Good afternoon,

Kirkland & Ellis is making moves on both sides of the Atlantic, hiring a four-partner antitrust team from Cleary Gottlieb across London and Brussels while guiding the $67 billion NextEra-Dominion energy merger alongside McGuireWoods. Latham keeps building too, adding its fifth partner from Wachtell since February 2025, this time in executive compensation, and poaching a Kirkland litigator in Houston. The race for distressed debt talent is heating up, with Gibson Dunn and Willkie both adding restructuring capability as out-of-court workouts multiply.

On the client side, Blackstone and Google are launching a $5 billion AI cloud venture to compete with CoreWeave and Nvidia, Citigroup and BlackRock are teaming up on a $17.4 billion European private credit platform, and a jury dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI in under two hours, clearing the path for what could be a landmark IPO. SpaceX is targeting June 12 for its own public debut, and bond markets are flashing warning signs as the 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.63%, its highest since February 2025.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Kirkland Hires Four-Partner Cleary Antitrust Team in London and Brussels / Latham Adds Fifth Wachtell Lateral This Year

-Distressed Debt Hiring Spree at Gibson Dunn and Willkie / Steptoe Grabs Four Winston Sanctions Partners in DC

-Wachtell and Elite Firms Loosen Lockstep Partner Pay Models / Ashurst-Perkins Coie Referrals Surge Pre-Merger

-NextEra's $67B Dominion Buy / Blackstone-Google $5B AI Cloud Venture / Citigroup-BlackRock $17.4B European Credit Platform

-Musk Loses OpenAI Lawsuit / Meta Cuts 7,800 Jobs and Shifts Thousands to AI / Anthropic Acquires Stainless for $300M+

-Treasury Selloff Pushes 10-Year Yield to 4.63% / Warsh Sworn in as Fed Chair Friday / CPI at 3.8%

-SpaceX Eyes June 12 IPO / Bain Capital Closes $10.5B Asia Fund / DayOne Plans $5B Dual IPO

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

-Kirkland & Ellis hired a four-partner competition team from Cleary Gottlieb across London and Brussels. The team is led by EMEA competition co-head Robbert Snelders, alongside partners Thomas Graf and Conor Opdebeeck-Wilson in Brussels and Henry Mostyn in London.

-Latham & Watkins hired Erica Aho as an executive compensation, employment and benefits partner, the fifth partner to join from Wachtell Lipton since February 2025.

-Latham also hired Kirkland partner Carson Young as a litigation partner in Houston, ratcheting the Texas talent war.

-Gibson Dunn and Willkie Farr & Gallagher both announced hires in distressed debt and out-of-court restructuring, as demand for that work accelerates.

-Willkie hired Gregory Gartland and April Doxey as finance partners in Chicago from Winston & Strawn.

-Steptoe hired four Winston & Strawn partners — Cari Stinebower, Christopher Man, Mariana Pendás Fernández, and Dainia Jabaji — in sanctions and white collar in Washington, DC.

-DLA Piper hired Amanda Gill as a corporate partner in New York from Goodwin. Dechert hired Elaine Kao as a corporate and securities partner in Dallas from McDermott.

-Shiva Goel joined Holland & Knight as chair of its telecom, media and technology practice, bringing experience from the NTIA and FCC.

-Simpson Thacher hired Marten Olsson in banking and credit in New York. Orrick added Alain Decombe and Vianney Toulouse in Paris. Goodwin hired Larissa Cespedes-Yaffar in private equity in Boston.

What today's moves tell us: Firms are building high-end antitrust, restructuring, and litigation practices at speed — with Kirkland, Latham, and Willkie leading the charge across multiple geographies.

Operational Strategy

Elite firms are rethinking compensation structures as the lateral market intensifies and talent costs rise.

As Legal Business reported, Wachtell and other top firms are loosening traditional lockstep partner pay models. Even the industry’s most conservative partnerships are adapting in the escalating competition for talent. The shift toward merit-based and performance-linked systems reflects how much the market has moved — firms that don’t adjust risk losing partners to rivals offering more flexible pay.

Ashurst and Perkins Coie are seeing a surge in referral work between their firms ahead of their planned combination in July 2026. The pre-merger “dating” phase is already generating business, according to Ashurst’s London managing partner.

In other firm news, Quinn Emanuel partner Harry A. Olivar Jr., chair of the firm’s National Securities Practice and a 26-year veteran, died in an automobile accident. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney is commercializing its in-house AI tool “Artifex” by partnering with consulting firm Hike2 to sell it to other law firms.

Practices

M&A and Capital Markets

Big-ticket deals are dominating the corporate calendar, with energy, AI infrastructure, and cross-border M&A all generating mandates.

NextEra Energy agreed to buy Dominion Energy in a $67 billion all-stock deal, creating one of the largest utility companies in the world with a combined enterprise value around $420 billion. Kirkland and McGuireWoods are leading counsel. SpaceX is targeting June 12 for what could be the largest IPO ever. DayOne, a Chinese data centre spin-off, is planning a dual IPO in Singapore and the US aiming to raise $5 billion, and Bain Capital closed its largest Asia fund at $10.5 billion. Commerzbank rejected a $45.4 billion no-premium takeover offer from UniCredit. Linklaters and Hogan Lovells are advising on a £2.7 billion takeover bid for Tate & Lyle. UK M&A is on track for a record year with $192 billion in deals already in 2026, according to Reuters.

Technology and AI

Blackstone and Google are creating a new AI cloud company backed by $5 billion in equity to compete with CoreWeave and Nvidia, with the venture led by longtime Google executive Benjamin Treynor Sloss. Analog Devices is in advanced talks to acquire AI power chip startup Empower Semiconductor for $1.5 billion. Anthropic acquired developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300 million. Meta is laying off roughly 7,800 employees (about 10% of its workforce) while shifting thousands of workers into new AI-focused units. AMD CEO Lisa Su met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing, as the chip maker looks to expand its China business despite export restrictions.

Private Credit and Restructuring

Citigroup partnered with BlackRock’s private credit group to offer up to $17.4 billion in loans to European companies and leveraged buyout groups. Merck is selling $6 billion in bonds to finance its $6.7 billion acquisition of Terns Pharmaceuticals. On the restructuring side, West Marine and Bitcoin Depot both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The scramble for distressed debt lawyers at firms like Gibson Dunn and Willkie signals that out-of-court workouts are picking up.

Litigation and Regulatory

A federal jury dismissed Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, ruling the claims were filed too late. The unanimous verdict, reached in under two hours, removes a major obstacle to OpenAI’s planned IPO. The D.C. Circuit will hear arguments over the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic. The Supreme Court rejected drugmakers’ appeals against Medicare price negotiations, preserving a key Inflation Reduction Act program. The SEC rescinded its policy on denials of wrongdoing in enforcement actions, a shift that could affect how companies settle with regulators. The DOJ created a $1.76 billion “anti-weaponization fund” as part of a settlement of Trump’s IRS lawsuit, drawing criticism over the use of taxpayer money.

Where the Work Sits

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The NextEra-Dominion deal alone is generating high-end M&A, energy regulatory, and financing mandates at a scale rarely seen in the utility sector. SpaceX’s planned June IPO, the DayOne dual listing, and a string of capital markets activity across Cerebras, Kioxia, and CXMT point to a busy pipeline for capital markets practices over the coming weeks.

The Blackstone-Google AI cloud venture, the Analog Devices-Empower Semiconductor acquisition, and Anthropic’s purchase of Stainless are creating work across technology M&A, joint ventures, and IP advisory. Meta’s mass layoffs signal further labor and employment advisory, while the Musk-OpenAI verdict and the D.C. Circuit’s Anthropic hearing keep litigation and government contracts practices active.

Private credit work is expanding fast. The Citigroup-BlackRock $17.4 billion European platform and the Merck bond offering both require sophisticated finance teams. The jump in Chapter 11 filings (West Marine, Bitcoin Depot) and the scramble for distressed debt lawyers confirm that restructuring mandates are growing.

Cross-border antitrust remains in demand. Kirkland’s raid on Cleary’s EMEA competition team and the Commerzbank-UniCredit standoff both signal that competition advisory across the US and Europe is a growth area. Trade and sanctions work also stays busy, as Steptoe’s four-partner Winston hire in DC confirms.

Global Markets

Bond markets are under pressure as war-driven inflation pushes yields higher and the incoming Fed chair faces a difficult opening hand.

The US 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.63% on Monday — the highest since February 2025 and up more than 67 basis points since the end of February. The 30-year yield is a few basis points from its highest since 2007. The selloff is driven by inflation tied to the Strait of Hormuz energy crisis; headline US CPI surged 3.8% year-over-year in April, the highest since 2023. WTI crude rose to $108.66. Kevin Warsh will be sworn in as Fed chair on Friday, inheriting a market that has fully priced out 2026 rate cuts and now gives a 25% probability to a hike by December. Japan and China reduced US Treasury holdings in March, adding to the pressure.

Globally, Japan’s economy grew 2.1% annualized in Q1 (above the 1.7% forecast), but its super-long bond yields hit fresh records after PM Takaichi announced a supplementary fiscal package. China’s April data disappointed across the board — retail sales grew just 0.2% year-over-year versus the 2% expected, and industrial output and fixed-asset investment both missed estimates. UK employers slashed jobs at the fastest pace since the start of the pandemic. Trump called off planned strikes on Iran after appeals from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.

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.