Law firm salaries ranked

G’day.

Welcome to Point Blank.

Today’s brief:

• Law firms’ pay wars escalate, with G+T in the lead

• Energy stock rebound alongside Santos’ gas project comeback

• Coalition clamps down on class action funders

Here’s the latest 👇

 💼 Practice Points

• Have any litigation-funded disputes on the horizon? If elected, the Coalition is gearing up for a crackdown on class actions funded by litigation funders, with plans to impose a 30% cap on payouts to funders. Under the proposed changes, all funding agreements would need Federal Court approval, and any related disputes would be subject to local jurisdiction.

• Trudging through discovery docs to identify privilege is never easy. In fact, legal professional privilege is one of the most important areas for businesses to get right. HSF has just dropped a guide on how to determine whether a document actually qualifies for LPP. Check it out here.

• In its recent corporate finance update, ASIC flagged common defects in substantial holding notices, with the most frequent issue being the failure to disclose the existence and nature of associations. ASIC highlighted a case where a director was sentenced to 6 months in prison for authorising substantial holding notices that were deliberately misleading.

🏘️ Word on the Street 

• M&A heavyweight Tony Damian is leaving HSF after nearly three decades, with insiders tipping him to join Ashurst on a $7.5 million guaranteed salary. The move isn’t linked to HSF’s potential merger with Kramer Levin, but it highlights the escalating price firms pay for marquee talent.

• Maddocks is making moves in the competition space, snatching up a partner from Johnson Winter Slattery to take the reins of their Melbourne practice.

• Clayton Utz's own M&A star partner, Niro Ananda, is reportedly set to jump ship. Sources are saying he's headed to rival firm KWM. Ananda is the go-to adviser for Private Equity Partners, having advised on their recent $1bn acquisition of Singapore Post.

• Thomson Geer has poached an 8-person tech and cyber law team from HopgoodGanim, marking its third Queensland raid in a decade.

• Now how does your law firm stack up for grad salaries? Check out which firms lead the market for graduate pay 👇

📢 Talking Points

• Chief Justice Bell has weighed in on the NSW Supreme Court’s new AI practice note, which takes a hardline approach by banning AI in the drafting of court docs. Bell pointed out that NSW has deliberately gone a step further than the Victorian Supreme Court, which merely cautioned against AI, stressing that we can’t afford "laziness in the profession”.

• Magic couldn’t save Harry Potter star Rupert Grint from a £1.8m (A$3.5m) tax bill. The tax man says Grint wrongly classified £4.5m (A$8.8m) in movie residuals as a capital asset when it should’ve been treated as income—which has a much higher tax rate.

• Private colleges are threatening to sue the federal government over its cap on foreign student enrolments, claiming it lacks legislative backing. The CEO of the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia slammed Albo’s "dunderhead" approach, arguing that slashing international student numbers has cost jobs.

• Apple is hit with a new lawsuit, accused of illegally monitoring workers’ personal devices and iCloud accounts, while also barring discussions about pay and working conditions. Not a great look for the tech giant. But the lawsuit begs the question: How much monitoring is actually going on by employers?

🏦 The Treasury

🤝 Deal Room

• SG Fleet Group, the $1bn+ fleet management and mobility solution company, has inked a Scheme Implementation Deed with Pacific Equity Partners for an all-cash deal, representing a ~31% premium. G+T acts for SG Fleet.

• Spartan entered a trading halt yesterday ahead of a planned $220m placement at $1.32 per share. The move will see potential acquirer Ramelius Resources up its stake in Spartan to 19.9%.

• PwC is slimming down again, with sources saying its insolvency arm, Business Restructuring Services, is set to be sold to PR and advisory firm Teneo. The 75 person team was largely formed from the 2018 merger with PPB Advisory. Insolvency teams have long jumped between the Big Four, frustrated by being conflicted out of work due to their firms' broad client bases.

• As Zip's US chairman and co-founder, Larry Diamond, exits the business, speculation is mounting that the group might offload its US operations.

🏗 Sector Specific

Diggers

• Tanya Plibersek is under fire for stalling another major environmental decision. MMG has been waiting since 2022 for approval to build a new tailings storage at its Rosebery mine, which employs 600 people. The application has been gathering dust on her desk—will she pull another Regis?

• Energy stocks are poised for a comeback. After an 18% slump in 2024, analysts project a 22% rise in the sector, fueled by Santos’ Barossa gas project and Beach’s Waitsia plant. Plus, with Trump’s tariff threats potentially boosting demand for Australian gas, next year could mark a turning point for the nation’s struggling energy sector.

Fin

• Barrenjoey Capital Partners predicts a 13% revenue jump to $380m for the year ahead, fueled by expected deal activity across the market. Fresh off paying bonuses and promoting eight employees, the four-year-old firm has proven sceptics wrong, landing major deals like Saint-Gobain’s $4.3bn bid for CSR and Guzman y Gomez’s IPO.

• The $94 billion fund, Cbus Super has been flagged for governance gaps in managing member expenses, according to a Deloitte review. The report highlighted deficiencies in oversight and decision-making processes, including payments tied to the CFMEU. Cbus says it will adopt all 26 recommendations.

Tech & Media

• Airlie Walsh, one of Nine Network’s top reporters, has filed a human rights sex discrimination claim against the broadcaster, with Maurice Blackburn repping Walsh.

• A US judge has blocked Elon Musk’s eye-watering $56bn pay packet, despite Tesla shareholders voting to reinstate it, calling the amount "excessive". Tesla plans to appeal, with Musk taking to X: "Shareholders should control company votes, not judges”.

• WiseTech chairman told shareholders that Richard White will still have a significant role in the company, despite stepping down. His successor, however, will be free to embrace the same "creative abrasion" mentality that led to the bullying accusations against White in the first place. Looks like old habits die hard.

• Salesforce’s stock is soaring—up 39% in six months—thanks to buzz around its AI ambitions. The company’s new "Agentforce" project uses its software to train AI agents for tasks like customer service and marketing, and early results are turning heads.

Retail & Real Estate

• Woolworths is feeling the pinch from two weeks of industrial action, with $50m in lost sales as the retailer struggles to keep shelves stocked.

• Macquarie just squeezed the agriculture game, snapping up a controlling stake in Fresh Produce Group for over $175m. Known for its berries, citrus, and table grapes, FPG’s 1200-hectare farmland footprint makes it a heavyweight in Australia’s fresh fruit scene. The move adds to Macquarie’s existing $4.7bn agri portfolio and puts a $350m valuation on FPG.

🧐 Wednesday Wisdom