battle over offshore wind project documents. The case, believed to involve Opposition MP David Davis, centres on delays to the state’s wind terminal project, now stalled over wetland impacts. Critics say the Allan government is spending public money to protect its own secrets: AFR

CourtAid has joined Lander & Rogers’ 2025 LawTech Hub, and over the last 4 months has been working closely with the firm’s lawyers and clerks to refine its AI-driven legal research tool. The platform lets users chat to up-to-date legislation and judgments, with real-world feedback from Landers’ team shaping new updates. Co-founder Peter Cole says the collaboration and industry feedback is helping “tune" the tool for their 15k+ user base of lawyers, barristers and paralegals moving forward.

Ashurst has hired Nathan Deveson, one of Australia’s top state tax specialists, from MinterEllison, where he was Sydney Office Managing Partner. With 23 years’ experience in stamp duty, land tax and real estate structuring, he joins amid fierce competition for tax talent — just days after Costa Koutsis left Ashurst for Corrs: Point Blank

M&A/Disputes: Cosette Pharmaceuticals has lost its bid to walk away from the $672m takeover of Mayne Pharma, with the NSW Supreme Court ruling the US buyer waived its right to terminate. Justice Ashley Black said Cosette affirmed the deal when it signed an amended SID, entered a deed poll and joined the first court hearing for Mayne shareholders. While Mayne’s Q3 sales slump did amount to an “adverse change”, the hit to EBITDA fell short of the $10.76m MAC threshold. Cosette’s misleading conduct claim also failed - its own advisers had access to the data it alleged was withheld. KWM’s Mark Vanderneut M&A lawyers are calling it a “comforting precedent”. MAC clauses remain hard to trigger, and deal certainty still rules: Capital Brief

Crypto/Possession: The Tassie Supreme Court has joined the growing chorus echoing bitcoin as property capable of possession. The Court dismissed an appeal on procedural grounds but made strong obiter remarks confirming that crypto is property capable of possession. Justice Estcourt said exclusive control of a digital key gives rise to possession, making bitcoin “amenable to the torts of conversion and detinue.” He proposed a “third category” of intangible property — assets that are rivalrous, capable of exclusive control and susceptible to possession. CJ Shanahan agreed, noting crypto is commercially traded and treated as property and should be legally recognised as such. The ruling signals growing judicial comfort with crypto as a proprietary asset class in Australian law.

Disputes/Costs: The NSW Supreme Court has ruled that a solicitor can’t recover costs from themselves by funnelling work through their own incorporated practice. Leeming JA refused costs claimed by a solicitor, who acted through his law firm that he solely owned and directed. The Court found that allowing recovery would be “an affront to justice.” Revisiting the HC authorities in Bell Lawyers v Pentelow and Birketu v Atanaskovic, Leeming JA held that the Chorley exception that permitted such recoveries for costs remains dead. Until Parliament says otherwise, a solicitor–director can’t bill themselves for their own time — they stand in no better position than a sole practitioner.

Studies show divorce rates jump when women make more than their husbands, with marriages strongest when men earn around $38k more. A 2023 report found the traditional male breadwinner-female homemaker setup still holds the lowest divorce risk. Turns out, “the wider the traditional wage gap, it would seem, the stronger the marriage”: Business Insider

Looks like Australia is out of gas. Australia has less than a month’s worth of fuel in reserve — just 20 days of jet fuel, 24 days of diesel and 28 days of petrol. That makes it the only country breaching international treaty obligations to have enough oil in case of a global emergency. Experts warn a major disruption could empty supermarket shelves and halt interstate freight, leaving the nation stranded in a crisis: AFR

Macquarie: has sealed a US$40bn ($61bn) sale of Aligned Data Centres to a heavyweight consortium led by Nvidia, Microsoft and BlackRock, marking the largest-ever tech buyout. Backed by the AI Infrastructure Partnership, Temasek and Kuwait Investment Authority, the deal crowns Aligned’s rise from two sites to 50 across the Americas since 2018: The Australian

Blackstone: is shopping for another AirTrunk data centre, tasking Citi and CIMB to find partners for JHB1, its 150MW Malaysian hyperscale site serving ByteDance. The move follows plans to sell a stake in Sydney’s SYD1 centre as AirTrunk tests appetite for capital partners. Aussie super funds are circling as valuations cool from 2024’s AI-fuelled highs: AFR

Taxpayers are now shareholders in early-stage miners, as Canberra and the states take equity stakes to boost Australia’s critical minerals push. The National Reconstruction Fund bought $50m in Liontown, while QIC just tipped $20.5m into Iltani and Carnaby: AFR

The world’s top 50 mining companies have smashed records, hitting a $1.97tn valuation, up nearly $700bn in 2025. BHP still leads, but Zijin Mining briefly overtook Rio Tinto, while Newmont and Southern Copper joined the $100bn club. With rare earths, gold and copper driving the boom, the sector’s critical minerals surge has gone fully mainstream: Mining.com

Commonwealth Bank has locked in Matt Comyn for at least 3 more years, silencing talk of succession as the bank’s market cap doubles to $280bn under his watch. Chair Paul O’Malley says the next board will pick his successor. Big shoes to fill: AFR

Bank of Queensland has axed $4bn in mortgages and turned off its broker network, betting on higher-margin business lending instead. CEO Patrick Allaway says it’s a strategic necessity, recycling low-return home loans into 14% commercial growth. The gamble’s paying off for now — profits are up 12%: The Australian

Commonwealth Super Corp is set to take full control of Sydney’s Grosvenor Place, exercising pre-emptive rights to buy Blackstone’s 75% stake for $1.35bn. The deal, the year’s biggest office sale, values the Seidler-designed tower at $1.8bn and boosts CSC’s exposure to prime CBD assets. That’s despite 20% vacancy and lingering leasing headwinds: The Australian

Gateway Capital has snapped up a $72.5m industrial estate in Geebung, Brisbane’s north, from QIC, taking its logistics partnership portfolio to $259m. Backed by an Asian sovereign wealth fund, the firm is targeting an $800m core portfolio. The near-new site boasts 91% occupancy and sits in a prime logistics hub alongside Australia Post and Boeing: The Australian

OpenAI will soon let verified adults generate “erotica”, as Sam Altman moves to match Elon Musk’s Grok, which already offers “chatbot girlfriends.” The update, due in December, comes as ChatGPT rolls out age-gating tools and a more human-like personality mode: AFR

FinTech Australia warns the national R&D review risks shutting out digital sectors, with fintech, AI and cybersecurity missing from the government’s 5 priority areas. CEO Rehan D’Almeida says the R&D Tax Incentive is the industry’s lifeblood, urging Canberra to modernise funding rules so software-led innovation isn’t crowded out by old-economy priorities: Capital Brief