Law firms' grad intake revealed

G’day.

Welcome to Point Blank.

Today’s brief:

• HSF surges in graduate hiring while HWLE cuts back—see who leads the 2024 charts.

• Disney pays $66.9m to settle gender pay gap claims.

• Evolution Mining might sell its gold mine, but its recent expansion has thrown a spanner in the works.

 💼 Practice Points

• The Privacy Commissioner is coming down hard on two companies linked to wealth guru Dominique Grubisa, accusing them of serious privacy missteps. The allegations? Collecting data from court websites and other third-party sources—without consent, of course—to scoop up vulnerable customers as leads. And it gets worse: the companies allegedly encouraged mentoring program participants to target distressed property owners, hoping to find people in tough spots—think divorce, bankruptcy, or deceased estates—who might be more willing to sell their properties below market value. The Privacy Commissioner found these companies failed to collect data by fair means and didn’t bother notifying the individuals whose data they collected.

• New rules from the Treasury are set to shine a light on the opaque world of equity derivatives, where offshore hedge funds and billionaires have long hidden their influence in ASX-listed companies. Under the proposed draft bill, investors will be forced to disclose any derivative positions they hold, even if there’s no agreement to convert them into ordinary shares down the track. KWM chairman David Friedlander says the rules make sense but take some of the fun out of M&A.

• APRA’s latest climate risk survey results show large banks have stepped up their game, with climate risk maturity improving since 2022, while there’s been little progress with insurers and superannuation trustees.

🏘️ Word on the Street 

• How do law firms' graduate intake stack up? HSF and Hall&Wilcox upped the ante with more than a 20% increase in graduates. HWLE took the opposite path, decreasing its graduate cohort by 29.1%, sitting at 4^th on the charts. KWM also scaled back its hiring by 7.8%, taking 7^th. HSF secured the silver medal with 99 graduates. But it was Allens that took the top spot.

  

   

• The government’s legal spending shot up to $606.5 million this year—a hefty jump from last year’s $448 million. Clayton Utz is the biggest winner, pocketing a neat 10.3% of the total. But not all firms are celebrating. MinterEllison and KWM, who raked in nearly 15% of that $606.5 million, are facing a hit to their profits after being cut from the government’s legal panel. They’ll now have to find new clients, joining Corrs and HSF in the legal panel casualty list.

• MinterEllison has nabbed a financial services expert from rival HSF. Tony Coburn will join the seven partners that jumped ship from PwC earlier this month. It was MinterEllison’s multi-disciplinary legal and consultancy offerings that ignited the switch.

📢 Talking Points

• The Tassie Supreme Court is holding the State accountable. The Court has given the green light to a landmark settlement which will see the State pay $75m in compensation to 129 former detainees who claimed they suffered serious injuries while housed at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.

• Trump fires the first shot in the trade war, threatening hefty tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico. Chalmers has stepped in to soothe jittery investors, insisting that Australia’s strong relationship with US presidents could help weather the fallout from any tariffs. According to Chalmers, Australia is well-positioned to navigate the tariff turmoil.

• Global tech giants like Meta, TikTok, and Google are slamming Australia’s plan to ban under-16s from social media, setting the stage for a major policy clash. The social media giants will be responsible for policing the ban, under threat of fines of up to $50m. TikTok’s Aussie director described the legislation as “rushed” and “unworkable”. Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner and the Australian Human Rights Commissioner also criticised the ban: “An outright ban is a blunt instrument that fails to recognise that social media can also have some positive benefits”. The bill heads through Parliament this week

🏦 The Treasury

🧐 Wednesday Wisdom

🤝 Deal Room

• BHP has its eyes on Anglo American—again. With just days to go until BHP can make its move under UK takeover rules, the path seems clearer than ever—especially after Anglo American ditched its coal assets. But could Trump throw a spanner in the works? BHP’s initial bid was all shares, but Trump’s tariff plans could tank commodity demand, knocking BHP’s share price and forcing them to dig into cash reserves if they’re serious about landing the Anglo prize.

• FTI Consulting has collected first-round bids for the struggling Mosaic Brands—the company behind Aussie favourites like Noni B, Katies, and Rivers—and the offers are reportedly underwhelming. With the bids falling short, the odds of a liquidation are growing by the day. Looks like these brands could soon be on their last legs.

• Carnaby Resources is gearing up for a $15m placement, with the funds set to bankroll the acquisition of the Trekelano copper mine. The company has already secured a $3.4m commitment from Glencore, which will give the mining giant a 4.99% stake in Carnaby after the raise.

• Selfwealth issued a letter to shareholders explaining the board’s decision to unanimously recommend its new deal with Bell Financial Group over Axicorp Financial Services’ proposal. The all-cash $58m deal represents a ~108% premium for Selfwealth shares as of 12 Nov. The Scheme Meeting will likely be scheduled in March 2025.

🏗 Sector Specific

Diggers

• With gold prices at record highs, merger talks keep mumbling around the town. Evolution Mining might be gearing up to sell its Mungari gold mine, with analysts valuing the WA asset at $600m-$1bn. The sale could fetch top dollar, but Evolution’s mid-expansion project at Mungari complicates the timing. Market chatter also points to talks between Genesis Minerals and Vault Minerals. While synergies are obvious, negotiations reportedly fizzled after Vault's underwhelming quarterly update.

• Pilbara Minerals AGM lasted 2.5 hours, facing shareholder backlash over CEO pay and the lack of board diversity. At the AGM, 21% of shareholders voted against granting CEO Dale Henderson additional long-term incentives. Calvert, a division of IB Morgan Stanley, aimed at the board’s pay practices, calling out the 29% pay rise for Henderson despite lacklustre financial results and a sliding share price.

• Chris Ellison's step down came just before Delta’s AGM, which will be held tomorrow. A coincidence? I think not. Can you imagine a ruined Mr Ellison chairing a meeting of Delta shareholders? Maybe Delta just wasn't ready to shell out for MinRes’ scriptwriters.

• Peabody Energy has clinched Anglo American’s prized Aussie steelmaking coal mines with a US$3.8bn deal, but it wasn’t the highest bidder. China-backed Yancoal offered more, but with no FIRB approval and uncertainty from Beijing, Anglo opted for Peabody’s safer bet.

Fin

• Macquarie Bank’s UK arm has been slapped with a £13m ($16.3m) fine after a junior trader on its London metals desk hid losses with 426 fake trades—undetected for nearly two years.

• On the flipside, London bankers will inch closer to New York-style bonuses. The UK is looking to loosen banker bonus rules to boost its global competitiveness – cutting wait times for top execs to access bonuses from eight to five years, plus reduced restrictions on payout structures. The move follows the removal of the EU-era bonus cap, allowing bankers to earn bonus-heavy packages like their US counterparts. Time to be an investment banker?

Tech

• Swoop Aero’s ambitious drone delivery dreams have come crashing down. Once eyeing a $100m buyout in 2022, the startup is now in liquidation, just weeks after entering voluntary administration.

• Google’s got more trouble ahead. Maurice Blackburn is gearing up for a potential class action against Google on behalf of ad publishers who claim the tech giant engaged in anti-competitive conduct through its AdTech services. Publishers allege they were overcharged for Google’s ad services and had less revenue than they should have.

• The FTC is trying to press undo on Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions. With a trial set for April 2025, the US regulator accuses the tech giant of using its market muscle to stifle competition.

Retail & Real Estate

• Disney settles gender pay gap lawsuit. Disney has agreed to pay US$43.3m (A$66.9m) to settle a lawsuit that claimed its female employees in California were paid US$150m less than their male counterparts over 8 years.

• Virgin is one step away from launching long-haul international flights to Europe, with the ACCC decision on the Qantas/Virgin partnership coming as early as tomorrow.

• Coles teams up with Microsoft for a tech makeover, signing up for a 5-year partnership with Microsoft to take its shopping experience to the next level. Coles plans to integrate AI to upscale their digital initiatives to e-commerce offerings and overall customer experience.