Good afternoon,

Law firms are doubling down on both AI and headcount (in US and Abroad). A Bloomberg Law survey shows 61 firms expanding office space and 55 adding practice areas even as they invest in AI tools, a signal that firms expect demand to stay strong enough to justify parallel bets on technology and people. Italian M&A has sparked a hiring boom in Milan. Across the pond, Sullivan & Cromwell seeks to double its office space while London based firm Addleshaw Goddard expanded into the Netherlands through a Dutch firm merger, extending its European push after recent launches in Warsaw, Madrid, and Germany.

On the client side, Fox agreed to buy Roku for $22B, DOJ cleared Paramount Skydance’s $110B acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and the US ordered Anthropic to block foreign access to its most advanced AI models.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Firms Expand Offices and AI Investment / Addleshaw Goddard Enters Netherlands via Merger / Italy’s M&A Boom Sparks Talent War / SullCrom bets on London
-Fox-Roku $22B / DOJ Clears Paramount-WBD $110B / Salesforce Buys Fin for $3.6B
Investment Firms Race Into Venezuelan Oil After Sanctions Eased / Lazard Undercuts Centerview’s Venezuela RX Fees / Sleep Number Files Chapter 11
-Anthropic Export Ban Jolts AI Industry / OpenAI Probed by State AGs / UK Bans Teen Social Media
- SBF Loses Appeal / Ken Leech Pleads Guilty
-US-Iran Deal Sends Oil Below $83 / Central Banks Meet: Fed Holds, BOJ Hikes / China Spending Contracts

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

On the Big-Law government revolving door, the White House nominated Sullivan & Cromwell partner James McDonald for US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, replacing Jay Clayton. McDonald is the former CFTC enforcement chief and member of Trump’s hush money appeal team.

What today’s moves tell us:  Employment litigation and energy M&A are drawing lateral investment across California and Texas, while the government-to-BigLaw pipeline keeps producing senior talent.

Operations and Strategy

Firms are expanding physically and technologically at the same time, while European M&A continues reshaping the global legal map.

Law.com reports that Italy's M&A boom has ignited a talent war as global firms focus on capturing the transactional boom happening in Milan.

In London, Sullivan & Cromwell is seeking an office roughly double the size of the current space, indicating a long-term bet on the firm’s growth plans in London.

A Bloomberg Law survey found 61 firms expanding office space and 55 launching new practice areas, even as AI investment accelerates. The data suggests firms see AI as a complement to growth, not a substitute for it, at least for now. The shift is showing up in hiring patterns: firms may tilt away from junior roles and toward lateral partners who bring books and client relationships that AI cannot replicate.

UK based Addleshaw Goddard entered the Netherlands through a merger with a Dutch firm, continuing its European expansion after recent launches in Warsaw, Madrid, and Germany. The move adds another top mid-market player to continental Europe’s growing roster of UK-headquartered firms.

On the diversity front, Diversity Lab announced its closure after failing to reach an accord with the Trump administration. According to Thomson Reuters, of 60 firms contacted for comment, very few responded, a near-total silence that reflects how politically charged the topic has become.

Practices

M&A and Capital Markets

Dealmakers are working through one of the busiest stretches for large-cap M&A in months. The DOJ clearance of the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery $110B deal removes a major regulatory hurdle, though European reviews remain. Fox’s $22B cash-and-stock acquisition of Roku extends the media consolidation trend, and Salesforce’s $3.6B purchase of AI agent platform Fin adds another enterprise AI acquisition to the pipeline.

In emerging markets, investment firms are racing into Venezuela after Trump’s removal of Maduro and loosened sanctions opened the door for private companies to operate oilfields directly — Lionheart Capital, Formentera Partners, and others are raising SPACs and vehicles to deploy up to $100B. In the investment banking advisory world, Lazard undercut Centerview with an 85% fee discount for Venezuela restructuring advisory, signaling how competitive the advisory market is for new sovereign mandates. On the corporate restructuring side, Sleep Number filed for Chapter 11 with a $415M sale to Sleep Country Canada as tariffs weighed on margins.

Separately, Exxon Mobil is evaluating acquisition targets including Australia’s $45B-listed Woodside Energy. These news highlight the importance of a well established international network and presence to solve dealmakers’ most pressing and complex challenges.

Selected Press:

Regulatory and Technology

The summer season for regulatory and technology savvy counsel keeps getting busier. The US government’s order forcing Anthropic to block all foreign access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models is the most aggressive AI export control action to date. The directive followed Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raising security concerns with officials, and came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to de-deploy or fix identified vulnerabilities. For clients and counsel, this sets a precedent for how governments can control frontier AI distribution — and the litigation, compliance, and export-control work that follows. Canada’s PM Mark Carney compared the moment to the 2008 financial crisis. Separately, a coalition of state attorneys general opened an investigation into OpenAI over user data, advertising, and protections for minors.

Selected Press:

White Collar and Securities

White-collar matters are keeping firms busy. An appeals court upheld Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud conviction and 25-year sentence, calling him the “driver of one of the largest frauds on record.” Charlie Javice is reportedly seeking a Trump pardon for defrauding JPMorgan, and Western Asset Management's Ken Leech pleaded guilty to obstructing an SEC probe.

Selected Press:

Where the Work Sits

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The M&A pipeline is generating cross-practice mandates across media, tech, and energy. The Paramount-WBD clearance triggers European regulatory review, post-close integration, and governance advisory. Fox-Roku and Salesforce-Fin each carry antitrust, IP, and technology licensing components. The Venezuelan oil opening is creating new energy M&A, sanctions compliance, SPAC structuring, and sovereign restructuring mandates for firms with Latin America and energy practices.

The Anthropic export ban opens a new category of AI regulatory and export-control work. Firms advising AI companies need to evaluate national security review exposure, foreign access policies, and contractual force majeure provisions triggered by government orders. The OpenAI state AG investigation adds AI safety compliance to the growing list of regulatory mandates.

White collar and restructuring practices are busy on multiple fronts. The SBF appeal, Javice pardon bid, and Leech plea each generate ongoing advisory and enforcement defense work. Sleep Number's Chapter 11 adds another tariff-driven restructuring to the pipeline.

Global Markets

Clients are recalibrating risk models after the US and Iran announced an interim deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with a signing planned in Switzerland on Friday. Executives and boards that paused deal activity during the conflict are reassessing cautiously optimistic restart timelines based on the expectation that the Fed under new Chair Kevin Warsh will to hold rates on Wednesday (his first press conference), while the BOJ is expected to hike. Moreover, ECB President Lagarde warned that energy prices are starting to feed into broader costs and in China, consumer spending may have contracted for the first time since the pandemic.

Selected Press:

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.