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Holwell Shuster matched Susman Godfrey's $240K associate scale, pushing the pay war past Milbank's benchmark. Greenberg Traurig added two IP litigators from Goodwin Procter in New York as client demand for patent work grows, and in London, Sheppard Mullin is the latest US firm to grow headcount in the City, hiring Simmons & Simmons former PE co-head Gideon Sharp to lead its office there.

On the Markets side, Warburg Pincus CEO Jeffrey Perlman said the IPO market remains structurally broken for sponsors. The 9th Circuit is weighing whether Perplexity AI can be held responsible when its agentic system accessed Amazon accounts without authorization. KKR, Nvidia, and Kuwait Investment Authority launch Helix Digital Infrastructure, a $10B+ data center venture, and Francisco Partners collected over $18B for two funds. Let’s not forget that SpaceX begins trading today after pricing the largest IPO on record at $135 per share and a ~$1.77 trillion valuation as the World Bank cuts its growth forecast.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Holwell Shuster Matches $240K Susman Scale / Early Recruiting Hurts 67% of Big Law-Bound 1Ls / LL.M. Applications Down 14%

-Sheppard Mullin Hires PE Partner to Lead London / Greenberg Traurig Adds IP Pair from Goodwin / Seyfarth's Fifth RE Lateral in 2026

-KKR-Nvidia $10B Data Center Venture / Eaton-Dana $5.1B Merger

-PE Exits at Fresh Depths / Carlyle Starts $14.8B Flagship Raise / $200B+ of Leveraged Debt Below 90 Cents

-SpaceX Prices Largest-Ever IPO at $135/Share

-SEC Moves to Scrap Trade-Through Rule / SCOTUS Shields Funds from Securities Suits / Corteva $85M Settlement

-ECB Hikes, Eyes July / Trump-Iran De-escalation / PPI at 6.5% / World Bank Cuts Growth Forecast

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

What today's moves tell us: US firms are building PE and corporate teams in London while IP litigation, energy M&A, and real estate are drawing lateral investment stateside.

Operations and Strategy

Law firms, are taking a page of the the Private Equity recruiting playbook: Earlier recruiting and higher pay. The effects on the highly coveted recruits mirror the sentiment across the junior bankers seeking PE roles.

 The associate pay war has moved past Milbank's benchmark. Holwell Shuster matched Susman Godfrey's $240K first-year scale, while a NALP/LSAC survey of ~3,000 students found that 67% of 1Ls aiming for Big Law say accelerated recruiting hurt their first-year experience. Cooley, Susman Godfrey, and Munger Tolles are backing away from the early push.

International LL.M. applications to US law schools fell 14%, with China down 21% and India down 23%. UC Berkeley reported a 20% drop and Michigan 30%. Visa uncertainty and cheaper programs abroad are driving the decline.

Practices

M&A, PE, and Capital Markets

At SuperReturn in Berlin, Warburg Pincus CEO Jeffrey Perlman said the IPO market remains structurally broken for sponsors, with more than three-fifths of exits going to strategic buyers. More than $200B of leveraged debt from 2021-2022 buyouts trades below 90 cents, feeding restructuring and covenant negotiation mandates. Carlyle kicked off its 9th flagship raise ($14.8B target) and Francisco Partners collected >$18B for two funds, keeping fund formation work active even as exits stall. SpaceX's $75B IPO is the largest public listing in history and the first major tech offering to tap European retail investors directly through a novel dual structure. For capital markets, M&A, and governance practices, the deal generates immediate work across underwriting, disclosure, and post-IPO advisory.

Selected Press:

Regulatory and Governance

The SEC proposed eliminating the equities trade-through rule, a change that would reshape market structure and force broker-dealers to revisit execution and compliance frameworks. The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision shielding investment funds from certain private securities lawsuits narrows litigation exposure for asset managers. Victoria's Secret defeated an activist proxy fight, and Corteva agreed to pay $85M to settle a class action over crop protection market rigging.

Selected Press:

Litigation and Technology

AI liability questions are stacking up. The 9th Circuit is weighing whether Perplexity AI can be held responsible when its agentic system accessed Amazon accounts without authorization. A Canadian mother is suing OpenAI alleging ChatGPT encouraged her daughter's suicide. Anthropic is drawing customer concern by launching apps that compete with its own clients, echoing antitrust patterns from Microsoft and Google. For litigation and product liability teams, AI disputes are building a durable pipeline.

Selected Press:

Where the Work Sits

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Capital markets and governance practices are at the center of the SpaceX listing. Beyond the headline deal, the novel dual structure tapping EU retail investors and Musk's concentrated voting control are generating advisory work across underwriting, governance, and cross-border securities. The SEC's proposed trade-through rule change and the SCOTUS fund-shielding decision each create separate compliance and litigation streams.

Across PE, Sponsors who can exit are doing so through strategic sales, not IPOs, while $200B+ of leveraged debt below 90 cents from 2020-2022 vintages feeds restructuring, workout, and covenant negotiation mandates. Carlyle's flagship raise and Francisco Partners' $18B close show fund formation and LP advisory work remains active for top-tier firms.

The new frontier across AI liability and technology litigation continues generating a growing pipeline. The Perplexity agentic-AI case, the OpenAI suicide suit, and Anthropic's competitive concerns each sit at different intersections of product liability, IP, and regulatory practice, with volume and complexity set to grow as AI products scale commercially.

Global Markets

Clients are recalibrating after a sharp overnight shift. Dealmakers are watching whether the Iran de-escalation lasts long enough to reopen a window for cross-border M&A before rates move higher. Trump's decision to pause Iran strikes and signal a deal as early as this weekend sent Brent below $87 and pushed the S&P 500 up 1.75%, its best session since the April ceasefire. Executives and boards that shelved deal activity over the past two weeks are reassessing timelines, though wholesale inflation at 6.5% and the ECB's first rate hike since 2023 keep the cost-of-capital picture complicated. The World Bank cut its global growth forecast to 2.5%, and Fed cuts have been pushed into mid-2027.

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That’s the rundown. See you next where law meets the markets.

-The BigLaw Markets Team

*DISCLAIMER: BigLaw Markets analyzes publicly available information, filings, press releases, and news stories published by reputable media sources to deliver newsletters that highlight the drivers of demand for legal services.