Good afternoon,
Law firm results are landing strong. Linklaters posted double-digit profit growth with US profitability up 39% and Asia up 36%, Travers Smith hit a record, and DAC Beachcroft's profits jumped 20%. Latham and Kirkland are stacking hundreds of lawyers into data-center practices, Sheppard Mullin launched a Chicago white-collar team from Katten, and Linklaters poached FIFA's New York litigators from Paul Weiss.
On the client side, aerospace and defense M&A has nearly doubled to about $34 billion, BlackRock is lining up at least $12 billion of debt for a Meta data center, and Brookfield, Magnolia, and Adnoc struck multibillion-dollar logistics, shale, and gas deals. A court paused Paramount's $110 billion Warner Bros. merger. John Healey took over as UK Chancellor as gilt yields climbed, US strikes on Iran pushed oil toward $90, and Washington hit some Canadian goods with 50% tariffs.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Linklaters profits up 11.6% with US +39% and Asia +36%; Travers and DAC Beachcroft post gains
-Sheppard Mullin launches a Chicago white-collar team; Linklaters poaches Paul Weiss's FIFA litigators
-Latham and Kirkland scale hundreds-strong data-center practices as AI infrastructure work booms
-Aerospace and defense M&A nearly doubles to ~$34B ahead of Farnborough
-BlackRock lines up $12B of debt for a Meta data center; MGX-GIP close a $40B Aligned deal
-Court pauses Paramount's $110B Warner Bros. merger; DOJ moves to disqualify Susman Godfrey
-Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly over GLP-1 ads; Taco Bell cyclospora suits pile up
-John Healey named UK Chancellor as gilts wobble, oil nears $90, and the US hits Canada with 50% tariffs
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton hired former federal prosecutor Daniel Collins and Levi Giovanetto from Katten Muchin Rosenman to launch a white-collar defense and investigations team in Chicago.
Linklaters poached FIFA's New York litigators Chris Boehning — now chair of its global sports practice and US strategic disputes — and Daniel Levi from Paul Weiss.
A&O Shearman added restructuring partner Joseph Brown from Davis Polk in New York; Latham & Watkins hired capital markets partner Jennifer Ying Lan, also from Davis Polk.
King & Spalding brought in finance and restructuring partner Gloria Kim from Proskauer in New York.
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney added bank-antitrust litigator Anthony Van Vuren in Washington; Littler hired EEOC litigator Richard Mrizek from Jackson Lewis in Chicago.
Hogan Lovells Cadwalader took M&A partner Kristin Gerber from Goodwin in Boston; Gibson Dunn rehired tax partner James Manzione in New York; Squire Patton Boggs added Manchester pensions head Amanda Small from Eversheds; Holland & Knight added global-wealth partner Brian Balduzzi.
What today's moves tell us: firms are loading up on white-collar, restructuring, and capital-markets talent, and Linklaters is buying disputes firepower to build its US brand.
Operations and Strategy
Full-year results are landing well for the London and transatlantic firms, and the data-center boom is reshaping where firms build.
Linklaters reported an 11.6% rise in profit for fiscal 2026, with US profitability up 39% and Asia up 36%, revenue up 6.8%, and profit per equity partner up 11.4%. The firm ranked 16th in Bloomberg Law's first-half M&A league tables. Managing partner Paul Lewis said Linklaters is not pursuing a US merger and is focused on hiring stateside. Travers Smith lifted turnover 9% to a record £229.4 million, and DAC Beachcroft posted double-digit growth with profits up 20% in Helen Faulkner's first full year as managing partner.
Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis are assembling large, specialized data-center practices — hundreds of lawyers focused on digital-infrastructure deals — as AI drives demand for transactional and project work. Katten Muchin Rosenman opened in Miami, the sixth Chicago-founded Am Law 200 firm to plant a flag there since 2022.
Baker McKenzie global chair Sunny Mann argued the profession should move past the billable hour toward alternative fee arrangements as AI changes how legal work is priced and delivered.
Practices
M&A and Private Equity
Dealmaking is broad-based across logistics, energy, biotech, and consumer, with sponsors monetizing portfolios and strategics consolidating. For dealmakers and general counsel, the pipeline points to a busy sell-side, financing, and antitrust calendar.
Selected Press:
Brookfield and CPP Investments agreed to buy LXP Industrial for $5.2 billion, expanding their US warehouse and logistics portfolio.
Magnolia Oil & Gas agreed to buy Warburg Pincus- and Kayne Anderson-backed WildFire Energy for about $4.1 billion, part of a wave of PE-backed shale sales as higher crude spurs consolidation.
Tempus AI agreed to acquire cancer-testing biotech Personalis for about $1.7 billion; Samsung Biologics agreed to buy PolyPeptide for $1.8 billion.
Intersnack agreed to take Utz Brands private for $2.9 billion; Icahn Enterprises agreed to sell Pep Boys to Mavis Tire for about $700 million.
Mubadala Capital agreed to buy France's Pierre et Vacances, while Segro rejected a fresh £13.5 billion offer from Prologis.
Aerospace, Defense, and Energy
Geopolitics is driving a deal and capex wave. Defense primes are buying drone and naval tech, and Gulf producers are funding gas, giving corporate, project-finance, and foreign-investment teams overlapping work on structuring, joint ventures, and review.
Selected Press:
Aerospace and defense M&A has nearly doubled this year to about $34 billion, led by Thales's $3.9 billion Exail deal and Lockheed Martin's $3.45 billion Ultra Maritime purchase, with a record year for A&D IPOs and Farnborough on deck.
Adnoc committed $6.2 billion to develop gas at Umm Shaif with TotalEnergies, Eni, and CNPC, cutting reliance on Qatar imports before the Dolphin pipeline expires in 2032.
Lockheed Martin plans a lower-cost Patriot interceptor to replenish stockpiles; Goldman Sachs says Brent could top $120 a barrel if Strait of Hormuz disruptions persist.
Data Centers and AI Infrastructure
The capital stack behind AI is the story. Record private debt and off-balance-sheet structures are drawing scrutiny, giving fund-finance, project-finance, disclosure, and security teams work as sponsors and hyperscalers reach for scale.
Selected Press:
BlackRock is arranging at least $12 billion of debt for an El Paso data center it owns 80% of, with Meta holding 20% and JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley leading the sale to investors.
An Abu Dhabi consortium including MGX and BlackRock's GIP closed its $40 billion purchase of Aligned Data Centers, the first deal by their AI Infrastructure Partnership.
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle carry about $1.65 trillion of off-balance-sheet debt tied to data centers — up eightfold in four years — reviving Enron-era accounting scrutiny flagged by Morgan Stanley and Moody's.
Iran claimed a strike on Amazon data infrastructure in Bahrain (unverified), underscoring siting risk for Middle East data centers.
Antitrust, Litigation, and White Collar
Courtroom and enforcement risk is rising across media, pharma, and consumer. Boards and general counsel are weighing exposure as antitrust, product-liability, and disqualification fights multiply.
Selected Press:
A California-led coalition of states won a court pause of Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery; Paramount CLO Makan Delrahim called the suit a "weaponization of antitrust."
The DOJ asked a court to disqualify Susman Godfrey from the ABA's law-firm-intimidation suit, while Muddy Waters sought to disqualify Quinn Emanuel in Techtronic litigation.
Novo Nordisk sued Eli Lilly over allegedly misleading GLP-1 weight-loss ads that it says rely on outdated trial data.
Plaintiffs' lawyers filed strict-liability suits within hours of a Taco Bell-linked cyclospora outbreak; the 4th Circuit decertified a shareholder class action against Boeing.
Anthropic's $1.5 billion author copyright settlement won final approval, with $122 million going to plaintiffs' counsel.
Where the Work Sits
***
The clearest new demand pool is data-center and AI-infrastructure finance. BlackRock's $12 billion Meta financing and the $40 billion Aligned close feed fund finance, project finance, joint-venture structuring, and disclosure work, and the migration of hyperscaler debt off balance sheets — now drawing Enron-era comparisons — points to securities mandates for a small set of firms that can run these structures. This is where high-end matters concentrate.
Defense and energy are turning geopolitics into deals. Aerospace and defense consolidation and Gulf gas investment generate foreign-investment review, antitrust, and cross-border joint-venture work, while higher oil and Hormuz risk keep sanctions and supply-chain advisory busy.
Antitrust and white-collar demand is broad. The Paramount-Warner pause, the DOJ's move to disqualify Susman Godfrey, and the Muddy Waters challenge to Quinn Emanuel create merger-litigation, appellate, and defense mandates, while pharma and product-liability suits against Lilly, Taco Bell, and Boeing feed litigation teams.
M&A breadth across logistics, biotech, and consumer supports corporate and financing work as sponsors monetize portfolios and strategics consolidate.
Global Markets
A UK fiscal reset, renewed Middle East strikes, and fresh tariffs frame the macro backdrop.
Clients are watching John Healey step in as UK Chancellor with gilt yields climbing and borrowing overshooting the Burnham government's spending pledges. Executives are also weighing a ninth night of US strikes on Iran that pushed oil toward $90, and a US 50% tariff on some Canadian goods. Dealmakers are tracking China's AI and chip advances, and record hedge-fund selling of US tech.
Selected Press:
UK: John Healey was named Chancellor; gilt yields jumped and borrowing overshot as the Burnham government's pledges met stretched finances.
Oil: Brent briefly topped $90 on a ninth night of US strikes on Iran, and Houthis threatened a Red Sea blockade of Saudi Arabia.
Trade: the US set a 50% tariff on some Canadian goods, and Trump's 10% global Section 122 tariffs expire Friday.
China: Moonshot's Kimi K3 and CXMT's oversubscribed IPO renewed "China shock" fears; the "national team" bought about $9 billion of stocks.
Stories to Watch
Alphabet, Tesla, IBM, and AT&T earnings (Wednesday); Intel and American Airlines (Thursday) — AI-spend and demand reads.
Farnborough International Airshow (this week) — more aerospace and defense deal signals.
Trump's 10% global Section 122 tariffs expire Friday — trade and supply-chain exposure.
Bank of England rate decision — a steady labor market but overshooting borrowing under the new Chancellor.
Taco Bell cyclospora litigation — fast-expanding strict-liability food-safety exposure.
Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger — next steps after the court pause.
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.
Thanks for reading!
We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected].
