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Kirkland added a nine-lawyer energy and infrastructure team from Latham in Houston, Paul Weiss planted two partners in the same city, and Cleary hired a funds partner from Fried Frank in London. Dallas is now one of the hottest lateral markets in the country as firms chase clients drawn to Texas's business-friendly environment. The DOJ, meanwhile, is offering $25,000 signing bonuses to attract lawyers as recruitment falls behind.

On the client side, KKR and AMD both beat Q1 estimates — KKR's insurance revenue doubled and AMD's data center sales surged 57%. European M&A volumes are up 39% this year to over $455 billion, and UniCredit launched a $41 billion hostile bid for Commerzbank. The SEC proposed replacing quarterly earnings with semiannual filings.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Kirkland Adds 9-Lawyer Latham Energy Team in Houston / Paul Weiss, Cleary, Proskauer, A&O Shearman Make Moves

-DOJ Offers $25K Signing Bonuses as Recruitment Lags / Dallas Lateral Market Heats Up

-UniCredit's $41B Commerzbank Bid / EQT Raises Intertek Offer to $12B / European M&A Up 39%

-SEC Proposes Semiannual Reporting / FSB Flags Private Credit Risks

-US Pauses Hormuz Operations on Iran Deal Progress / UK 30Y Yields Hit 1998 High

Talent Strategy

What today's moves tell us: Houston and Dallas are pulling serious lateral activity as firms build energy, M&A, and tax benches to serve clients in Texas's growing deal market. London also saw movement, with Cleary continuing its private capital buildout.

-Kirkland & Ellis hired a nine-lawyer energy and infrastructure team from Latham & Watkins in Houston, led by partner Christopher Peponis. Partners Taylor Lopez, Carlos Diaz, and Josh Ryu also joined.

-Paul Weiss hired Aisha Lavinier as an M&A partner from Kirkland & Ellis and Jim Cole as a tax partner from Latham & Watkins, both in Houston.

-Cleary hired funds partner David Christmas from Fried Frank in London to build out its private capital offering.

-Proskauer Rose added private funds partner Zeeshan Ahmedani to its Los Angeles office.

-A&O Shearman hired Andrew Lanius from Simpson Thacher to lead its US energy and infrastructure practice in Houston.

-Wilson Sonsini hired Ken Sanocki as a partner in its Energy and Climate Solutions practice in San Francisco.

-Bryan Ikegami joined Reed Smith as a partner in its global corporate group in Century City.

-King & Spalding hired Ray Fang from Goodwin Procter in London, focused on real estate PE transactions. Goodwin has lost around 13 partners from its London base in the past 18 months.

Operational Strategy

Firms are competing hard for lateral talent in Texas while the DOJ struggles to fill its own ranks.

Dallas has become one of the most competitive lateral markets in BigLaw. Firms are following clients drawn to the city's business-friendly environment, and hiring has picked up across corporate, litigation, and regulatory practices. The trend mirrors what has been happening in Houston, where Paul Weiss, Clifford Chance, and Kirkland are all expanding. 

Practices

M&A and Capital Markets

Cross-border M&A continues to drive deal volume, with European transactions leading global growth.

UniCredit launched a roughly $41 billion all-stock hostile bid for Commerzbank, taking its offer directly to the German lender's shareholders. EQT raised its bid for UK testing firm Intertek to approximately $12 billion, with Freshfields and Slaughter and May advising on the deal. Vodafone agreed to buy CK Hutchison's 49% stake in their UK mobile JV for $5.8 billion.

Bayer agreed to acquire US drugmaker Perfuse for up to $2.45 billion, and Ametek will buy Indicor's instrumentation businesses for about $5 billion.

European M&A volumes are up 39% this year to over $455 billion, the strongest pace in roughly two decades. The EU recently issued new M&A guidelines — its first major policy overhaul in 20 years — aimed at easing the path for European megamergers. Globally, deal values announced this year have risen 16% to $1.6 trillion.

Private Equity and Credit

Private credit is under the microscope as regulators flag structural risks and retail investors pull back.

The Financial Stability Board flagged vulnerabilities in the $1.8 trillion private credit sector, spotlighting rising leverage, valuation blind-spots, and "circles of risk" in synthetic risk transfers. Banks issued $41 billion of SRTs in 2025, up from $29 billion the year before. At the Milken conference, Oaktree's Armen Panossian said the firm was stockpiling cash for a correction, while SVP's Victor Khosla warned that software blowups will taint the broader credit market. KKR beat Q1 estimates — insurance revenue more than doubled and AUM climbed 14% — but warned of lower profit due to a volatile deal outlook. Apollo raised $6.5 billion for its third hybrid debt-equity fund. Carlyle arranged a $5 billion-plus deal to seed its next flagship buyout fund.

Technology and IP

AI spending dominates tech headlines as companies race to build infrastructure and deploy models.

Anthropic committed to spending $200 billion on Google's cloud and chips, while OpenAI will spend $50 billion on computing power this year. Blackstone and KKR are in talks with Alphabet to give portfolio companies access to Google's AI models. Five major publishers, including RELX-owned Elsevier, sued Meta, alleging it used pirated books and articles to train its AI.

Apple agreed to a $250 million settlement over Apple Intelligence claims tied to Siri on iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro models.

Corporate Governance and Regulatory

The SEC proposed a rule that could end 55 years of quarterly earnings reports.

The SEC proposed allowing public companies to replace quarterly filings with semiannual reports. Supporters say the change could cut compliance costs and reduce short-term market pressure. The Trump administration is also weighing new AI safety requirements, including Pentagon testing of AI models deployed to government agencies. FINRA is investigating Morgan Stanley's investment banking program in Budapest.

Where the Work Sits

Cross-border M&A is generating steady demand for corporate teams with European and US capabilities. UniCredit's hostile bid for Commerzbank, EQT's pursuit of Intertek, and Vodafone's $5.8 billion buyout all require banking regulatory, antitrust, and public M&A advisory work across multiple jurisdictions. 

Private credit regulatory work is expanding. The FSB's report on SRT risks, combined with the SEC's proposed shift to semiannual reporting, will create compliance, disclosure, and restructuring advisory mandates for firms with financial regulatory practices. The ongoing shakeout in private credit — with BDCs marking down software loans, cutting dividends, and facing redemption caps — will keep restructuring and fund formation teams busy. 

Tech and IP litigation continues to build. The publisher lawsuit against Meta over AI training data, Apple's $250 million Siri settlement, and new government AI safety testing requirements are driving work for IP litigation, data privacy, and regulatory practices. The scale of AI infrastructure spending — $200 billion from Anthropic, $50 billion from OpenAI — is also fueling project finance, joint venture, and technology transactions work. 

Energy and infrastructure advisory demand remains high in Texas. Kirkland's nine-lawyer energy team hire from Latham and the steady lateral flow into Houston and Dallas signal that firms expect sustained client activity in energy project development and finance.

Global Markets

US equities hit fresh highs on strong earnings and progress in Iran talks, but sticky inflation and rising bond yields are complicating the outlook.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed at all-time highs, with the S&P at 7,259 and the Nasdaq at 25,326. Oil fell to $101 per barrel on expectations of a Middle East peace deal, but US gasoline rose to $4.54 per gallon.

The US trade deficit widened 4.4% to $60.3 billion in March. Private employers added 109,000 jobs in April, above expectations, and job openings held steady at 6.87 million.

The 10-year Treasury yield sits at 4.42%, and 30-year yields are near 5%. UK 30-year gilt yields climbed 14 basis points to 5.8%, the highest since 1998.  Swaps traders are pricing in a 50% chance the Fed holds rates at 3.50-3.75% by year-end.

The US paused Hormuz ship-guidance operations as Trump seeks an Iran deal. The US Ambassador to the EU warned of 25% auto tariffs unless the trade deal is ratified soon.

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.