Good afternoon,
Brown Rudnick pulled a 34-lawyer IP litigation team out of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer in its largest group hire ever, ArentFox Schiff planted a Silicon Valley flag, and the lateral market kept churning from Seattle to London. Latham & Watkins is luring lawyers into its new London tower with free lunches and barista coffee.
On the client side, the AI data-center buildout became a financing story: Blackstone pitched a $36 billion debt package for Anthropic, NTT Data lined up $9 billion in Japan, and Big Tech's future data-center leases topped $1 trillion. Stocks set fresh records, with the S&P 500 at its first all-time high in two months and Amazon crossing $3 trillion.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Brown Rudnick lifts a 34-lawyer IP litigation team from HSF Kramer; ArentFox opens Silicon Valley
-Laterals spread across antitrust, healthcare, real estate, and labor — Reed Smith, King & Spalding, Jones Day, Seyfarth
-Magic circle results land as A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters report growth and US inroads
-Anthropic’s $36B Blackstone package, $10B Norway deal, and NTT Data’s $9B build reshape data-center finance
-Big Tech’s data-center lease commitments top $1.09 trillion, drawing rating-agency scrutiny
-SpaceX posts first post-IPO earnings; Bending Spoons buys Airtable; Polymarket eyes $20B
S-tocks at records — S&P 500’s first ATH in two months, Amazon tops $3T, Hormuz reopening nears
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Brown Rudnick hired a 34-lawyer IP litigation team from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, its largest-ever group hire; the group is led by partners who worked together at Kramer Levin before its 2025 merger with Herbert Smith Freehills.
ArentFox Schiff is opening a Silicon Valley office with a four-lawyer trademark group from Reed Smith.
Reed Smith hired London competition and FDI partner Paul Johnson from Morgan Lewis, and is planning further UK antitrust growth.
King & Spalding added healthcare partner Troy Barsky from Crowell in Washington and Denver.
Holland & Knight brought on wealth and family-office partner Megan Jones in its Century City office.
Jones Day added real estate lawyer Kevin Wakefield as of counsel in Dallas from Hunton.
Seyfarth Shaw expanded its Seattle labor and employment bench with partner Meg Burnham and a supporting group.
What today's moves tell us: firms are buying litigation firepower and specialist coverage in IP, antitrust, healthcare, and labor, even reaching across the Atlantic and into rivals to get it.
Operations and Strategy
Firms are seeking specialists and competing on culture and real estate as much as compensation.
Brown Rudnick's 34-lawyer lift is the operational headline — a full IP litigation team leaving Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer a year after that transatlantic merger, and the largest group hire in Brown Rudnick's history. Lateral economics can make more sense when adding an entire practice at once.
In London, the magic circle reported results: A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters all pointed to growth, profitability, and deeper US inroads, per Legal Business. The read-across is a widening contest with US firms on pay and margins.
Culture is now a recruiting tool for Big Law. Latham & Watkins is using free daily lunches, barista coffee, and fresh juices to draw lawyers into its new London HQ at One Leadenhall, echoing Paul Weiss's in-house sushi. Natural light, real estate and perks have become part of talent strategy.
Practices
AI Infrastructure and Private Credit
Dealmakers and lenders are treating the AI buildout as a financing engine, not just a capex story. The scale of data-center debt now forming points to sustained work for finance, project-development, and fund-formation teams, and the concentration of lease commitments is drawing the governance and disclosure attention that general counsel and boards cannot ignore.
Selected Press:
Blackstone pitched a debt package of at least $36 billion to finance Anthropic's use of Google chips across five data centers, potentially topping the ~$35 billion Apollo-Blackstone package from two months ago.
Anthropic signed a $10 billion, six-year computing deal with Volta Infra for an Nvidia-powered Norway site, part of a push that also includes SpaceX, AMD, and Akamai.
NTT Data plans at least $9 billion through 2033 to quadruple Japanese capacity to 1 gigawatt.
Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Amazon, and Alphabet have locked in $1.09 trillion of future data-center lease payments — about four times recognized liabilities — with Oracle alone at $260 billion as rating agencies fold the commitments into leverage models.
Capital Markets and M&A
A reopening equity window and constructive tape are pulling issuers and buyers off the sidelines. Dealmakers are watching valuation resets closely — some up, some sharply down — because the mix of IPOs, take-privates, and markdowns points to a busier calendar for capital-markets, M&A, and diligence mandates.
Selected Press:
SpaceX posted its first earnings since going public, beating on revenue with surging Starlink sales even as AI spending widened costs.
Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Airtable at about a $1.3 billion valuation, a steep markdown from its peak.
Polymarket is in talks to raise about $1 billion at a $20 billion valuation, and Shein is targeting a $30–40 billion Hong Kong IPO this month.
Litigation and Enforcement
Trade-secret, securities, and enforcement fights are generating steady disputes work, and the AI cases in particular are setting the terms for how developers protect and license technology. General counsel are recalculating exposure as regulators and shareholders test theories in court.
Selected Press:
OpenAI called Apple's trade-secrets suit "careless" and "oddly personal," escalating a fight that could shape AI IP protection.
WWE agreed to pay $105 million to settle a shareholder class action.
The DOJ fined OpenAI $3.2 million for favoring foreign workers over US citizens, and Carvana closed an out-of-court restructuring described as "a bridge to somewhere."
Where the Work Sits
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The clearest mandate signal is the data-center financing wave. Anthropic's $36 billion Blackstone package, NTT Data's $9 billion build, and $1.09 trillion of Big Tech lease commitments point to sustained private-credit, project-finance, and real-estate work — plus the disclosure and covenant advice that follows once rating agencies treat leases as debt. Where earlier private-credit returns came from spread, today's edge is structuring capability applied to borrowers no bank will underwrite alone.
The reopening IPO and M&A calendar — SpaceX's debut earnings, Shein's Hong Kong listing, Bending Spoons-Airtable, and Polymarket — feeds capital-markets, sponsor-side, and cross-border diligence mandates. Sharp valuation resets, up and down, keep both sell-side and distressed-M&A teams busy.
Technology disputes are clustering the high-end matters. The Apple-OpenAI trade-secret fight, WWE's securities settlement, and the DOJ's OpenAI penalty keep IP litigation, securities defense, and government-investigations teams engaged, with AI cases setting precedents clients will plan around.
Credit stress is the quieter build. Carvana's out-of-court deal and more than $100 billion of high-grade bonds trading like junk point to early liability-management and restructuring mandates, the kind that tend to arrive well before the maturities do.
Global Markets
Today’s constructive market read is giving boards and sponsors more room to move. Fund managers are reading records across equities and a calmer energy picture as a window to act — restarting paused raises, timing IPOs, and revisiting strategic deals while financing stays open. Clients are also watching credit stress beneath the surface and a possible Hormuz reopening that would ease the geopolitical risk premium.
Selected Press:
The S&P 500 hit its first all-time high in two months and the Nasdaq 100 added roughly $3.5 trillion over four sessions, with chip stocks posting their best four-day run since Covid.
Amazon topped a $3 trillion market cap and Europe's Stoxx 600 set a fresh record.
Bessent said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is imminent, lifting stocks, while more than $100 billion of high-grade bonds are trading like junk.
Stories to Watch
July payrolls (Friday, Aug. 7) — the week's marquee labor read and a key input to Fed and deal expectations.
Strait of Hormuz — Bessent calls a reopening deal imminent; watch energy, shipping, and sanctions work.
Anthropic IPO — a confidential filing sits behind the record data-center debt raises.
Shein's Hong Kong IPO — targeted this month at a $30–40 billion valuation.
Magic circle vs. US firms — A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters results sharpen the pay and margin contest.
Cuba's legal market — a decree opens private law practice for the first time in six decades, a long-horizon opening for cross-border advisers.
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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