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Gibson Dunn landed a 19-lawyer investment funds team from Clifford Chance in Paris, Latham poached Skadden’s executive compensation co-head, and Sullivan & Cromwell hired a capital markets partner from Paul Hastings in Hong Kong. Across BigLaw, the lateral bench keeps getting deeper in Europe, Asia, and the US.
On the client side, Alcoa agreed to buy South32’s alumina and bauxite assets for up to $5.6bn, KKR is in talks to enter the UK and European pension buyout market through its Global Atlantic insurance arm, and a survey of central banks overseeing $10tn in assets found more plan to cut dollar reserves than increase them for the first time.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Gibson Dunn hires 19-lawyer Paris funds team from Clifford Chance / Latham poaches Skadden exec comp co-head
-Sullivan & Cromwell adds capital markets in Hong Kong / Morgan Lewis lands European M&A lead from Covington
-Debevoise hires WilmerHale trade secrets co-chair / Orrick lands fintech team in Miami
-Big Law profitability metrics shift from RPL to leverage and PPP / Simmons and Addleshaws post double-digit growth
-Alcoa's $5.6bn South32 deal / KKR eyes UK and European pension buyouts
-Central banks plan to cut dollar holdings, boost gold / EM bond sales hit record $450B
-ECB Sintra: Warsh, Lagarde, Bailey, Macklem speak / US private payrolls slow
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Gibson Dunn hired a 19-lawyer investment funds team from Clifford Chance in Paris, led by partner Xavier Comaills and three other partners. The move launches Gibson Dunn's funds offering in Paris.
Latham & Watkins hired Erica Schohn, formerly co-head of Skadden's executive compensation and benefits practice. The hire marks the third partner addition to Latham's exec comp group in six weeks.
Sullivan & Cromwell hired capital markets partner Steven Hsu from Paul Hastings in Hong Kong. Paul Hastings has been losing corporate partners in Greater China over the past two years.
Philip Cheveley joined Morgan Lewis as European M&A practice lead from Covington & Burling, as the firm seeks a bigger share of M&A work through London and a stronger European foothold.
Debevoise & Plimpton hired Josh Lerner, co-head of WilmerHale's trade secrets litigation practice, in San Francisco. The firm sees rising demand for trade secrets and commercial dispute work.
Orrick landed a six-lawyer fintech regulatory team from Greenberg Traurig in Miami, led by Lisa Lanham. The hire is Orrick's biggest in Miami since launching there in July 2025.
Paul Weiss hired Delaware corporate litigator Blake Rohrbacher as a litigation partner in Wilmington.
Holland & Knight hired Daniel Katz as a real estate partner in Century City from Buchalter.
Wiley Rein hired Peter Rechter, formerly with the Senate Commerce Committee, as a white collar defense and government investigations partner.
What today's moves tell us: Firms continue focusing on large-team hires in Paris and building out specialized practices across exec comp, IP, and fintech. The scale of moves such as Gibson Dunn's 19-lawyer lift from Clifford Chance, Latham's third exec comp hire in six weeks signals that elite firms are prioritizing practice depth alongside market expansion. In other words, aggressive market grab.
Operations and Strategy
Big Law profitability metrics are shifting. Revenue per lawyer has long been the one of the main performance benchmarks, but in the lateral hiring era, profit pools still reign.
According to Bloomberg Law, the most successful firms in the lateral market have driven profitability by increasing leverage — the number of lawyers working under each equity partner — rather than by growing headcount alone. The shift puts more pressure on firms to hire revenue-generating partners and support them with large teams that maximize the profit each partner generates.
In the UK market, firms continued to post strong results. Simmons & Simmons reported double-digit growth across key metrics, attributing gains to sector strategy, AI investment, and partnership investment during managing partner Monastiriotis's first year. Addleshaw Goddard posted 17% revenue growth and increased its bonus pot to £22 million, marking its ninth consecutive year of revenue and profit growth as it targets £1bn in revenue by 2030.
Practices
Corporate M&A and Mining
Dealmakers are watching resource-sector M&A as supply chain disruption and commodity price shifts drive consolidation. Alcoa's acquisition of South32's alumina, bauxite, and aluminium assets involves a mixed consideration structure — $3.1bn in cash, $1bn in Alcoa shares, assumed debt, and contingent payments tied to aluminium prices with assets spanning South Africa, Australia, and Brazil. Management cited roughly $900mn in projected synergies. The cross-border structure creates work across M&A, joint ventures, regulatory clearance, and commodity-linked contingent consideration.
Selected Press:
Alcoa agrees to acquire South32's alumina and bauxite assets in a deal valued at up to $5.6bn, driven by war-related supply disruptions and strategic consolidation.
Private Equity and Insurance
Sponsors continue pushing into insurance-linked strategies as a source of long-duration capital. KKR is in talks with major UK and European insurers about partnerships that would channel capital from Global Atlantic into pension risk transfer deals, following structures used by Blackstone and Apollo. The firm is aiming to avoid the full regulatory burden of owning a European insurer while still accessing long-dated pension liabilities to fund credit and yield-focused investments. Pension buyout deal flow has been accelerating across the UK and continental Europe, creating mandates for fund formation, insurance regulatory, and structured finance teams.
Selected Press:
KKR plots entry into UK and European pension buyouts through partnerships with insurers, channeling capital from its Global Atlantic arm.
PE limited partners turn to debt-like deals in a downturn as exit timelines stretch and distributions slow.
Regulatory and Technology
The US government lifted export restrictions on Anthropic's Fable 5 AI model, clearing it for wider international distribution. The decision sits alongside a broader survey finding that two-thirds of central banks plan to increase AI integration in reserve management and operations. For clients and general counsel, AI regulatory decisions are creating compliance, licensing, and cross-border advisory work as governments draw lines on model export, use cases, and deployment; all pointing to sovereign AI.
Selected Press:
US lifts export restrictions on Anthropic's Fable 5 AI model, clearing wider distribution abroad.
An OMFIF survey reports two-thirds of central banks plan to increase AI integration across data analysis and back-office functions in the near term.
Where the Work Sits
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Cross-border M&A in the resources sector is generating high-end mandates across M&A advisory, joint ventures, competition clearance, and commodity-linked structured consideration. The Alcoa-South32 deal alone involves multi-jurisdiction regulatory work across South Africa, Australia, and Brazil, and the contingent payment structure tied to aluminium prices will require specialized M&A and finance teams.
The sponsor push into insurance-linked strategies is creating a new lane for fund formation, insurance regulatory, and structured finance practices. KKR's pension buyout initiative follows Blackstone and Apollo into a market where long-dated liabilities meet private credit deployment, a combination that requires sophisticated legal structuring and cross-border insurance regulation expertise.
AI regulation and export controls are expanding the pipeline for regulatory advisory, trade compliance, and technology transactions teams. The Anthropic export decision signals that governments are actively managing which AI models cross borders, and general counsel at technology companies are building compliance frameworks around model distribution.
Global Markets
Savvy clients and dealmakers are watching central banks’ signals to cut dollar reserves over the next decade. Decision-makers and capital markets partners are weighing what this means for dollar-denominated deal structuring and cross-border financing as central banks diversify into the euro, sterling, and other currencies while moving gold to the core of their reserve strategies. Executives are also tracking a best-quarter performance for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since 2020, a slowdown in US private payrolls (98K in June, below expectations), and the ECB's Sintra symposium where Fed Chair Warsh, ECB President Lagarde, BoE Governor Bailey, and BoC's Macklem are speaking.
Selected Press:
Central banks plan to cut dollar holdings for the first time, diversifying reserves into other currencies and gold amid political and geopolitical risks.
S&P 500 and Nasdaq cap best quarter since 2020, with the Dow above 52,000 as H1 closes.
US private payrolls increase by 98K in June, below expectations of 110K, suggesting some cooling in the labor market.
ECB Sintra symposium draws top central bankers including Warsh, Lagarde, Bailey, and Macklem to discuss policy direction.
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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