21 Senior Counsel appointments from 94 applicants

Australian-first bill to ban use of NDAs to silence sexual harassment victims introduced in Victoria | Victorian politics | The Guardian

Gareth Ward sentencing delayed due to legal dispute over criminal offence rules - ABC News

AVO application against Mark Latham likely to be 'resolved', ex-partner's lawyer tells court - ABC News

Announcement of Senior Counsel for Victoria 2025 | The Supreme Court of Victoria

The 2025 Silks [21 total] were chosen from 94 applicants (65 men and 29 women) after a thorough consultation with the Victorian Bar, the Legal Services Commissioner, the judiciary and the broader profession.

The Verification-Value Paradox: A Normative Critique of Gen AI in Legal Practice by Joshua Yuvaraj :: SSRN

It is often claimed that machine learning-based generative AI products will drastically streamline and reduce the cost of legal practice. This enthusiasm assumes lawyers can effectively manage AI's risks. Cases in Australia and elsewhere in which lawyers have been reprimanded for submitting inaccurate AI-generated content to courts suggest this paradigm must be revisited. This paper argues that a new paradigm is needed to evaluate AI use in practice, given (a) AI's disconnection from reality and its lack of transparency, and (b) lawyers' paramount duties like honesty, integrity, and not to mislead the court. It presents an alternative model of AI use in practice that more holistically reflects these features (the verification-value paradox). That paradox suggests increases in efficiency from AI use in legal practice will be met by a correspondingly greater imperative to manually verify any outputs of that use, rendering the net value of AI use often negligible to lawyers. The paper then sets out the paradox's implications for legal practice and legal education, including for AI use but also the values that the paradox suggests should undergird legal practice: fidelity to the truth and civic responsibility.

Meet the man leading AI’s charge in the legal industry [AFR paywall]

Joseph Rayment established Automatise, the company behind litigation artificial intelligence program Cicero AI, to cut out dreary manual processes.

ASIC clarifies which crypto products need to be licensed [AFR paywall]

Commissioner Alan Kirkland said the new guidance should provide clarity for companies seeking to innovate around digital assets.

Former Australian Signals Directorate employee accused of selling trade secrets to Russia by US prosecutors - ABC News