Good afternoon,

Cravath is adding a National Security Division veteran in Washington as firms build specialist benches for government-facing work, while Kirkland is planting a flag in Tokyo to capture Japan's growing M&A market. Winston & Strawn also added international trade talent in DC.

On the client side, Berkshire Hathaway is buying homebuilder Taylor Morrison for $6.8B, CVC is closing in on a $4.3B carve-out of IFF's food ingredients business, and Pfizer struck a $10.5B licensing deal with China's Innovent Biologics for early-stage cancer drugs. On the technology front, Anthropic confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Cravath, Winston & Strawn Add DC Talent in National Security and Trade / Kirkland Plans Tokyo Office

-Insider Trading Arraignments Hit Attorneys at Sidley, Latham, Goodwin

-Berkshire's $6.8B Taylor Morrison Deal / CVC Nears $4.3B IFF Carve-Out / Pfizer-Innovent $10.5B Cancer Drug Deal

-SoftBank Commits €75B to French AI Data Centers / SpaceX Lands $4.16B Space Force Contract / Anthropic Confidentially Files IPO Prospectus

-Massachusetts Sues UnitedHealth Over $100M+ Medicaid Fraud / Judge Blocks Trump's $1.8B Fund

-S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq at Record Highs / Powell Warns on Fed Independence / Oil Falls on Iran Deal Hopes

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

-Cravath Swaine & Moore is adding Michael Patrick Daly, a longtime National Security Division official, to its Washington office. The hire follows a string of partner departures earlier this year and signals the firm's focus on rebuilding its DC bench.

-Winston & Strawn hired international trade partner Hill in Washington, D.C.

-Ex-DOJ Deputy Associate AG Abhishek Kambli joined Holtzman Vogel's state attorneys general, congressional investigations, and election law practices. Kambli defended Trump's law firm executive orders before a US appeals panel in May and completed over 20 arguments during his 15+ months at DOJ.

What today's moves tell us: DC is the market of the moment as firms add specialists in national security, trade, and government investigations to meet growing complexity and client demand.

Operations and Strategy

Kirkland opening in Tokyo signals that Japanese market conditions supported by Bank of Japan rates are favorable for US based buyers, particularly PE and platform Asset Managers.

Kirkland & Ellis is opening a Tokyo office to tap Japan's M&A boom, recruiting lawyers as cross-border activity involving Japanese targets draws more US firms into the market.

Separately, 15 people are set to be arraigned in federal court in Boston for an insider trading scheme where attorneys at Sidley Austin, Latham & Watkins, and Goodwin Procter passed tips on roughly 30 merger deals. Nicolo Nourafchan, who worked at all three firms. The scheme is expected to drive firms to review and tighten data access across matters.

Practices

Corporate M&A and Private Equity

Dealmakers are finding execution windows across sectors as record equity levels and stabilizing rate expectations give buyers and boards more confidence to move on large transactions. The pipeline of strategic and sponsor-backed deals points to a busy calendar for deal mandates, financing negotiations, and regulatory review work.

Selected Press:

-Berkshire Hathaway will acquire homebuilder Taylor Morrison for $6.8B in cash, a 24% premium, in one of CEO Greg Abel's first major deals.

-CVC nears a $4.3B deal for IFF's food ingredients division, including debt, continuing a pattern of large PE carve-outs.

-Pfizer and China's Innovent Biologics agreed to a $10.5B global licensing and collaboration deal covering 12 early-stage cancer medicines.

-Stone Ridge offered $8B for Devon Energy's Marcellus shale assets, backed by what would be the largest ABS financing in US oil and gas history.

-UMG rejected Bill Ackman's $65B takeover bid as too low, with opposition from top shareholder Bollore helping sink the approach.

-LongRange Capital is in exclusive talks to acquire Pizza Hut from Yum! Brands, beating bidders including Sycamore Partners.

Capital Markets and Technology

The AI infrastructure race is generating mega capital raises, government contracts, and unique IPO preparations, each with layered sophisticated advisory needs from fund formation and project finance to securities and government procurement.

Selected Press:

-Anthropic confidentially filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC after raising $65B in Series H funding. It now surpassed OpenAI as the most valuable private AI startup, with Apollo and Blackstone looking to bring additional investors to a $36B debt financing.

-SoftBank committed up to €75B to develop 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in France, its largest European infrastructure investment, partnering with Schneider Electric.

-SpaceX was awarded a $4.16B Space Force contract for space-based sensors, weeks before its expected record IPO.

-Paramount Skydance is preparing a $50B debt sale to fund its $110B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Litigation and Investigations

Government enforcement and plaintiff-side activity are producing a steady stream of healthcare fraud, social media liability, and public-interest litigation mandates for firms with deep bench regulatory and dispute practices.

Selected Press:

- Massachusetts sued a UnitedHealth insurance unit for defrauding the state's Medicaid program out of more than $100M by making patients appear sicker than they were.

-A federal judge blocked Trump's $1.8B anti-weaponization fund, barring disbursement while courts weigh challenges. At least four lawsuits have been filed.

-A Kentucky school district secured $27M in settlements from Meta and other social media companies over student mental health claims.

-Chevron tapped appellate litigator Scott Keller as its next general counsel, hiring from Lehotsky Keller Cohn.

Where the Work Sits

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The day's M&A pipeline — Berkshire/Taylor Morrison, CVC/IFF, Pfizer/Innovent, Stone Ridge/Devon — spans housing, consumer products, healthcare, and energy. Each deal carries financing, regulatory, and in some cases cross-border advisory needs that will flow to a small set of firms with deep sector benches.

The AI capital cycle continues to generate overlapping mandates. Anthropic's $65B raise and $36B debt financing involve fund formation, credit structuring, and securities work. SoftBank's €75B French data center commitment creates project finance, energy, and EU regulatory mandates. SpaceX's government contracts and impending IPO touch procurement, securities, and disclosure work across multiple jurisdictions.

Enforcement and plaintiff-side activity remain steady. The Massachusetts Medicaid fraud suit against UnitedHealth, the social media liability settlements, and the anti-weaponization fund litigation will produce healthcare regulatory, product liability, and government dispute work. The BigLaw insider trading arraignment is a reminder that white-collar risk sits inside the industry itself.

Global Markets

Clients are watching record US equity levels alongside a complex mix of geopolitical risk and shifting rate expectations. Executives and board directors are weighing whether to move on shelved strategic activity while financing conditions remain accessible, but the US-Iran standoff and softening demand from China add execution uncertainty. Sponsors and fund managers are tracking AI-driven booms in South Korea and Taiwan and taking those as a green light for capital deployment, while monitoring the ECB's increasingly hawkish tone on war-driven inflation.

Selected Press:

S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq all closed at record highs, with the S&P rising for a ninth consecutive week.

Former Fed Chair Powell warned the central bank would lose credibility if a president could fire officials over policy disagreements.

US and Iran traded proposals on extending their ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but the deal remains fragile.

South Korea's export growth hit a four-decade high as chip exports jumped a record 169%, fueled by AI demand.

Oil sank to a six-week low on hopes for a US-Iran agreement, down 17% for the month.

China's factory activity slowed as new orders dipped below 50, while Beijing tightened rules on outbound investment and foreign deals.

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.