Good morning,

This week's lateral market tells a clear story about where law firms see revenue growth. Gibson Dunn made the biggest splash, recruiting three mass torts and product liability partners from Paul Weiss across New York and Los Angeles, plus a data centers partner in Dallas and a fund finance partner in New York. Willkie made a team move of four data center and digital infrastructure partners from Akerman to Dallas, signaling serious intent in the infrastructure buildout space. Kirkland saw talent depart to multiple firms, losing partners to Proskauer, Willkie, and Greenberg Traurig, while picking up a project finance partner from Simpson Thacher in Houston. Washington, D.C. was the week's busiest market, with over a dozen lateral hires spanning regulatory, government investigations, and litigation.

On the executive side, Walt Disney made headlines by appointing Karandeep Anand, the former CEO of Character.AI, to the newly created position of Senior EVP and CTO. EOG Resources announced a CFO succession, with Ann D. Janssen retiring after 30 years and a Morgan Stanley veteran stepping in. The investment banking world saw Goldman Sachs strengthen its UK leadership, while Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan both added private capital advisory talent as the secondaries market heats up.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

BigLaw Moves Sentiment

The concentration of hires in data centers, digital infrastructure, and energy finance points to a building wave of deal work tied to the AI infrastructure buildout and energy transition. Firms are positioning for the transactional and regulatory complexity that comes with hyperscale data center development.

The volume of D.C. regulatory and government affairs hires, including partners recruited from the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the FTC, suggests firms expect continued regulatory activity to drive advisory revenue.

Fund finance and private funds remain a focal point, with Kirkland continuing to lose talent in this space as competitors build out competing practices. The three-partner mass torts raid by Gibson Dunn on Paul Weiss signals that product liability litigation remains a lucrative growth area.

BigLaw Moves

A few quick patterns worth noting: Gibson Dunn was the week's most aggressive acquirer with six partner additions across mass torts, data centers, and fund finance. Kirkland was a net exporter of talent, losing fund finance and private funds partners to three different firms. Washington, D.C. dominated geography, accounting for roughly a third of all lateral moves, driven by government affairs, regulatory, and investigations hires. King & Spalding lost three partners to Sidley and Snell & Wilmer across life sciences and government investigations. Data centers, digital infrastructure, and energy finance emerged as a clear hiring theme this week, with team moves in Dallas and Houston.

Antitrust and Competition

-Aaron Teitelbaum lateralled to Orrick as an antitrust litigation partner in Washington, D.C. He was previously with Kressin Powers.

Appellate

-C. Briggs Johnson moved to Clyde & Co as an appellate partner in New York. He was previously with Gallo Vitucci Klar.

-Brian Burgess was elevated at Goodwin Procter to co-chair of its Supreme Court and appellate practice, following the departures of the group's previous leaders.

Bankruptcy and Restructuring

-Debra M. Sinclair will return to Weil, Gotshal & Manges as a partner in its U.S. restructuring practice.

-Penelope Jensen was recruited by O'Melveny for its bankruptcy and restructuring practice in New York. She was previously with Linklaters.

Capital Markets and Structured Finance

-Loren Finegold and Ed Comber joined Vinson & Elkins as structured finance and securitization partners in New York from Latham & Watkins. Finegold was tapped to lead the firmwide group.

-Kerrick Seay was hired by Mayer Brown for its global leveraged finance and private capital group in New York.

Corporate M&A and Emerging Companies

-Alan J. Schwartz joined Duane Morris as a partner in its corporate practice group (corporate tax) in New York.

-Kaitlin Bagby moved to Morrison Foerster for its emerging companies and venture capital group in Palo Alto.

Data Centers and Digital Infrastructure

-James Grice, Eddie Lowry, Michael McKinley, and Thu Pham lateralled to Willkie as data center and digital infrastructure partners in Dallas from Akerman.

-Noah Hansford joined Gibson Dunn as a data centers and digital infrastructure partner in Dallas from Stutzman, Bromberg, Esserman & Plifka.

Executive Compensation

-Deidre Kalenderian was recruited by Paul Weiss for its executive compensation department in New York. She was previously with Paul Hastings.

False Claims Act

-Augustine M. Ripa joined Whistleblower Law Collaborative for its False Claims Act practice in Boston. He was previously with the DOJ.

Intellectual Property Litigation

-Michael Shepherd moved to Bradley Arant as an IP partner in Washington, D.C. from Fish & Richardson.

-Christian Mammen was hired by Boies Schiller as an IP and AI litigation partner in San Francisco from Womble Bond Dickinson.

Labor and Employment

-Sara Kalis joined Morgan Lewis as a labor-management relations partner in Chicago from Amazon.

-Melissa Caulum Williams lateralled to Jackson Lewis as an employment partner in Madison from Husch Blackwell.

-Donald Sullivan moved to Ogletree Deakins as a benefits partner in San Francisco from Jackson Lewis.

-Peter Lenart and Audrey Smith joined Dinsmore & Shohl as construction litigation and employment partners in Tampa from Freeman Mathis & Gary.

-Morgan Frisoli was recruited by Cadwalader as a tax, pensions and benefits partner in Boston from Goodwin.

Life Sciences and Healthcare

-Smitha Stansbury joined Sidley as a life sciences partner in Washington, D.C. from King & Spalding.

-Michael Resch was hired by Sidley as a life sciences partner in San Francisco from King & Spalding.

-Katherine Hinson moved to Barnes & Thornburg as a healthcare and litigation partner in Raleigh from K&L Gates.

-Jeremy Avila joined Nixon Peabody as counsel in its healthcare group in San Francisco.

Litigation (General and Commercial)

-Sandhya Brown was recruited by Alston & Bird for its litigation and trial practice group in Washington, D.C. She was previously with the FTC.

-Gabriel Levinson moved to ArentFox Schiff as a real estate litigation partner in New York from Haynes Boone.

-Ronak Patel joined Akerman as a litigation partner in Austin from Bressler, Amery & Ross.

-Ryan Bueche was hired by Husch Blackwell for its commercial litigation practice in Austin.

-Devin Donohue and Andy Hutchison lateralled to Alston & Bird for its litigation and trial practice group. Donohue joined in Century City and Hutchison in San Francisco.

-Sean Suber joined Quinn Emanuel as a partner in Chicago from Winston Taylor.

-Greg Van Houten moved to Latham & Watkins for its complex commercial litigation practice (insurance recovery) in Washington, D.C. from Haynes Boone.

Private Equity, Private Funds, and Fund Finance

-Stewart Ross joined Proskauer as a fund finance partner in New York from Kirkland.

-Andrew Hogan was recruited by Gibson Dunn as a fund finance partner in New York from Mayer Brown.

-Shreyas Jhaveri lateralled to Willkie as a private funds partner in New York from Kirkland.

-Reed Balmer joined Troutman Pepper Locke for its private equity and investment funds practice in Stamford.

-Mary Lavelle was hired by Debevoise & Plimpton as a partner (secondaries and global funds) in London from Freshfields.

-Shan Khan moved to Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder in its finance practice in Dallas from Kirkland.

-David Solander joined Fried Frank as an asset management regulatory partner in Washington, D.C. from DLA Piper.

Product Liability and Mass Torts

-Yahonnes Cleary was recruited by Gibson Dunn as a mass torts and product liability partner in New York from Paul Weiss.

-Kimberly Branscome and Jonathan Tam joined Gibson Dunn as mass torts and product liability partners in Los Angeles from Paul Weiss.

Project Finance, Energy, and Infrastructure

-Fern Han lateralled to Kirkland as a project, energy and infrastructure finance partner in Houston from Simpson Thacher.

-John Meadows was hired by Holland & Knight for its Texas litigation practice group (energy litigation) in Houston from Steptoe.

Regulatory, Government Affairs, and Public Policy

-Jessica Donlon joined Cooley as a congressional investigations partner in Washington, D.C. from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

-Daniel Sale moved to Snell & Wilmer as a government and congressional investigations partner in Washington, D.C. from King & Spalding.

-Kavitha Subramanian was recruited by Husch Blackwell as a consumer financial services partner in Washington, D.C. from Cross River Bank.

-Fatima Abbas joined Holland & Knight as a federal government affairs partner in Washington, D.C. from the Treasury Department.

-Andrew Hartlage was hired by Mayer Brown as a public policy, regulatory and government affairs partner in Washington, D.C. from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

-Ike Blanton lateralled to Holland & Knight for its national security and defense industry group and federal government affairs practice in Washington, D.C. from J.A. Green & Company.

-Karen Manning returned to Nelson Mullins in Columbia, South Carolina from the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

Tax

-Alex Anderson moved to Milbank as a tax partner in New York from O'Melveny.

-Jeffrey Reed joined K&L Gates as a tax partner in New York from Kilpatrick Townsend.

Private Wealth

-John Collins was hired by Haynes Boone as a private wealth partner in Dallas from Katten.

White Collar Crime and Government Investigations

-Mark Cipolletti joined Honigman as a white collar defense partner in Washington, D.C. from Thomson Hine.

-Bill Abely, a former federal prosecutor, was recruited by Litson in Boston.

Corporate Moves Sentiment

The CTO and CIO appointments across Arch Insurance, Chubb, BD, Disney, and EverCommerce underscore how boards are treating technology leadership as a strategic function, not a support role. For law firms, this translates to advisory demand across technology transactions, data governance, and AI-related regulatory compliance.

The private capital advisory hires at JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, combined with Debevoise adding a secondaries partner from Freshfields, suggest the secondaries and private capital advisory market is entering a growth phase that will generate transactional and fund formation work.

Goldman Sachs strengthening its UK investment banking leadership, alongside Barclays rebuilding its Asian private banking presence, points to cross-border capital flows that create legal advisory opportunities in capital markets and wealth structuring.

Corporate Moves

Investment Banking

-Bank of America: Bryce Dakin is joining as head of global semiconductor tech investment banking in San Francisco. He was previously with Lazard.

-Barclays: Wee Yee Yeong was hired from Morgan Stanley as head of wealth business in Singapore, as the bank rebuilds its Asian private banking presence. Barclays is seeking to more than double its private banking headcount in Singapore.

-Goldman Sachs: Simon Lyons was appointed co-head of UK investment banking alongside Nimesh Khiroya. He was previously co-head of Europe for Ardea Partners and a founding partner at PJT Partners.

-Harris Williams: Tucker Laurens joined as managing director of financial sponsors. He was previously with Solomon Partners.

-JPMorgan: Adriaan van der Knaap was recruited for its private capital advisory and solutions team as vice chair in New York. He spent eight years at Apollo Global Management.

-Moelis: Matthew Rosedale joined as a London-based managing director of financial sponsors. He was previously with Jefferies.

-Morgan Stanley: Alexander Mejia and Jeremy Duksin were hired as co-heads of private capital advisory solutions in the financial sponsors group. Both from Robert W Baird & Co in New York, focusing on expanding the bank's secondaries market presence.

-Solomon Partners: Jorge Mora was hired as vice chairman. He will also remain at Jacmel Partners as vice chairman of infrastructure.

Asset Managers and Financial Institutions

-.406 Ventures: Kathryn Taylor Reddy was promoted to partner.

-Bond Capital: Rob Scales and Taha Ziaee were promoted to general partners.

-Cherry Ventures: Tatiana Shalalvand was hired as Partner at the Berlin-based venture capital firm. She was previously with Kinnevik.

-Engine Ventures: Michelle Daubar is joining as partner and head of investor relations. She was previously with Oak HC/FT.

-Grafine Partners: Suzanne Flannery joined as managing director and head of strategic initiatives. She was previously at Neuberger Berman.

-Insight Partners: Scott Barclay stepped down as managing director in Palo Alto. He will remain a senior advisor while launching a startup.

-Khosla Ventures: Tal Broda joined as a partner. He was formerly VP of compute at OpenAI.

-Lux Capital: Three partners were added: Sarah Hess (from Point72 Ventures) and Mia Krishnamurthy (from CRV) on the investment team, and Mahi Joshi (from Evercore) on the capital formation team.

-OMERS Ventures: Laura Lenz was promoted to head of ventures.

-Rev1 Ventures: Jennifer Hankins was hired as CEO and President at the Columbus, Ohio-based venture studio. She was previously with Tulsa Innovation Labs.

-Quad-C Management: Dan Soroka joined as managing director of portfolio optimization, focused on supply chain. He was previously with Graham Partners.

Corporates

-Arch Insurance: Gaurav Sharma was appointed CIO, where he will lead the company's technology modernization agenda. He was previously head of technology at AXA Health.

-Becton Dickinson: Arthur (Art) Hu was appointed EVP and Chief Information and Digital Officer, effective September 30. He was previously CIO at Lenovo. He will succeed Denise Russell Fleming, who will retire at the end of the year.

-Chubb: Sean Ringsted was appointed chief scientist, leading global AI, data, and analytics strategy. He has been with Chubb for 22 years.

-EOG Resources: Ann D. Janssen will retire as CFO, effective January 1, 2027, after more than 30 years with the company. Jeffrey W. Hibbard, currently SVP of Finance, will succeed her. Before joining EOG last year, Hibbard worked at Morgan Stanley for 20 years.

-EverCommerce: Chris Rogers was named CTO. He previously served as CTO of Instinet.

-Gold.com: Jill Van was appointed CFO. She succeeds Cary Dickson, who retired.

-JMG Group: Lisa Tucker was appointed general counsel and Phil O'Toole was appointed CFO at the UK-based insurance broker, both in London.

-K-Love: Debashree 'Dee' Sethmajhi was appointed CTO. She previously spent nearly a decade at Oracle.

-Quantum: Mike Heuer was named CIO. He joins from Legence, where he served as CIO.

-Walt Disney: Karandeep Anand was appointed to the newly created position of Senior EVP and CTO, effective October 2. He was most recently CEO of Character.AI and previously held roles at Brex, Facebook (Meta Platforms), and Microsoft.

Heard on the Street

Lateral partner compensation continues to stretch into eye-popping territory. Above the Law reported this month that some BigLaw rainmakers are now commanding guaranteed compensation packages of $20 million or more, as firms take increasingly expensive bets on lateral hires. The publication noted that research shows only about 20% of lateral hires meet their financial targets in year one, rising to roughly 30% by the end of year two, raising questions about the sustainability of these guarantees.

On the hiring volume side, BCG Attorney Search's 2026 Legal Talent Movement Report projects partner laterals will remain at elevated levels of 2,800 to 3,100 moves this year as firms compete for market share. However, Law360 Pulse reported that BigLaw grew more selective on second-quarter lateral hires, with associate and counsel moves declining while partner hiring remained stable.

In the C-suite, LHH's 2026 research found that high-turnover leadership teams dropped from 43% of organizations in 2025 to 19% in 2026. But JRG Partners reports the overall global C-suite departure rate remains at approximately 22%, with average executive tenure falling to 4.8 years compared to 7.5 years a decade ago. AI skill gaps have risen to become the top perceived leadership development gap, according to the LHH report, which tracks with the wave of CTO and chief scientist appointments seen in this week's data.

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 content that highlights demand for legal services. Certain production processes may be supported by proprietary AI tools and are subject to human editorial judgement and review.