Welcome back and good morning,

Last week's lateral market carried a clear signal. The government-to-private-sector movement is accelerating with former government officials from the DOJ, Treasury Department, and the SEC finding new homes across Big Law, signaling that firms expect fees to remain strong and seek to build regulatory strength. Freshfields shed three partners in a single week, losing talent to DLA Piper, Steptoe, and Polsinelli. K&L Gates also saw significant outflows, losing a 12-lawyer healthcare team to Barnes & Thornburg while an FDA regulatory partner decamped for Dentons.

On the corporate executive side, Fortune 500 CFO musical chairs continued at pace. Centene, Baxter International, GE HealthCare, and Xylem all announced CFO transitions, with multiple successors drawn from peer Fortune 500 companies. In investment banking, Morgan Stanley poached technology dealmaker Tim Luke from Barclays, while Bank of America expanded its tech banking bench, and Moelis & Co. raided Lazard's private capital advisory unit for five directors.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

BigLaw Moves Sentiment

The concentration of hires in Washington, D.C. this week, particularly in regulatory enforcement, white collar defense, and national security, reflects sustained demand for government-facing practices as firms are expecting significant legal advisory revenue from continued regulatory enforcement activity.

Freshfields' three-partner exodus signals the ongoing talent war among global firms competing in the U.S. market. The structured finance, debt finance, and investment funds hires point to firms building capacity for a dealmaking environment that is slowly thawing after a prolonged quiet period.

BigLaw Moves

A few quick patterns worth noting: This week saw 32 firms welcoming 35 new partners. Barnes & Thornburg made the biggest splash, bringing over a 12-lawyer healthcare team from K&L Gates including two partners. Freshfields saw the most net departures this week (3), losing partners to three different firms across white collar, PE/M&A, and investigations. Washington, D.C. was the busiest market, accounting for eight of the week's partner-level moves, led by regulatory, white collar, and public policy hires.

Firms Welcoming Multiple Joiners
-Barnes & Thornburg (2 partners + 10 lawyers): Kelsey Jernigan and John Lawrence joined as part of a 12-lawyer healthcare team in Raleigh from K&L Gates. Lawrence will serve as managing partner of the Raleigh office and Jernigan as director of regulatory services.

-Honigman (2): Mike Duggan, the former Mayor of Detroit, joined the firm's public policy practice. Joshua Zeman joined as a commercial litigation partner from Brooks Wilkins Sharkey & Turco.

-McGuireWoods (2): Jeff Golimowski and Jeremy Baker joined as commercial litigation partners in Tysons, Virginia, from Womble Bond Dickinson.

Firms Adding Single Joiners
-Akerman: Lisa Lim joined as real estate partner and chair of its affordable housing transactions group in New York from Rosenberg & Estis.

-Ashurst Perkins Coie: Prava Palacharla, a former DOJ attorney in the National Security Division, joined as a partner in the commercial litigation practice in Chicago.

-Baker Donelson: Alexandra Neifert joined as a real estate partner in Baltimore from Whiteford Taylor & Preston.

-Baker McKenzie: Justin Welch returned as an IP partner in Dallas from Jack Daniel's Properties.

-Blank Rome: Tarek Abdalla joined from Jones Day to co-chair the firm's construction and infrastructure practice.

-Clifford Chance: Matthew Jones joined as a partner in its debt finance practice in Houston.

-Dentons: Michael Hinckle joined as an FDA regulatory partner in Washington, D.C. from K&L Gates.

-DLA Piper: Eric Bruce joined as a partner in its white collar crime, investigations, and government enforcement practice in Washington, D.C. from Freshfields.

-Dorsey & Whitney: Yufei (Fei) Li joined as a partner in the tax, trusts, and estates group in Seattle and Palo Alto.

-Faegre Drinker: Chad Hummel joined as a litigation partner in Los Angeles from McKool Smith.Greenberg Traurig: Prashant Kolluri, a former federal prosecutor, joined as a shareholder in its litigation practice in Chicago.

-Hunton Andrews Kurth: Ian Roberts joined as a partner in its bankruptcy and restructuring practice in Dallas from A&O Shearman.

-K&L Gates: Tim Foley joined as a broker-dealer regulatory partner in Washington, D.C. from Linklaters.

-King & Spalding: Mandi Jacobson joined as a life science partner in Sydney from Thomson Geer.

-Lowenstein Sandler: Ivan Blumenthal joined as a capital markets and securities partner in New York from Mintz.

-Moore & Van Allen: Erica Bakies joined as a national security partner, opening the Charlotte-based firm's new Washington, D.C. office. She previously was with Seyfarth Shaw.

-Norton Rose Fulbright: Ned Kirk joined the firm's global insurance practice as a partner in New York from Clyde & Co.

-O'Melveny: Reza Zarghamee joined as an environmental and PFAS partner in Washington, D.C. from Pillsbury.

-Orrick: Steven Lozner joined as a partner in its structured finance team in New York from DLA Piper.

-Polsinelli: Kevin Uhler joined as a shareholder in its private equity M&A practice in Chicago from Freshfields.

-Reed Smith: John Magruder joined the firm's global regulatory enforcement practice as a partner in Washington, D.C. from Paul Weiss.

-Sidley: Jiqiang Lin joined as a life sciences transactions partner in New York from Cooley.

-Simpson Thacher & Bartlett: Jessica Cooney joined as a partner in the firm's M&A practice in Boston from Ropes & Gray.

-Squire Patton Boggs: Oksana Lashko joined as a partner and national co-chair of the firm's creditors' committee practice in New York from Morrison Foerster.

-Steptoe: Jennifer Loeb joined as a partner in its investigations, white-collar defense and compliance group in Washington, D.C. from Freshfields.

-Troutman Pepper Locke: Baird Allis returned as a partner in its insurance transactional and regulatory practice in Chicago from Kemper, where he was associate general counsel.

-Venable: Derek Theurer, a former senior Treasury Department official, joined as a partner in the firm's legislative and public policy group in Washington, D.C.

-White & Case: Timothy Clark joined as a partner in its global investment funds practice and private capital industry group in New York from Mayer Brown, where he was head of private funds.

-Willkie: Matthew Penny joined as an energy and infrastructure partner in Dallas from Jackson Walker.

-Notable Departure: Elad Roisman, a partner at Cravath Swaine & Moore and former SEC commissioner, left the firm for Fireblocks, a digital asset infrastructure company.

Corporate Moves Sentiment

The CFO carousel at Fortune 500 companies is running at its fastest pace since the pandemic, with turnover on track to hit 18.3% in 2026. This week's transitions at Centene, Baxter International, GE HealthCare, and Xylem illustrate the trend, with successors increasingly pulled from peer large-cap companies rather than promoted internally.

For law firms, CFO transitions at public companies generate advisory work across securities compliance, executive compensation, corporate governance, and transition-related disclosure.

The investment banking reshuffling, led by Morgan Stanley's hire of Tim Luke from Barclays and Moelis raiding Lazard's private capital advisory team, signals that banks are repositioning for a more active technology and private capital deal environment, which in turn should drive dealmaking mandates for corporate law practices.

Corporate Moves

Investment Banking

Bank of America: The bank hired two managing directors for its technology banking practice. Asad Mahmood, formerly of Barclays, will cover semiconductors and quantum computing from Palo Alto. Gregory Reider, co-founder of Volpe Capital, joins to cover Latin America tech and fintech.

Bank of Nova Scotia: Richard Tory, president of Morgan Stanley's Canada investment-banking business, is joining to lead the global mining group and serve as chair of investment banking, effective end of October.

Goldman Sachs: Andrew Teo was promoted to co-head of investment banking in Southeast Asia.

Moelis & Co.: The firm hired five directors from Lazard's private capital advisory business, including Ben Stein, Tom Holmstrom, and Zachary Craumer. Holmstrom and Stein will co-lead the primary fundraising advisory team.

Morgan Stanley: Tim Luke is joining as vice chair of tech investment banking from Barclays, focusing on semiconductors and hardware.

Rothschild & Co.: Brent Surber was appointed managing director and head of US private capital markets, developing offerings in bespoke equity and debt financings and capital structure advisory.

Asset Management Clients

Foresite Capital: Jorge Reis-Filho was hired as a Venture Partner. He previously was with AstraZeneca.

H.I.G. Capital: Tim Hsu and Chris Todisco joined as managing directors of capital formation from Oaktree Capital and Schroders Capital, respectively.

Scale Venture Partners: Siddharth (Sidd) Ramakrishnan was promoted to Partner.

Vistara Growth: John O'Donoghue and Neil Kenley were promoted to Partners at the Vancouver and Toronto-based growth equity firm.

XYZ Venture Capital: Manish Patel was hired as a General Partner from Nava Ventures.

Corporate Clients

AE Industrial Partners: John Plueger joined as a senior advisor. He previously was CEO of Air Lease Corp.

Align: Noel Kilcooley was promoted to CTO. Kilcooley has worked at the IT services company since 1999.

Baxter International: John Rogers was appointed EVP and CFO, effective October 1. He currently serves as CFO of Smith+Nephew. He succeeds interim CFO Anita Zielinski, who is headed to Cardinal Health as Chief Accounting Officer.

Centene: Drew Asher is stepping down as CFO at year-end. Chris Neczypor, former CFO of Lincoln Financial, will succeed him. Adam Cohen was appointed interim CFO of Lincoln Financial.

Credit Acceptance: Jeetu Mirchandani was named CTO, effective August 27. He previously spent 21 years at Amazon, most recently as director of applied AI.

GE HealthCare Technologies: William K. Grogan was appointed CFO, effective September 14, from Xylem where he was EVP and CFO. He succeeds George Newcomb, who returns to Controller. Previous CFO Jay Saccaro became CFO and COO of Zoetis effective August 17.

Health Gorilla: Ryan Smith was appointed CTO of the healthcare software provider.

ICR: Nick Theccanat joined as a managing director from Blue Owl Capital.

Invoca: JB Brown was appointed CTO. He previously was VP of engineering at Smartsheet.Mantis Space: Dale Parkes was named the first CTO of the space infrastructure startup. He previously spent 25 years at Boeing.

PPC: Kristin Kirby joined as VP of operations from McKinsey & Co.

Progress Software: Bridget Collins was appointed CIO. She previously was CIO at Rapid7 and chief transformation officer at Cerence.

QVC Group: David Rawlinson is stepping down as President and CEO. Mike George, CEO for nearly 16 years before Rawlinson, was appointed interim CEO.

Transient.AI: Michael Ponniah was appointed CTO. He previously spent nearly a decade at Amazon across AWS, Alexa AI, and last mile delivery, and seven years at Credit Suisse.

Valeris: Adam Miller was appointed chief technology and AI officer. He previously was CTO at PeakActivity and CPO at GoodRx.

Xylem: Andrea van der Berg will succeed William K. Grogan as CFO, effective September 1. She previously spent 13 years at Honeywell Technologies.

Heard on the Street

Meanwhile, lateral associates now outnumber new law school graduates in BigLaw hiring, according to FindLaw. Lateral associates accounted for 49% of all associate hires in 2025, while entry-level law school graduates made up just 38%, signaling a structural shift from campus recruiting to experience-driven lateral pipelines.

Per executive recruiting firm Christian & Timbers, executive hiring is shifting from replacement-based searches to capability-driven leadership design.

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 content that highlights demand for legal services. Certain production processes may be supported by proprietary AI tools and are subject to human editorial judgement and review.