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Latham & Watkins added a white collar partner in Chicago while King & Spalding planted two flags in London across real estate and competition. Mayer Brown launched a new capital solutions team in London combining restructuring, finance and litigation to go after more PE work. The ABA, meanwhile, is weighing a rollback of DEI-related accreditation rules for law schools under federal pressure.

On the client side, Broadcom is raising around $35 billion in fresh financing with Apollo and Blackstone leading — one of private credit's biggest deals ever. Brown-Forman rejected a $15 billion bid from Sazerac, eBay rejected GameStop's $56 billion offer, and US wholesale inflation hit 6% — the highest since 2022s.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Latham adds white collar in Chicago / King & Spalding expands London bench

-Mayer Brown launches capital solutions team in London / ABA weighs DEI rule rollback

-Broadcom's $35B financing led by Apollo and Blackstone / Private credit volumes slide 14%

-Brown-Forman rejects $15B Sazerac bid / eBay turns down GameStop's $56B offer / Trian eyes Wendy's LBO

-OpenAI launches $10B PE joint venture / Sam Altman faces GOP probe / Cerebras IPO pricing raised

-US CPI hits 3.8%, PPI at 6% / UK yields surge to multi-decade highs / France unemployment at 5-year high

-Trump heads to China with Nvidia CEO Huang / Warsh confirmed as Fed governor

Talent Strategy

What today's moves tell us: Firms are filling gaps in white collar, competition and real estate — practices tied to regulatory pressure and cross-border deal flow.

Latham & Watkins hired white collar defense & investigations partner Ryan Rohlfsen in Chicago.

King & Spalding added corporate real estate partner Ray Fang from Goodwin and competition specialist Jade-Alexandra Fearns from Paul Hastings to its London office.

Latham & Watkins recruited real estate partner Marco Caffuzzi in New York.

Operational Strategy

Firms are restructuring teams to chase private capital work, while the ABA faces pressure to rethink law school standards.

Mayer Brown launched a new capital solutions team in London, bringing together restructuring, finance and litigation lawyers under one roof. The move is designed to win more work from PE sponsors navigating complex debt situations — a growing area as private credit markets tighten and borrower stress rises.

The ABA is weighing a rollback of DEI-related accreditation rules for law schools amid federal pressure and state pushback. If approved, the changes could reshape standards nationwide. The push comes as firms and schools adjust to the broader regulatory shift on diversity requirements under the current administration.

Trump-targeted law firms are seeking another win in the DC Circuit. Attorneys for WilmerHale urged the appeals court to uphold rulings striking down the administration's executive orders against the firm and three others. WilmerHale and Jenner & Block were the first to file briefs in the consolidated appeal.

Practices

M&A and Capital Markets

Rejected bids and contested deals are stacking up, alongside a wave of cross-border debt issuance tied to AI infrastructure.

Brown-Forman rejected a $15 billion bid from privately held Sazerac weeks after merger talks with France's Pernod Ricard fell through. eBay turned down GameStop's $56 billion cash-and-stock offer, calling it 'neither credible nor attractive.' EQT made a fourth improved offer for UK's Intertek at $12.8 billion backed by activists, and Trian Partners is seeking financing for a take-private of Wendy's.

On the issuance side, Alphabet and Amazon tapped overseas debt markets to fund AI infrastructure, with Alphabet disclosing its first yen-denominated bond and Amazon raising $3.6 billion in a debut Swiss franc offering. ServiceNow drew $38 billion in orders for a $4 billion bond sale, its first since Covid. Cerebras Systems raised its IPO pricing range to $150-$160 per share, pointing to a valuation above $33 billion.

Private Equity and Credit

Private credit is facing a two-track market: massive AI-linked lending at the top, tightening conditions below.

Broadcom is raising around $35 billion in financing with Apollo and Blackstone leading. The deal would be one of the largest private credit transactions on record, reflecting how AI infrastructure spending is pulling capital toward the sector. Meanwhile, direct lending volumes fell 14% in Q1 to about $61 billion as banks grew lending 12.7% — their fastest pace since 2022. Blue Owl's retail fundraising has dried up amid broader private credit concerns, and MUFG is looking to offload risk on $2 billion of private credit loans.

OpenAI launched a $10 billion PE joint venture with TPG, Advent, Bain Capital and Brookfield to help businesses deploy AI. Anthropic formed a similar venture with Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. The AI-PE partnerships signal a new fee pool for advisory, fund formation and commercial deal structuring.

Regulatory and Governance

Congressional and regulatory scrutiny is picking up across AI governance and crypto markets.

The House Oversight Committee opened a probe into OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's personal investments and their ties to OpenAI's commercial partnerships. Ten Republican attorneys general asked the SEC to review OpenAI's governance, citing concerns about self-dealing that could hurt state pensions and future retail investors. A landmark crypto bill covering stablecoins, DeFi and SEC oversight is also moving through Congress.

Where the Work Sits

The Broadcom financing alone could generate high-end advisory and documentation work for leveraged finance, fund formation and credit teams. The AI-PE joint ventures at OpenAI and Anthropic are creating new mandates at the intersection of corporate M&A, venture capital structuring and commercial contracts — areas where firms with deep bench in technology transactions will pick up the work.

The wave of contested M&A — Brown-Forman, eBay, Intertek, Wendy's — is feeding litigation, governance and shareholder advisory practices. Activist involvement in EQT's Intertek bid and Trian's Wendy's pursuit means proxy advisory, takeover defense and board-level work across multiple jurisdictions.

Regulatory and investigations work is picking up. The Altman/OpenAI governance probe touches securities enforcement, congressional investigations and corporate governance advisory. The crypto bill moving through Congress will generate regulatory compliance mandates for fintech and digital asset clients. And the continuing Trump law firm executive order appeals are keeping constitutional and administrative law teams busy.

Cross-border debt issuance from Alphabet, Amazon and ServiceNow is driving capital markets work in multiple currencies and jurisdictions. Private credit stress — MUFG's risk transfer, Blue Owl's fundraising drought, falling direct lending volumes — is pushing restructuring and fund finance teams into heavier deal flow as lenders and borrowers renegotiate terms.

Global Markets

Inflation is running hot in the US while UK bond markets are flashing stress signals and France's labor market weakens.

US CPI hit 3.8% year-over-year — the highest in three years — while wholesale inflation (PPI) rose 6% annually, the biggest jump since 2022. Core PPI came in at 1% month-over-month against a 0.4% forecast. Oil above $107 and energy prices climbing 60% faster than headline inflation are feeding through to the data. The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as a Fed governor, clearing the path for a vote on his nomination as chair — a move that could shift the rate outlook.

In the UK, 30-year gilt yields rose to 5.81% — the highest since 1998 — and the 10-year hit 5.13%, the highest since 2008, as political uncertainty around PM Starmer compounds debt and inflation pressures. French unemployment hit 8.1%, a five-year high. Japan's 20-year bond yield touched its highest since 1997. President Trump is in China for talks on Iran, trade and tariffs with Xi Jinping, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joining as a last-minute addition. EU exports to the US have fallen roughly 20% — on par with the Covid-era drop — per Standard Chartered estimates.

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.