Good Morning,

Pillsbury is the latest firm to open in Boston, adding to a growing list of firms expanding their Northeast footprint. States are now actively considering bans on private equity acquisitions of law firms, a sign that regulators are catching up to the alternative capital wave.

On the client side, GameStop lobbed a $56B unsolicited offer at eBay, banks are scrambling to offload data centre debt through risk transfers, and the private credit sector is facing a confidence test as Brown University and ILPA both flag concerns. Energy markets remain in focus as the US prepares to guide ships through Hormuz.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Pillsbury Opens in Boston / States Eye PE Law Firm Bans

-GameStop’s $56B eBay Bid / Cerebras Targets $4B IPO / S&P Weighs Fast-Track Rules for Mega-IPOs

-Banks Offload Data Centre Debt via SRTs / ILPA Flags Conflict Vehicles / Blue Owl Faces Outflows

-Spirit Airlines Ceases All Operations / West Marine Eyes Chapter 11

-Pentagon AI Deals Exclude Anthropic / Musk-OpenAI Trial Settlement Talks / Meta Social Media Trial

-Iran Stalemate Continues / US to Guide Ships Through Hormuz / Trump Raises EU Auto Tariffs to 25%

-Fed Rate Cuts All But Off the Table / ECB, RBA, BOK All Leaning Hawkish / ISM Prices Spike

Talent Strategy

What today's moves tell us: Boston continues to attract new entrants as firms chase healthcare, life sciences, and technology clients clustered in the Northeast corridor.

-Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman opened a Boston office, per Bloomberg Law. Details on initial hires pending.

Operational Strategy

The regulatory perimeter around law firm ownership is tightening, while firms continue to plant flags in high-growth cities.

Pillsbury’s Boston launch follows a wave of firm openings in the city. Reed Smith opened there earlier this year with six partners. The market’s concentration of biotech, AI startups, and academic medical centers continues to pull in national platforms seeking proximity to those client bases.

On the ownership front, US states are now actively considering legislation to ban private equity acquisitions of law firms, per the Wall Street Journal. The push reflects growing concern about conflicts of interest when financial sponsors hold equity stakes in firms that advise on deals involving those same sponsors.

M&A and Capital Markets

Deal activity is running well above 2025 levels, and IPO markets are warming for AI-linked companies.

GameStop made an unsolicited $56B cash-and-stock offer for eBay at a 20% premium, with TD Bank committing $20B in debt financing. CEO Ryan Cohen said he would pursue a proxy fight if the bid is rejected. Global M&A volume hit $1.73 trillion through April 30 per LSEG, up 42% year-to-date over 2025, with US volume up 59%.

On the listings side, AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems is targeting a $3.5–4B raise at a $40B valuation. S&P Dow Jones Indices is consulting on rules that would let mega-cap IPOs enter the S&P 500 after six months instead of twelve, and exempt them from profitability requirements — a move designed to accommodate SpaceX’s expected mid-June IPO at over $1 trillion.

Private Equity and Credit

Confidence in private credit is being tested from multiple directions, while banks face structural limits on data centre lending.

Banks including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and SMBC are exploring significant risk transfers and private sales to cut exposure to data centre debt, per the FT. JPMorgan and MUFG spent over six months distributing $38B of construction debt tied to an Oracle data centre project. Linklaters is advising on the SRT structures.

Separately, ILPA is flagging conflicts in continuation vehicles and the retail push. Ares Management wrote down loans to three Clearlake Capital-owned software businesses, warning of difficult conversations ahead for companies vulnerable to AI disruption. Brown University’s $8B endowment cut its Blue Owl private credit fund position by more than half last quarter.

Bankruptcy and Restructuring

Airlines and retail are producing fresh mandates.

Spirit Airlines ceased all operations after failing to secure a bailout during its second bankruptcy. About 17,000 jobs are affected. West Marine (backed by Oaktree and L Catterton) is preparing for Chapter 11 to restructure debt and leases. Dubai food conglomerate IFFCO will enter provisional liquidation on $2B of debt.

Litigation and Government Contracts

AI governance and social media liability are generating high-stakes disputes.

The Pentagon signed classified AI deals with seven companies including OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, and xAI. Anthropic was excluded after it declined to grant broad “lawful use” terms and has since sued, arguing the designation amounts to political retaliation. Separately, Elon Musk messaged OpenAI president Greg Brockman about a settlement two days before their trial began. A federal trial testing whether judges can mandate social media reforms to Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube is underway, per Reuters.

Where the Work Sits

The GameStop-eBay bid and the M&A volume surge (up 42% YTD) are driving work across corporate M&A, leveraged finance, and antitrust review. TD Bank’s $20B financing commitment alone will generate significant debt capital markets and banking advisory mandates. If the deal turns hostile, expect proxy contest and shareholder activism work to follow.

Structured finance and banking regulatory teams are picking up mandates from banks seeking to distribute data centre debt through SRTs and private sales. The structures are novel at this scale — Linklaters is already advising — and demand for bespoke credit risk transfer documentation will grow as more banks hit concentration limits. The Cerebras IPO and S&P’s proposed fast-track rules will keep capital markets teams busy with listing work and securities advisory.

Restructuring benches are filling: Spirit Airlines’ liquidation, West Marine’s Chapter 11 preparation, and IFFCO’s provisional liquidation in Dubai all represent active mandates. The private credit stress — Ares writedowns, Blue Owl outflows, ILPA conflict concerns — points to more distressed-debt advisory and fund governance work in the near term.

Government contracts, technology litigation, and regulatory work are active on multiple fronts. Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Pentagon raises novel questions about government procurement and political retaliation. The Musk-OpenAI trial continues generating discovery and trial work. The Meta/YouTube social media trial could set precedent for product liability and content moderation regulation.

Global Markets

Central banks are leaning hawkish globally as the Iran-driven energy shock pushes inflation expectations higher, even as equity markets hit new records on AI-fueled earnings.

The Fed is effectively sidelined — markets now price virtually no chance of a 2026 rate cut and are hedging for hikes. The ECB signaled a June increase is “highly likely,” the RBA is expected to hike for a third straight meeting on Tuesday, and the Bank of Korea is weighing tightening. The US 10-year sits at 4.38%. ISM manufacturing prices spiked to 84.6, the highest since April 2022, reflecting energy pass-through.

The Iran stalemate continues. Trump signaled dissatisfaction with Tehran’s 14-point peace proposal and ordered the US Navy to guide neutral ships through the Strait of Hormuz starting today, where about 1,600 vessels remain stranded. OPEC+ agreed to a modest 188,000 bpd production increase for June. US crude exports hit a record 5.2M bpd in April. Gas prices rose 33 cents in a week to $4.39 per gallon. Trump also announced he will raise EU auto tariffs to 25%, breaching the existing trade deal ceiling. China ordered its companies to ignore US sanctions.

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.