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Gibson Dunn hired Paul Weiss's global AI-group co-chair Jonathan Ashtor to co-chair its technology transactions practice, its latest high-profile hire after taking Wachtell co-chair William Savitt and five litigation partners last month. KKR turned to Cleary Gottlieb and Quinn Emanuel to settle a record $250m antitrust-filing case with the DOJ, and the lateral board stayed busy with Kirkland, Pillsbury and Foley & Lardner all adding partners.
On the client side, Meta settled the teen social-media case with 48 states for as much as $18bn, Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9bn and reported revenue that more than doubled, and Anthropic committed $45bn to Nscale for AI computing power. In markets, PCE inflation ran at 3.7%, the trade fight with Canada widened, and oil held in the low $80s as more crude moved through Hormuz.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Gibson Dunn takes Paul Weiss's AI-group co-chair; Kirkland, Pillsbury, Foley and Troutman add partners
-KKR pays a record $250m to settle a DOJ merger-filing case, advised by Cleary and Quinn Emanuel
-Meta settles teen social-media claims with 48 states for as much as $18bn
-Nvidia buys Hugging Face for $12.9bn and posts revenue that more than doubled
-Anthropic commits $45bn to Nscale as data-center backlash starts to slow projects
-Bain Capital backs "AI-native" legal startups and calls Big Law a contrarian bet
-Insurers absorb bank default risk as institutions pile into Blackstone and KKR evergreen funds
-PCE hits 3.7%, the Canada trade fight escalates, and oil holds near $80 on Hormuz flows
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Gibson Dunn hired Jonathan Ashtor from Paul Weiss as a partner and co-chair of its technology transactions group. Ashtor was Paul Weiss's global AI-group co-chair and advised Amazon on its $10.8bn purchase of Globalstar and IBM on its $11bn acquisition of Confluent; the hire follows Gibson Dunn's July recruitment of Wachtell co-chair William Savitt and five litigation partners.
Kirkland & Ellis hired litigation partner Aaron Katz from Ropes & Gray in Boston.
Pillsbury hired litigation partner Claudia Vetesi from Morrison Foerster in San Francisco.
Foley & Lardner hired technology transactions, cybersecurity and privacy partner Jane Adams from Cooley in San Diego.
Troutman Pepper Locke hired real estate partner Dan Monger from ArentFox in Boston.
Nelson Mullins hired real estate finance partner Kristen Andreoli from Polsinelli in New York.
Littler hired employment shareholder Suzanne Martin from Ogletree Deakins in Las Vegas.
What today's moves tell us: Technology keeps driving talent flows. Gibson Dunn is stacking an AI and tech bench while raiding rivals as the rest of the board reaches across litigation, real estate and employment.
Check our Rolodex newsletter delivered on Monday at 7:30 am for a weekly overview of the lateral market and executive moves.
Operations and Strategy
The AI question is moving from client work to firm strategy as adjacent advisory sectors seek growth in corporate advisory talent.
Bain Capital's Matt Harris said now is "a contrarian time to invest in a law firm," arguing power is shifting to "AI-native" entrants. Bain is putting millions into AI-native legal startups. Harris sizes the legal market at roughly $900bn and expects firm resistance to AI to fade even in high-stakes, complex matters, with a "bumpy" five years of heavy spending and hard human-capital decisions ahead.
The bet frames AI less as a billing add-on than as a challenge to the leverage model that drives firm profitability. It also sharpens a build-or-buy choice for management committees deciding how much to spend on proprietary tools versus vendor platforms.
At the same time, in a signal to Big Law, banks are rebuilding sell-side capacity: JPMorgan co-head of investment banking Dorothee Blessing said the bank keeps hiring dealmakers and chasing share after its May leadership reshuffle.
Practices
Antitrust and Merger Enforcement
Enforcers are pulling real money out of lose processes and previous market edges, not just from blocked deals; this time sponsors are the target. KKR's record penalty for incomplete merger filings tells dealmakers that antitrust risk starts at the filing desk, and private-equity houses are now incentivized to bring in merger-control and compliance counsel earlier. Sophisticated counsel will now build antitrust strategies into the deal thesis from the first day rather than retrofit a narrative after signing.
Selected Press:
KKR agreed to pay a record $250m to settle a DOJ case alleging it repeatedly filed incomplete pre-merger notifications for at least 16 buyouts in 2021-22, more than 20 times the prior Hart-Scott-Rodino record.
KKR disputes the allegations and expects outside law firms to reimburse the payment; Cleary Gottlieb and Quinn Emanuel advised.
Litigation and Enforcement
Consumer-tech liability crystallized into a number, and auditor exposure widened. Meta's deal with 48 states converts the teen-harm case from headline risk into settlement execution, while a Hong Kong ruling opening PwC to global claims over Evergrande shows gatekeeper liability traveling across borders.
Selected Press:
Meta reached a settlement of up to $18bn with 48 states resolving claims it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict teenagers, a sharp turn from the settlement talks reported a day earlier.
A Hong Kong court ruled that liquidators of collapsed developer Evergrande can pursue PwC globally over alleged audit failings.
M&A and AI Infrastructure
AI is driving both the biggest deals and the biggest bottleneck. Nvidia's move for Hugging Face and Anthropic's $45bn compute commitment feed tech-transactions, financing and IP work, even as local backlash starts to slow and reshape data-center projects, the kind of friction that generates siting, permitting and energy-regulatory matters. Big Law dealmakers are also sensing a fuller transactional pipleine as banks keep hiring.
Selected Press:
Nvidia agreed to buy open-source AI model hub Hugging Face for $12.9bn, about 80 times forward revenue, to shore up the open-model ecosystem against Anthropic and OpenAI; investigators separately said hundreds of OpenAI agents had hacked Hugging Face.
Anthropic agreed to pay Nscale $45bn for AI computing power, and Nvidia reported quarterly revenue that more than doubled alongside one of its largest deals.
Data-center backlash is slowing and reshaping new projects, according to Bloomberg.
Private Equity, Funds and Credit
Capital keeps flowing into private markets, but the plumbing is changing. Banks are handing default risk to insurers, and institutions are moving into the evergreen funds Blackstone and KKR built for individuals, both shifts that create fund-formation, regulatory and disclosure work. Fund managers and sponsors are leaning on counsel to design vehicles and risk transfers that hold up through a redemption cycle.
Selected Press:
Insurers are piling into deals that let banks offload loan-default risk, per the FT.
Institutional investors are backing Blackstone and KKR evergreen funds built for wealthy individuals; KKR has launched institutional share classes across its buyout, credit and infrastructure evergreens, pressuring the classic 10-year closed-end model.
Victory Capital agreed to buy First Eagle Investments from Genstar Capital for $7bn, Vanguard agreed to buy fintech platform Altruist for $4bn, and Caesars Entertainment rejected an Icahn Enterprises take-private bid for a $5.8bn offer from Fertitta Entertainment.
Where the Work Sits
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In past merger-enforcement cycles, agencies eventually turned process and disclosure failures into headline penalties, and KKR's record filing settlement is that pattern moving from strategics to the sponsor's door. This development signals upcoming antitrust mandates from sponsors across merger-control compliance, second-request readiness and filing-process audits.
Nvidia's Hugging Face purchase and Anthropic's $45bn compute deal keep feeding the AI fee machine, each deal needing high-end tech-transactions, financing and IP matters, while the backlash against data centers pushes value toward the permitting and energy-regulatory teams that can move a project through the grid.
Private markets are generating structuring work rather than just deal volume. As banks sell default risk to insurers and institutions move into evergreen vehicles, the billable work migrates to fund-formation, regulatory and risk-transfer specialists who can build structures that survive a redemption cycle.
Consumer-tech and gatekeeper liability round out the map. Meta's $18bn settlement and the PwC ruling point to product-liability, privacy and professional-liability defense, plus the indemnity and allocation work a multi-state settlement sets in motion.
Global Markets
Sticky inflation and an escalating trade fight are pushing rate-cut hopes back and keeping treasurers busy. Clients are weighing a firmer inflation path after PCE rose 3.7% and consumer confidence fell to a seven-month low, while the fight with Canada widened as the US trade chief floated banning some Canadian goods, the sort of week-to-week uncertainty and rule change that converts into customs, sanctions and supply-chain work.
Boards are also watching Fed independence as President Trump revives his push to remove Governor Lisa Cook, and dealmakers are tracking whether easing oil and Bessent's bond buybacks keep financing windows open.
Selected Press:
PCE inflation rose 3.7% year over year in July (core 3.3%); consumer confidence fell to a seven-month low and 30-year mortgage rates hit 6.78%.
US trade negotiator Greer suggested Washington consider banning some Canadian goods, escalating the dispute after Canada's 50% tariffs.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook again denied mortgage-fraud allegations as President Trump revived his effort to remove her.
Oil held in the low $80s as Kuwait and Qatar sent more crude through the Strait of Hormuz
Across central banks, the Bank of Korea raised rates and the BOJ kept a September hike open.
Stories to Watch
Fed Chair Warsh speech (Fri, Aug 28) — remarks amid a global rethink on inflation; markets will parse them for the policy path.
Nonfarm payrolls annual revision, prelim (Fri, Aug 28) — a benchmark reset to the jobs picture feeding rate expectations.
Iceland EU referendum (Sat, Aug 29) — vote on restarting accession talks; a read on EU enlargement and Atlantic strategy.
Canada trade escalation — whether Washington acts on the floated ban on Canadian goods after the 50% tariffs.
Meta settlement approval — court sign-off and final terms of the up-to-$18bn, 48-state deal.
KKR HSR fallout — whether the record penalty prompts sponsors to tighten merger-filing compliance across the industry.
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.
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