Good afternoon,
The lateral market stayed busy. Vinson & Elkins built out energy and infrastructure M&A in London, Sidley and Hogan Lovells pulled finance and structured-finance partners from Milbank and Mayer Brown, and Orrick installed a new global head of capital markets. Off the talent page, Aperture Investors is pushing litigation finance toward a $1 billion book, and analysts are asking whether Wachtell should spin off its litigators.
On the client side, the Nvidia $500 billion (MOU) from six private-capital giants, Anthropic partnered with Macquarie and GIC on data centers, and Intel moved to raise up to $20 billion.
Oil is the wildcard, with crude above $84 and Brent near $90 as Hormuz stays shut into today's CPI print.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Energy, structured-finance, and IP laterals move across London, New York, and San Francisco / Orrick names global capital-markets head
-Litigation finance scales toward $1B at Aperture / Wachtell weighs spinning off its litigation group
-Nvidia lines up $500B from Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman, and KKR for AI infrastructure
-Anthropic teams with Macquarie and GIC on data centers / data-center ABS runs into post-2008 risk-retention rules
-Intel raises up to $20B in stock; SpaceX-Cursor, Boeing-Archer, and Varex keep the deal tape moving
-Manus splits from Meta on Beijing’s order as Meta open-sources its flagship model
-Oil spikes on a shut Strait of Hormuz as markets brace for July CPI and a “higher for longer” Fed
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Vinson & Elkins hired Michael Burns as head of energy and infrastructure M&A for EMEA in London.
Sidley added Sharanyaa Kruti Vasan as a partner in energy, transportation and infrastructure in New York, from Milbank.
Hogan Lovells hired structured finance partner Joanna Suna in New York, from Mayer Brown.
Orrick brought on Michael Keeley as global head of capital markets in New York and Ben Richards in capital markets in San Francisco.
Greenberg Traurig added real estate shareholder Brian Helweil in New York.
DLA Piper hired Joshua Fox and Alexander Civetta as emerging growth and venture capital partners in Boston.
Kilpatrick added patent litigator Jonah Mitchell in San Francisco.
What today's moves tell us: firms are building teams across energy and infrastructure, structured finance, and patent coverage, and the investment is spread across London, New York, Boston, and San Francisco rather than one market.
Operations and Strategy
Capital is moving into the business of law from a different direction: not in the form of equity in the firms themselves, but funding for the cases they run.
Aperture Investors said it is expanding its litigation finance platform toward $1 billion in investments, and it is treating the asset class like private credit, lending directly to plaintiffs rather than taking pure equity-style positions in case outcomes. For firms, more capital chasing claims means more funded plaintiffs, larger dockets, and counterparties on the other side of settlements who can afford to wait.
The structural question is playing out inside the firms too. Industry observers are floating whether Wachtell should spin off its litigation group so the firm can concentrate even more on its high-margin corporate practice. It is a live debate about where elite firms make their money, and it lands as litigation funders like Aperture professionalize the money behind disputes.
Practices
Capital Markets and Structured Finance
Dealmakers and lenders are watching how much AI-linked paper the market can absorb, because every new structure — equity, high-yield, or asset-backed — pulls in capital-markets, structured-finance, and regulatory counsel to make it clear and marketable. Where the money is abundant, the mandates follow.
Selected Press:
Anthropic partnered with Macquarie and Singapore's GIC on U.S. AI data centers for its Claude models; the funds own the platform and fund most of the equity, while Anthropic absorbs consumer electricity-price increases. No amounts were disclosed by either company.
Data-center ABS is colliding with post-2008 rules, including risk retention; Latham lawyers note the requirements have kept some data-center owners out of the market even as AI-linked issuance climbs.
Intel is raising up to $20 billion in stock at $95 a share for capex and working capital, its shares up 175% over the year on a CPU shortage and a 59% jump in its data-center and AI unit.
M&A and Private Equity
The deal tape kept moving despite a soft backdrop, with strategics and sponsors acting where the logic is clear. Deal lawyers are positioning for a busy stretch of M&A, financing, and fund-formation work.
Selected Press:
SpaceX is acquiring Cursor at a $60 billion valuation, folding the coding startup's AI agents into a broader "Grok Bot" push.
Boeing took a stake in Archer, deepening a strategic tie in electric aviation.
Varex agreed to a ~$18.90-a-share cash takeout, sending the healthcare-imaging supplier up about 50% and adding to healthcare deal flow.
OpenAI ran a ~$7 billion employee tender at an $852 billion valuation, lifting total secondary sales to roughly $16 billion.
Anton Levy raised over $1 billion for Layer Global, a new tech fund targeting fast-growing companies, in the slowest first-time fundraising market since 2016.
Regulatory, Antitrust, and IP
Cross-border tech ownership and open-source strategy are generating their own advisory work. General counsel are recalculating deal risk as governments force unwinds and as model releases reshape licensing and liability questions.
Selected Press:
Manus is separating from Meta and returning to independence after Beijing ordered the deal unwound, with a service pause set for August 23–24.
Meta is open-sourcing its flagship Muse Spark 1.2 model and a smaller Muse Glimmer model, a release aimed partly at U.S. buyers who prefer domestic models on security grounds.
Google's Gemini crossed 1 billion monthly users, a scale point that raises the stakes in the model-licensing and platform arrangements lawyers negotiate around it.
Where the Work Sits
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The Nvidia-led $500 billion consortium, the Anthropic-Macquarie-GIC data-center platform, and Intel's $20 billion raise all convert into capital-markets, structured-finance, and project-finance mandates, and the friction points — risk-retention rules that keep some data-center owners out of the ABS market — are exactly the high-end matters that flow to a small set of firms when structures get complex.
M&A and private capital supply the second stream. A $60 billion SpaceX-Cursor deal, Boeing's Archer stake, the Varex takeout, and OpenAI's employee tender feed acquisition, antitrust, and fund-liquidity teams, while Layer Global's raise shows fund-formation work is still getting done in a thin market for first-time managers.
Regulatory and cross-border enforcement round out the sophisticated mandates. Beijing forcing the Manus-Meta unwind, and Meta's open-source releases, put CFIUS-style review, licensing, and IP counsel at the center of how tech deals and model launches are structured.
Energy and disputes are the constructive counterweight. A shut Hormuz and climbing fuel prices drive energy, commodities, and contingency work, while litigation finance scaling toward $1 billion at Aperture points to more funded claims and busier disputes dockets.
Global Markets
Oil is the swing factor going into today's inflation print, and clients are reading it straight into financing and deal timing.
Fund managers and board directors are weighing a shut Strait of Hormuz and rising fuel costs against a Fed that markets expect to stay higher for longer, a combination that complicates refinancing calendars, energy hedging, and the timing of listings and cross-border deals. Decision-makers are watching July CPI for whether the inflation picture gives the Fed any room at all.
Selected Press:
U.S. crude topped $84 and Brent neared $90 as a U.S.–Iran deal to reopen Hormuz receded and Iran vowed to keep the strait shut; U.S. crude inventories sit at a 40-year low.
Diesel futures jumped 7.4% on refinery attacks and export bans, and the EIA raised its 2026 gasoline and diesel price forecasts.
U.S. labor force participation fell to its lowest since 1976 excluding Covid distortions, even as small-business confidence rose to 99.8 with the strongest hiring plans since 2022.
Pending home sales slipped 1.7% in July, a sign of a cooling housing market as rates hold.
Stories to Watch
U.S. July CPI (today, Aug 12) — the read that sets Fed-cut odds and the near-term financing window.
Strait of Hormuz and oil — Iran's plan to keep the strait shut and the EIA's higher fuel forecasts keep energy risk on boards' radar.
Manus service pause (Aug 23–24) — the unwind of the Meta deal on Beijing's order is a template for forced cross-border separations.
Hyperscaler debt supply after Labor Day — the next test of appetite for AI-linked credit after the Nvidia consortium news.
U.S. housing — a 1.7% July drop in pending sales signals softer transaction activity into the fall.
Trump Media earnings fallout — a $238.1 million quarterly loss and a 36% drop in Truth Social visits keep the company in the disclosure spotlight.
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.
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