Good afternoon,

Big Law partner compensation is pushing past $30 million for top rainmakers, with firms guaranteeing pay for up to three years as they compete for talent. King & Spalding added restructuring partners from Proskauer, Gibson Dunn picked up a former Senate counsel for its investigations practice, and Clifford Chance expanded its local partner rank across five offices. Meanwhile, Diversity Lab is shutting down after regulatory pressure from the FTC and the Trump administration.

On the client side, the US government seeks equity stakes in AI companies, while SpaceX heads toward a $1.75 trillion IPO this Friday; it has been disclosed that Google (a shareholder of SpaceX) has signed a $920 million-per-month compute deal with the company.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Big Law Rainmaker Pay Passes $30M / King & Spalding Adds Restructuring from Proskauer / Gibson Dunn Recruits Senate Counsel

-Diversity Lab Shuts Down After FTC Pressure / Morgan & Morgan Explores $1B+ Stake Sale / A&O Shearman Outsources London Support

-SpaceX IPO at $1.75T, 2x Oversubscribed / Google-SpaceX $920M/Month Compute Deal / Anthropic-SpaceX $1.25B/Month Deal

-Musicians Sue Warner and Universal Over AI Training / McMahon Shareholder Trial Opens / Amazon Patent Court Surges 200%

-Trump AI Executive Order Creates Voluntary Model-Sharing Framework / White House AI Advisor Krishnan Departs

-JPMorgan, BofA, Citi Build Tokenized Deposit Network / Stripe-Visa-Mastercard-Coinbase Stablecoin Consortium

-$1.5T Chip Selloff / Oil Above $93 on Israel-Iran Strikes / ECB Rate Hike Expected Thursday

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

-King & Spalding added Andrew Bettwy and Jinyoung Joo as partners in finance and restructuring from Proskauer in New York.

-Gibson Dunn recruited Matthew Owen, former Senate counsel, as partner in litigation and congressional investigations in Washington, D.C.

-Nixon Peabody brought on Sarah Quinn as partner in labor and employment in Chicago.

-Greenberg Traurig added Deborah Rotenberg as shareholder in healthcare and FDA practice in Sacramento.

-Jackson Lewis hired Brad Kushner as principal in workplace safety and health in Philadelphia.

-Polsinelli added Brian Willbur as principal in venture capital and emerging growth in San Francisco.

-Clifford Chance added seven lawyers to its local partner rank across five offices as part of its profitability push.

What today's moves tell us: Restructuring, healthcare, and government investigations are drawing lateral activity this week, with firms adding partners who bring regulatory credibility and client relationships in areas where enforcement and compliance work continue to grow.

Operations and Strategy

The talent arms race is getting more expensive, and firms are restructuring to fund it.

Elite firms are now spending upwards of $30 million in pay and bonuses to land individual partners, per recruiters cited by Bloomberg Law. Deals increasingly come with guaranteed pay for up to three years. Eversheds Sutherland reported 16% of its partnership was lateral hires in 2025, with Paul Hastings at 15% and Paul Weiss at 14%. The guaranteed-pay model signals firms are betting on rainmakers to justify rising billing rates and pay for themselves through client origination.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon asked general counsel Kathy Ruemmler to stay on as an adviser after her resignation earlier this year amid Epstein-related scrutiny. Michael Bosworth, who joined from Latham & Watkins in 2022, will step up as interim general counsel in July.

Diversity Lab is closing after the FTC sought a broad settlement barring it from collecting law firm data and eliminating its flagship diversity certification program. A&O Shearman is outsourcing document production staff in London to Williams Lea as part of post-merger savings. Outside of corporate Big Law, Morgan & Morgan, the largest US personal injury firm, hired JP Morgan to explore a minority stake sale that could raise over $1 billion and position the firm for a potential public listing.

Practices

Capital Markets and M&A

The IPO pipeline remains the biggest catalyst for capital markets practices. SpaceX is now targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation with its IPO already 2x oversubscribed ahead of an estimated June 12 listing. Separately, Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million per month for AI compute access through mid-2029, while Anthropic signed a $1.25 billion monthly compute deal with the company. Dealmakers are watching these deals closely: Alphabet's 6% stake in SpaceX could be worth over $100 billion at the IPO price, creating downstream work across securities, governance, and tax. Honeywell confirmed its June 29 aerospace spinoff, and Roche and Nurix announced a $2.3 billion blood cancer drug collaboration with $700 million upfront.

Selected Press:

-SpaceX IPO at $1.75T valuation, 2x oversubscribed, with listing estimated for Friday June 12.

-Google agrees to pay SpaceX $920M/month for AI compute capacity through mid-2029, covering ~110,000 Nvidia GPUs.

-Honeywell confirms June 29 aerospace spinoff under ticker HONA; reaffirms 2026 EPS guidance.

-Roche-Nurix $2.3B collaboration on blood cancer drug with $700M upfront and 50/50 US profit split.

-UK regulators open review of eBay's $1.2B Depop acquisition from Etsy.

Regulatory and AI Policy

AI policy is shifting in Washington. Sriram Krishnan, the White House's top AI advisor, is leaving his post and plans to start a policy institute. Trump signed an executive order creating a voluntary framework for AI companies to share their models with the government before releasing them, a notable shift from the prior hands-off approach driven in part by security concerns around Anthropic's Mythos model. The president also said he plans to meet AI companies this week to discuss financial partnerships, including the government taking equity stakes. For firms advising AI companies on regulatory compliance, government affairs, and corporate structuring, the pipeline of mandates is building.

Selected Press:

-White House AI advisor Krishnan departs, plans policy institute supporting administration agenda.

-Trump signs AI executive order creating voluntary model-sharing framework with government.

-Western Asset Management agrees to $100M SEC settlement.

-New York passes bill banning personal-data-based pricing.

Litigation and IP

IP and content-rights litigation is accelerating around AI training practices. The American Federation of Musicians sued Warner Music and Universal Music in Manhattan federal court for allegedly licensing members' work to tech companies for AI training without permission. Separately, Amazon's in-house patent dispute court (APEX) saw lawsuits surge more than 200% from 2022 to 2025, and the Vince McMahon shareholder trial opens today over allegations he accepted a low-ball WWE offer for personal legal benefits and a job at TKO. Clients in media, entertainment, and tech are closely tracking these cases as they set precedent for content licensing, AI training liability, and platform-controlled dispute resolution.

Selected Press:

-Musicians sue Warner and Universal for licensing work to AI companies without consent.

-McMahon shareholder trial begins over WWE sale and TKO merger allegations.

-Amazon APEX patent court lawsuits up 200%+ from 2022 to 2025; critics flag exploitation risk.

-Saks Global exits Chapter 11 with court approval for restructuring. 

Where the Work Sits

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Capital markets practices remain at full stretch. The SpaceX IPO alone is generating high-end securities, governance, and tax work, and the Google and Anthropic compute deals create multi-billion-dollar commercial contract mandates. Honeywell's spinoff and the Roche-Nurix collaboration add to a pipeline that is keeping M&A, capital markets, and life sciences transaction teams busy.

AI regulation is building into a sustained practice area. The White House's voluntary model-sharing framework, the departure of the top AI advisor, and the government equity-stake discussions all create regulatory, corporate structuring, and government affairs mandates for firms advising frontier AI companies. IP litigation around AI training practices, from the musicians' suit against Warner and Universal to Amazon's APEX expansion, is adding billable matters across copyright, licensing, and content-rights litigation.

Financial services restructuring work is also growing. The tokenized deposit network from JPMorgan, BofA, and Citi, and the Stripe-Visa-Mastercard-Coinbase stablecoin consortium, create sophisticated regulatory and fintech advisory work. These blockchain infrastructure moves sit at the intersection of banking regulation, securities law, and payments compliance.

Global Markets

Energy and rates are back at the center of the macro conversation.

Clients are watching a volatile mix of signals to start the week. The $1.5 trillion chip selloff Friday wiped the Nasdaq's nine-week win streak as the semiconductor index dropped 10%. Israel and Iran exchanged direct strikes, and the Houthis declared a complete ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, pushing oil above $93.

Executives and fund managers are weighing whether the combination of rising energy costs, sticky inflation, and the Fed's hawkish posture will narrow the window for strategic deals. Goldman Sachs no longer expects a rate cut this year, and Morgan Stanley suggested current rates may already be neutral. The ECB is expected to hike Thursday as euro-zone inflation has climbed from 1.9% to 3.2%. Decision-makers are positioning for a period where both energy disruption and tighter monetary policy test corporate balance sheets and deal timelines.

Selected Press:

-US stocks erased $1.5T in value as semiconductor index fell 10% in worst day since Covid.

-Israel and Iran exchange direct strikes; Houthis ban Israeli shipping in Red Sea.

-Oil surges above $93 on Middle East escalation; PIIE models $120 oil hitting US GDP by 1.2%.

-Goldman no longer expects Fed rate cut this year; Morgan Stanley raises r-star to 1.34%.

-ECB rate hike expected Thursday; euro-zone inflation at 3.2%, growth forecast cut to 0.7%.

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.