Judges

And then there were four. Plaintiffs law firm Slater & Gordon wants to consolidate its AMP shareholder class action with Maurice Blackburn's case and hand over the reins to its rival, a deal signed the day the Full Federal Court affirmed the power of judges to shut down competing class actions.

Hastie Group's liquidators have offered to drop their $124 million case against two dozen major builders if the companies agree to pay an undisclosed sum toward their unpaid bills, a court heard Friday.

Quinn Emanuel has hit global insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson with a class action for allegedly charging local councils in NSW hundreds of millions of dollars in excessive premiums over the past nine years, and the firm says there may be more lawsuits on the horizon.

The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy union has lost its bid to be heard by the High Court of Australia after an appeals court upheld a $306,000 fine for the illegal conduct of its former Queensland president and warned of the prospect of deregistration.

The showdown between five law firms vying to lead a class action over the AMP fees for no service scandal kicked off in the NSW Supreme Court Thursday with counsel for one case saying the contest, although costly and consuming, would ultimately be a win for all class action participants.

Former Reserve Bank of Australia official Christian Boillot was sentenced Thursday to a two and a half years' suspended jail term over his role in a conspiracy to bribe foreign officials to win banknote business.

ANZ treasurer Rick Moscati was at the centre of a flurry of phone calls and meetings with underwriters and other bank executives on the day the underwriters agreed to pick up a $791 million shortfall in a $2.5 billion capital raising, an agreement which has led to groundbreaking cases by two regulators, according to a new court document.

AMP's advice executive Jack Regan, the witness who aired the firm's fees-for-no-service dirty laundry at the Royal Commission, has retired, a day before five law firms compete to lead a class action over the scandal.

Two NAB wealth management units have admitted to engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct by deducting $34.4 million in fees for services that were never provided.

Former HWL Ebsworth special counsel Dr Gary Rumble's insistence that he believed he had carte blanche to criticise one of the law firm's clients is an "untenable stretch," the Federal Court heard Wednesday.