Good Morning,

Kirkland & Ellis is pulling Paul Weiss' head of European M&A to London, Davis Polk is building a Supreme Court practice in DC under Kannon Shanmugam, and Sheppard Mullin grabbed a 15-lawyer ITC team from Perkins Coie. A Wells Fargo survey shows Big Law Q1 demand surged but uncollected bills grew 17%, with AI and infrastructure deals driving the backlog.

On the client side, Kone agreed to buy TK Elevator for $34.4B in Europe's biggest PE exit ever, KKR is exploring a $10B sale of Flora Food Group, oil spiked to $126/bbl before settling at $115, and the Fed held rates steady with its sharpest internal divide since 1992.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Kirkland Swoops for Paul Weiss European M&A Head / Davis Polk Builds Supreme Court Practice in DC / Sheppard Mullin Launches ITC Practice With 15 Perkins Coie Lawyers

-Big Law Q1 Demand Surges but Uncollected Bills Grow 17% / Rate Hikes Hit 11.4% Average / Latham Eyes Further London Expansion After $1B Year

-Kone-TK Elevator $34.4B Deal Marks Europe’s Biggest PE Exit / KKR Explores $10B Flora Foods Sale / CVC Weighs €9B Nexi Bid

-SoftBank Plans US IPO for AI Robotics Unit Roze at $100B / L3Harris Files Confidentially to IPO Missile Unit / Blackstone Creates AI Unit BXN1

-DOJ Wins Access to KKR’s Lawyer Emails in PE Deals Probe / House Probes Anysphere and Airbnb Over Chinese AI

-Fed Holds at 3.5-3.75% With Highest Dissent Since 1992 / Core PCE Hits 3.2% / Oil Spikes to $126 Before Settling / UAE Quits OPEC

Talent Strategy

What today's moves tell us: Firms are investing in high-end practices with direct revenue impact—cross-border M&A, appellate litigation, trade disputes, and white collar—signaling confidence that deal and enforcement pipelines will stay full.

-Kirkland & Ellis is set to hire Paul Weiss’ head of European M&A, Will Aitken-Davies, in London—a move that strengthens its cross-border deal bench as European deal flow picks up.

-Davis Polk has tasked Kannon Shanmugam, a prominent appellate litigator, with building a Supreme Court practice in its Washington, DC office.

-Sullivan & Cromwell rehired John Liolos as a partner in its litigation and criminal defense and investigation groups in New York. Liolos returns from the DOJ, where he served as a criminal fraud lawyer.

-Jenner & Block hired Karin Dryhurst as a partner in its financial litigation, class action, and payments practices in Washington, DC.

-Fenwick recruited a five-attorney IP group from Winston & Strawn, including partners Krishnan Padmanabhan and Scott Border. Padmanabhan was previously managing partner of Winston’s New York office. The move comes as the Winston & Strawn merger with Taylor Wessing has hit a delay.

-Sheppard Mullin hired 15 lawyers from Perkins Coie, including five partners, to launch an International Trade Commission practice.

Operational Strategy

Demand is running hot, but the cash is stuck in the pipeline. Firms are raising rates and booking work at record levels, while clients take longer to pay.

A Wells Fargo Legal Specialty Group survey of the 200 largest US firms shows Big Law Q1 demand surged, but uncollected fees grew nearly 17% year-over-year—outstripping a 13%+ uptick in gross revenue. Firms are sitting on unrealized revenue from AI IPOs, data center builds, and infrastructure mandates. Average rate hikes hit 11.4%, the fourth consecutive year of record increases, with little client pushback. Collections slowed by 6.5 days and realization declined 2.8%, concentrated in tech-heavy practices at the top 50 firms.

Latham & Watkins London boss Ed Barnett says the firm is planning more City expansion after crossing $1B in London revenue, describing the office as “brimming with rainmakers.” Clifford Chance added 28 new partners in its smallest promotions round in years. And a new survey of nearly 500 GCs found 82% now expect outside counsel to disclose where AI was used to complete work—a signal that transparency demands will shape firm-client dynamics going forward.

Practices

M&A and Private Equity

Deal flow is accelerating across cross-border M&A and PE exits, with several multi-billion-dollar transactions in play.

Finnish elevator maker Kone agreed to acquire Advent and Cinven-backed TK Elevator for $34.4B in cash and stock, marking Europe’s biggest PE exit ever. KKR is exploring a $10B sale of Flora Food Group, the ex-Unilever spreads business, after abandoning targets to make the portfolio plant-based. CVC is weighing a €9B bid for Italian payments group Nexi, carving out the digital banking arm to avoid a Rome government veto. AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential are considering a potential $50B apartment REIT merger. Lazard agreed to pay $575M for private capital advisory firm Campbell Lutyens to build out its private markets platform.

Capital Markets and Corporate

IPO pipelines are filling with AI and defense-linked names, while Big Tech capex raises are reshaping the data center financing market.

SoftBank plans to list a new AI and robotics company called Roze AI in the US at a potential $100B valuation. L3Harris has confidentially filed plans to take its missile unit public. Apollo-owned auto parts supplier Tenneco is preparing for an IPO that could fetch $14B. Blackstone is folding its growth equity business into a new AI-focused unit called BXN1. PayPal plans to separate Venmo into a standalone business as potential buyers circle. And Starwood REIT halted investor redemptions as bets on lower interest rates have not materialized.

White Collar, Investigations, and Regulatory

Government enforcement is generating work across PE, tech, and media sectors.

The DOJ won the ability to review communications between KKR and its lawyers as part of a criminal investigation into PE deals—a notable breach of attorney-client privilege protections. Two Republican-led House committees are probing Anysphere (maker of AI coding platform Cursor) and Airbnb over their use of Chinese AI. The FCC ordered a review of ABC’s broadcast licenses, tied to diversity policies and the dispute between the president and Jimmy Kimmel. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to restrict the use of race in redistricting, weakening the Voting Rights Act.

Where the Work Sits

Cross-border M&A and PE exit work are at the center of today’s deal pipeline. The Kone-TK Elevator transaction alone will pull in teams across antitrust, corporate, financing, and tax in multiple jurisdictions. KKR’s potential $10B Flora Foods sale, CVC’s Nexi bid, and the AvalonBay-Equity Residential talks each carry full-service mandates covering due diligence, regulatory clearances, and deal structuring.

The IPO and capital markets pipeline is tilting toward AI and defense. SoftBank’s Roze AI listing at $100B, L3Harris’s confidential missile unit filing, and Tenneco’s PE-backed IPO all need securities counsel, underwriter negotiation, and SEC compliance work. Blackstone’s creation of BXN1 and the PayPal-Venmo separation add corporate restructuring and governance mandates.

White collar and investigations work is expanding on multiple fronts. The DOJ’s access to KKR’s attorney communications raises the stakes for privilege review across PE. Congressional probes into Anysphere and Airbnb over Chinese AI use will drive regulatory defense work in tech. The FCC’s ABC license review and the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling both create litigation and advisory demand in media and election law.

Energy and infrastructure advisory remains active. Adnoc’s multi-billion-dollar US natural gas push, BP’s Venezuela exploration deal, and the broader impact of $100+ oil prices are generating project finance, joint venture, and sanctions compliance work. Data center financing continues to move markets—$4.6B in junk bonds for a single Nvidia-tied Nevada facility shows the scale of capital flowing into AI infrastructure.

Global Markets

Central banks are holding but fracturing internally, oil is testing new highs on the Iran war, and inflation data shows the stickiness that keeps rate cuts off the table.

The Fed held rates at 3.5–3.75% but posted an 8-4 vote split—the sharpest divide since 1992. Chair Jerome Powell said he will stay on the Board of Governors after his chair term ends, a symbolic stand for Fed independence. Kevin Warsh’s nomination to lead the Fed advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee along party lines. Core PCE inflation hit 3.2% in March, up from 3.0%, while Q1 GDP came in at 2.0%—below the 2.3% estimate. Traders now price a 50% chance of a rate hike by April 2027. The US 30-year yield hit 5% for the first time since July, and the 2-year surged 11 bps to 3.95%.

Crude oil vaulted to $126/bbl—the highest since the Iran war began—before settling at $115. US gas prices rose to $4.18/gal, the highest since 2022. The UAE quit OPEC, dealing a blow to Saudi Arabia’s grip on the cartel. The ECB held rates at 2% as Eurozone inflation rose to 3.0%. The BOE held at 3.75% but flagged possible hikes ahead as oil-driven inflation risks rise. China’s April manufacturing PMI beat expectations at 50.3, but non-manufacturing contracted. The BOJ held rates at 0.75%.

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.