Good Morning,

Kirkland & Ellis is pulling Paul Weiss’ head of European M&A to London, Davis Polk is building a Supreme Court practice around appellate star Kannon Shanmugam in DC, and Latham & Watkins is eyeing further City expansion after crossing $1bn in London revenue. Evercore posted a 123% M&A fee surge while PJT Partners revenue jumped 29% on a dealmaking rebound.

On the client side, the UAE quit OPEC after 59 years, sending Brent past $110/bbl and US gas to $4.18 – the highest since 2022. The Musk v. Altman trial kicked off in Oakland, Kone is closing in on a $34B elevator deal, and OpenAI missed internal revenue targets ahead of a wave of Big Tech earnings.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

Talent Strategy

What today's moves tell us: Firms are making targeted bets on European M&A, appellate and Supreme Court work, and IP – with Kirkland, Davis Polk, and Fenwick all landing senior talent from direct rivals.

-Kirkland & Ellis is hiring Will Aitken-Davies, Paul Weiss’ head of European M&A, to its London office. The move strengthens Kirkland’s European deal bench at a time when cross-border M&A activity is picking up.

-Davis Polk tapped Kannon Shanmugam to build a Supreme Court and appellate practice from its DC office. Shanmugam previously built Paul Weiss’ SCOTUS practice before that.

-John Liolos returned to Sullivan & Cromwell as a partner in its litigation and criminal defense and investigation groups in New York from the DOJ’s Criminal Fraud unit.

-Karin Dryhurst joined Jenner & Block as a partner in its financial litigation, class action, and payments practices in Washington, DC.

-Fenwick recruited a five-attorney IP group from Winston & Strawn, including partners Krishnan Padmanabhan and Scott Border. Padmanabhan was previously managing partner of Winston’s New York office. The move comes as Winston’s planned merger with Taylor Wessing has hit a delay.

Operational Strategy

Advisory fee pools are fattening, and firms with deal-heavy platforms are seeing it in the numbers.

Latham & Watkins’ London managing partner Ed Barnett said the firm is “brimming with rainmakers” after London revenue topped $1bn, and flagged further City expansion. The firm’s multi-year push in London now mirrors broader US firm efforts to grow market share across the UK and continental Europe.

Seyfarth Shaw is approaching $1B in total revenue with PEP up 15%, driven by 6.3% organic revenue growth after adjusting for a departed immigration team. On the advisory bank side, Evercore reported a 123% surge in M&A fees and a record quarter, while PJT Partners posted a 29% revenue jump, both signaling a dealmaking rebound that feeds directly into BigLaw transaction work.

Boies Schiller Flexner grew headcount by 20% in 2025 even as revenue dropped 31% from 2024 – a year chairman Matthew Schwartz called “aberrational” due to large contingency payouts including a major Blue Cross Blue Shield win. The firm plans to keep adding lawyers to meet rising demand.

Practices

M&A and Capital Markets

Cross-border M&A continues to generate high-end matters across geographies, with several multi-billion dollar deals in play.

Finnish elevator maker Kone is nearing a $34B cash-and-stock deal to acquire Advent and Cinven-backed TK Elevator. Pernod Ricard walked away from a ~$30B merger with Brown-Forman (maker of Jack Daniel’s), which could open the door for rival bidder Sazerac. Bertelsmann is buying music group Concord and merging it with BMG to create a $14B company. CVC is weighing a €9bn LBO of Italian payments company Nexi, structuring the deal to carve out the digital banking arm and avoid a Rome veto.

On the capital markets side, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square raised $5B in a combined IPO, and BofA expects May to be the busiest month for investment-grade bond sales since Covid, potentially topping $190B. Eli Lilly signed a $2.25B deal with AI CRISPR startup Profluent for exclusive drug development rights.

Litigation and Regulatory

The Musk v. Altman trial is the week’s marquee courtroom event, with regulatory pressure mounting across media and tech.

Elon Musk testified that OpenAI’s conversion from a nonprofit would “give licence to looting every charity in America” if the court sides with the defendants. The judge ordered Musk, Altman, and Brockman to stop posting about the case on social media during the trial. Separately, the FCC ordered a review of ABC’s broadcast licenses amid a political clash between Trump and Jimmy Kimmel, while the EU is charging Meta with failing to block underage users on Facebook and Instagram, risking fines of up to 6% of global revenue.

Private Equity and Credit

Conflict-of-interest concerns and fund liquidity issues continue to draw attention across the PE and credit markets.

LP investors are raising new conflict-of-interest concerns over sweetheart deals in private equity, questioning whether some institutions are rubber-stamping transactions that benefit affiliated businesses. Ardian is preparing a new secondaries fund after raising a record $30B, and Silver Rock Capital Partners (spun out of the Milken family office) closed a $4B distressed debt fund. Meanwhile, Jamie Dimon warned that a credit market downturn could be worse than expected.

Where the Work Sits

The Kone/TK Elevator transaction, the CVC-Nexi LBO, and the collapsed Pernod-Brown Forman talks all generate cross-border M&A, antitrust, and financing mandates across multiple jurisdictions. Ackman’s $5B Pershing Square IPO and the expected record May for high-grade bond issuance point to sustained capital markets work for the quarter.

The Musk v. Altman trial, the FCC’s ABC license review, and the EU’s action against Meta create litigation, regulatory, and government investigations work for firms with media, tech, and First Amendment practices. The OpenAI-Microsoft restructuring and the Manus acquisition reversal in China add tech transaction and cross-border regulatory layers.

Energy dislocation from the Iran conflict – UAE leaving OPEC, Adnoc’s US push, Hormuz closures, and the jet fuel shortage – is generating energy, project finance, trade compliance, and sanctions advisory work. The tariff refund claims process ($20B across 300K+ importers) continues to drive customs and trade practice volume.

Rising PE conflict-of-interest scrutiny and Dimon’s credit downturn warning signal more fund formation disputes, LP advisory, and restructuring work ahead. The distressed pipeline (Spirit Airlines, FreshRealm, Petroperu) keeps bankruptcy benches busy across New York and London.

Global Markets

Energy prices, central bank decisions, and AI sector jitters are driving the macro picture this week.

The UAE’s exit from OPEC after 59 years sent shockwaves through energy markets, with Brent crude pushing past $110/bbl and US gasoline hitting $4.18/gal – its highest since 2022. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to commercial shipping, and the Pentagon estimates six months to clear Iranian sea mines. The IEA warned Europe has roughly six weeks of jet fuel supply left, and Shell’s CEO said energy shortages from the Iran war could extend into 2027. Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc is moving to invest “tens of billions” in US natural gas as a hedge.

The Bank of Japan held rates at 0.75% in a hawkish hold, raising its FY26 inflation forecast to 2.8% and cutting GDP growth to 0.5%. The Fed began its two-day meeting, with markets pricing a 100% chance of holding at 3.50-3.75% – widely expected to be Chair Powell’s final meeting. The ECB and BoE rate decisions are due later this week, with markets pricing potential hikes as Iran-driven inflation feeds through. US equities dipped from record highs as OpenAI’s missed revenue targets dragged semiconductor stocks lower.

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.