Good afternoon,

Global law firms are adding mining talent at the fastest clip in years, with DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright, and HSF Kramer all building benches as mining M&A hits a 13-year high. Jones Day grabbed a 23-year IRS veteran in Chicago, while hires across tax, employment, IP, and energy signal broad-based lateral activity. Pinsent Masons took a public reprimand from the London High Court over AI-generated legal errors, and Wiley Rein is defending a data breach class action.

On the client side, Banco Santander won shareholder approval for its $12B acquisition of Webster Financial, ExxonMobil's proposed move to Texas incorporation is drawing fire from proxy advisers, and the ECB is flagging growing cracks in private credit. Kevin Warsh takes the Fed chair, and equity markets are at record highs.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Mining Hires Surge Across Global 200 Law Firms / Jones Day Adds IRS Veteran / Laterals in Tax, Employment, IP, Energy

-Masons Reprimanded Over AI Error / Wiley Rein Data Breach Class Action / US Firms Gain Ground in London Courts

-Santander's $12B Webster Deal / Uber Eyes Delivery Hero / Hg Breaks Software PE Freeze / IMAX Sale Explored

-ExxonMobil Texas Reincorporation Fight / Activist Pressure on H.B. Fuller

-ECB Warns on Private Credit / JPMorgan Offloads PE Risk via NAV Loan Transfer

-AI Hiring Bias Study Finds Racial Disparities / Stanford Analysis of 4M Applications

-Warsh Takes Fed Chair / China Cuts Rate to Record Low / S&P 500 and Nasdaq at Record Highs

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

-Jones Day hired veteran IRS counsel Laurie Humphreys in Chicago. Humphreys spent nearly 23 years at the IRS, most recently as senior counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel.

-Cozen O'Connor hired tax attorney Drew Barsalou in its private client, trusts, and estates practice in Boca Raton.

-Greenberg Traurig hired Toshiyuki Yoshida as a shareholder in its global energy and natural resources practice in New York.

-Perkins Coie hired Marc Campopiano as a partner in its environment, energy & resources practice in San Diego.

-Seyfarth Shaw hired Kathryn Rosen and Devin Smith as partners in its labor and employment practice in Seattle.

-Winston & Strawn hired Morgan Mayne as a partner in its IP litigation practice in Dallas.

-McDermott Will & Emery hired MiRi Song as a partner in its employment practice in Los Angeles.

-Paul Hastings also added anti-money laundering chair Roberto Gonzalez from Paul Weiss.

Mining talent is the other story. At least seven Global 200 firms have announced 11 mining-sector appointments this year, led by DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright, and HSF Kramer. Global mining M&A value rose 34% in Q1 2026 year-on-year and hit a 13-year high of $93.7 billion in 2025, driven by the race for critical minerals and precious metals

What today's moves tell us: Firms are stacking mining, tax, and energy benches as critical minerals M&A accelerates and regulatory complexity deepens. Employment and IP hires in secondary markets reflect widening demand beyond the traditional coastal centers.

Operations and Strategy

AI risk and cybersecurity are forcing firms to rethink operations, while US firms keep pushing into London litigation.

Pinsent Masons was publicly admonished by London's High Court after a junior lawyer, supervised by a senior associate and partner, twice cited inaccurate statute language generated by an AI tool. Judge Mark Mullen stressed that lawyers remain responsible for accuracy and cannot outsource legal reasoning to AI. The firm has self-reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and says it is strengthening AI safeguards. The judgment adds to a growing line of court sanctions over AI-generated errors in legal filings.

Wiley Rein faces a proposed class action alleging it failed to detect a cyberattack that gave hackers access to sensitive consumer data for eight months starting in July 2024. The firm did not discover the breach until June 2025 and waited until March 2026 to notify victims. The plaintiff alleges at least 19 fraudulent charges resulted from the stolen data.

US firms are also taking a growing share of London's biggest court battles, now featuring in almost one in five Commercial Court cases. The trend reflects continued geographic expansion by US firms into high-end English litigation work.

Practices

M&A and Capital Markets

Dealmakers are reading Hg's Rightsline buyout as the first real evidence that the software PE freeze is thawing, and sponsors sitting on dry powder will be watching whether it pulls others off the sidelines. Cross-border bank consolidation (with Santander finally clearing its Webster vote) tells acquirers and their banking counsel that large regulated deals can still get done, while the run of approaches and sale processes at Lantheus, and IMAX signals corporate development teams and boards are testing valuations again after a cautious stretch. For legal counsel, that shift from watching to acting points to firming demand for regulatory, antitrust, banking, and fund formation work.

Selected Press:

Hg buys Rightsline for ~$500M, its first new buyout since AI-driven software sell-offs froze the sector in February 2026.

Santander wins shareholder approval for its $12B acquisition of Webster Financial, sharply expanding the Spanish bank's US footprint.

Lantheus weighs ~$7B sale after a Curium approach, putting a radiopharma platform in play.

Ancora pushes H.B. Fuller to abandon its $805M takeover of UK bandage maker Advanced Medical Solutions.

IMAX holds preliminary sale talks as Wall Street pegs it an undervalued premium entertainment-technology platform.

Newcleo plans $2.4B SPAC merger to go public, riding AI-driven electricity demand.

Corporate

Across corporate governance and shareholder rights, Board directors and general counsel are watching the ExxonMobil reincorporation vote as a template. If a company this size can shift to Texas over Glass Lewis and ISS opposition, other large caps will weigh the same move — and the activists they are trying to fend off will test it in court. Decision-makers who read a successful vote as proof the legal framework holds will drive sustained demand for governance, securities, and shareholder-litigation counsel, with an edge to firms carrying both Delaware and Texas corporate benches.

Selected Press:

ExxonMobil seeks approval to reincorporate from New Jersey to Texas, aligning with more management-friendly corporate law.

Private Credit

Fund managers and credit teams are watching a regulator and a major lender pull back from private credit at the same moment the ECB flagging cracks while JPMorgan offloads first losses on NAV loans. For sponsors, that combination reads as the market's first real stress cycle arriving, and the work that follows is restructuring, workout, and portfolio-sale counsel, alongside the structured-finance and fund formation mandates tied to the AI-infrastructure lending the ECB singled out for scrutiny.

Selected Press:

ECB warns on private credit, citing weakening loan quality, heavy software exposure, and opaque structures that could spread stress.

JPMorgan offloads NAV-loan first losses on $4B in PE exposure across North America, Europe, and the Middle East via a risk transfer deal.

Labor and Employment

General counsel and HR leaders are reassessing their exposure to AI hiring vendors now that a large study has put hard numbers on algorithmic bias. With adverse-impact findings documented at scale, and shared models meaning one rejection can cascade across employers, decision-makers face mounting litigation and regulatory risk. That positions labor and employment, data-privacy, and class-action teams to advise on vendor audits, compliance reviews, and defense.

Selected Press:

Stanford study of 4M applications finds Pymetrics' game-based AI screening disproportionately rejected Black and Asian candidates with one in 10 roles showing adverse impact against Black candidates.

Where the Work Sits

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Santander's $12B Webster Financial deal, Uber's Delivery Hero pursuit, Lantheus's $7B sale process, and Hg's $500M Rightsline acquisition all add to the M&A pipeline. Cross-border bank M&A generates high-end regulatory, banking, and antitrust work; the software PE thaw creates fund formation and tech M&A mandates; and activist situations at H.B. Fuller and the IMAX sale process feed corporate defense and M&A advisory. 

ExxonMobil's reincorporation vote is a test case for corporate governance and proxy advisory. If successful, other large-cap companies could follow, generating sustained corporate governance, securities, and shareholder litigation mandates. Firms with Delaware and Texas corporate practices should watch this closely.

The ECB's private credit warning and JPMorgan's NAV loan risk transfer deal point to rising restructuring, credit advisory, and structured finance work. As lenders pull back, sponsors will need more sophisticated workout and portfolio sale counsel. The AI infrastructure financing angle also creates new fund formation and regulatory mandates for firms with fintech and financial institutions practices.

The Stanford AI hiring bias study adds to the growing body of litigation risk around algorithmic employment screening. Firms with labor and employment, data privacy, and class action practices are well positioned as companies reassess their AI vendor exposure and brace for regulatory scrutiny. The Pinsent Masons AI reprimand is a separate but related signal: law firms themselves face operational risk from AI tools, driving demand for internal compliance and risk management advisory.

Global Markets

Executives and dealmakers are reading this week's economic signals for timing. A new Fed chair in Kevin Warsh, paired with FOMC minutes showing officials ready to drop a rate-cut bias, has PE funds and their advisers watching the rate path and the 10-year closely, since that is the cue for when to fundraise and when to deploy capital.

Record highs on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, led by the memory-chip rally, keep the IPO and exit window open, and sponsors and startups are timing new offerings to it, with Newcleo's planned SPAC an early mover. Oil sliding to $95 on US-Iran ceasefire optimism gives energy clients near-term relief but leaves a reversal risk worth hedging. The throughline for decision-makers this week is: watch rates, equities, and geopolitics to judge whether the next quarter is the moment to move.

Selected Press:

Kevin Warsh sworn in as Fed chair, expected to move the Fed away from forward guidance, with a revised policy statement possible at the June 16–17 meeting.

April FOMC minutes show officials already leaning to drop a bias toward rate cuts.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs, led by a memory-chip rally that pushed Micron and SK Hynix to $1T market caps.

Oil drops to $95 a barrel on US-Iran ceasefire optimism.

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.