AI affidavits banned

G’day.

Welcome to Point Blank.

Today’s brief:

• Court says no to AI-assisted affidavits.

• The other Katy Perry is one that got away with the singer's trademark win against an Aussie designer.

• Uber is back in Court over payroll tax win in NSW with fresh appeal.

Celebrate the small wins– it’s the last Monday of November. Here’s the latest to kick off your week 👇

 💼 Practice Points

• NSW Supreme Court says "no" to AI in affidavits. The Court has banned practitioners from using AI to prep affidavits and witness statements, warning it could water down or even exaggerate a person’s knowledge.

• The English Commercial Court has found that a buyer wrongfully terminated its deal to acquire two mines in Brazil, leaving the seller entitled to damages. A geotechnical event occurred at the mine, which the seller deemed routine, but the buyer used a material adverse change (MAC) clause to walk away. The decision serves as a cautionary tale for buyers: relying on qualitative thresholds in a MAC clause to nix an M&A deal can be a risky move.

🏘️ Word on the Street 

• Landers & Rogers in hot water: A former legal assistant is spilling the beans on some seriously shady billing practices at the national firm. Here’s the play-by-play: the firm issued “dummy bills” where the firm requested trust as part of a retainer for future work, which would be cancelled after payment and redirected to old bills. But wait, there’s more—client funds were also used to pay the firm when those funds were supposed to cover barrister fees. Oh, and when the firm went over budget, they didn’t bother telling clients. Instead, they pushed one client to borrow money from another just to settle Landers & Rogers’ fees. Days before the story broke, Lander & Rogers announced its chief, Genevieve Collins, would step down at the end of the year after serving two consecutive terms. 

• DW Fox Tucker has bolstered its South Australian presence with the appointment of a special counsel and senior associate.

• International law firm, Clyde & Co has been slapped with a lawsuit by an insurer, who claim they were wrongly advised to indemnify a builder in a legal dispute.

• A lesson you didn’t think was needed: don’t gamble with client’s money. A NSW lawyer has been slapped with a prison sentence and was struck off for gambling away $1.7m in money stolen from his trust account. A junior who concealed the crimes was also struck off. The first offence occurred when the firm received $22k in its trust account for a stamp duty payment. Instead, the lawyer gambled that away at the Adelaide casino…yeah, don’t do that.

📢 Talking Points

• Katy Perry beats Aussie designer in trademark clash. In a win for the pop star, the Federal Court has overturned a decision that found Katy Perry had infringed on an Australian designer's "Katie Perry" trademark, with the court ruling that the designer was well aware of the singer when they registered the mark.

• The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is set to gain new intervention powers to target bid tech companies. A British regulatory report urges to target the Google-Apple duopoly. The report finds Apple may be stifling innovation in smartphone browsers, with Apple's web access restrictions preventing competitors from being able to deliver new features that could benefit consumers. The report also found that a revenue-sharing agreement between Google and Apple reduced their incentives to compete in mobile browsers on Apple devices. Looks like the duopoly could soon be under the microscope.

• The Albanese government has dumped its controversial misinformation bill after the Senate united to shut it down. The Bill would have granted the Australian Communications Media Authority powers to remove certain speech across platforms, including posts that urge people not to be vaccinated. Dutton labelled the bill as an attempt to assert a monopoly on truth, while the Greens, more favourable to the proposal, couldn’t see the practical implementation.

🏦 The Treasury

🤝 Deal Room

• Bell Financial Group has revised its proposed takeover of SelfWealth, instead opting for a scheme of arrangement. The revised proposal values Selfwealth at $58m. AxiCorp continues to circle after its bid has fallen by the wayside. HSF acts for Selfwealth while Ashurst acts for BFG.

• Sydney’s Pacific Equity Partners is in talks to acquire ASX-listed SG Fleet, with sources saying negotiations are “well-advanced”. PEP’s got Allens on their side while SG Fleet is being advised by Gilbert + Tobin.

• Australia’s largest energy retailer, Origin Energy, is on the hunt for a backer for its NSW Yanco Delta wind development, which is expected to carry a hefty $3bn price tag.

• Word on the street is that Evolution Mining is considering putting its Mungari gold mine on the market, valued between $600m and $1bn.

• The country’s largest cancer care provider GenesisCare is gearing up to put its business on the block in the second half of 2025, with the deal potentially worth a cool $3bn.

• HumanForce has lobbed an on-market takeover bid for LiveHire Limited, valuing the recruitment software company at $20.8m.

• Telecommunications innovator Vonex recommends shareholders take no action on Swoop’s takeover bid due to its financial condition. Instead, Vonex thinks shareholders should accept MaxoTel’s all-cash bid which remains on the table.

🏗 Sector Specific

Diggers

• MinRes can’t catch a break: WA’s DEMIRS is digging into a string of fires and road train crashes on a private MinRes road—marking the fourth road train incident since August. But that’s not all. The AFR is asking the tough questions: where were MinRes’ internal auditors while Ellison was blowing company funds on personal expenses and striking deals with his daughter? You’d think it’d be hard to miss, yet somehow they did.

Fin

• The Albanese government’s failure to legislate clear rules for cryptocurrency exchanges—including basic consumer protections—may leave millions of Australians exposed if another crypto exchange falls over. The collapse of FTX hit 30,000 Aussies hard, and unless the government gets its act together, history may well repeat itself.

• Goldman Sachs’ private equity funds, the second-largest shareholder in Swedish battery maker Northvolt, are set to write off nearly US$900m (A$1.4 billion) after Northvolt filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Looks like GS will be eating its words—just months ago, one of its funds had said Northvolt’s value was 4.29x what it paid for it.

Tech

• A joint report by HSF and Seyfarth Shaw has exonerated WiseTech founder Richard White of misconduct allegations. The investigation found no misuse of company funds and labelled his workplace behaviour as "creative abrasion"—not bullying.

• Uber has a long road ahead in its journey to fight off Australian legal disputes. The taxi disruptor is back in Court as the NSW Commissioner for State Revenue has filed its highly-anticipated appeal against Uber’s payroll victory. Hammerschlag J found that Uber did not have to pay drivers and thus could sidestep payroll tax. A two-date hearing is docked for March 2025.

Retail & Real Estate

• The retail race is heating up. Dexus is making moves in retail, eyeing Melbourne’s Woodgrove Shopping Centre for $450M and a $380M half-stake in Erina Fair on the NSW Central Coast. Shopping mall deals are booming, with over $11B in transactions this year—up 53% from 2023

• WA is on track to hit the third-largest grain harvest on record. Australia’s top wheat-producing state is set to 10.33m tonnes of wheat in 2024/25. Good on ya, WA.

🧠 Word Guess

• Rights permitting excavation, revealed by this hidden layer (5)