Good afternoon,
The lateral market is running hot. Sidley Austin lifted an 11-lawyer funds team from Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader in New York, while DLA Piper, A&O Shearman, Morgan Lewis, Pillsbury, and Goodwin each added partners. Jackson Walker agreed to pay $15 million to end the Justice Department’s suit over an undisclosed attorney-judge romance.
On the client side, a dozen state attorneys general sued to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. even as the DOJ cleared it, Apple moved for an injunction against OpenAI over trade secrets, and Anglo American and Teck lined up leadership for their $69 billion mining merger. Stocks sat near records as Brent crude fell 8% and U.S. manufacturing hit a four-year high.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Sidley lifts an 11-lawyer funds team; DLA Piper, A&O Shearman, Morgan Lewis, Pillsbury, and Goodwin add partners
-Jackson Walker pays $15M to end the judge-romance suit; UBS settles AML claims for $125M
-Paramount–Warner Bros. draws a 12-state challenge as the DOJ clears the deal
-Apple seeks an injunction against OpenAI; Gilead beats a 24,000-patient liability theory; TikTok settles teen suits
-States sue over Trump tariffs tied to ~$166B collected; the White House drafts a ban on Chinese data-center gear
-Anglo American–Teck's $69bn merger and KKR's $19.2bn infrastructure fund anchor the deal slate
-Stocks near records as Brent drops 8%, ISM manufacturing hits a four-year high, and Palantir lifts guidance
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Sidley Austin picked up an 11-lawyer team led by partners Brian Foster and Patrick Calves from Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader in New York, extending an aggressive funds buildout.
DLA Piper hired corporate partner Risa Salins in New York from Kirkland & Ellis.
A&O Shearman added M&A and private equity partner Germaine Gurr in Los Angeles from Sidley Austin; she will also lead the LA office and join the firm's AI steering committee.
Morgan Lewis hired energy and infrastructure partner Jude Leblanc from McGuireWoods.
Pillsbury brought on Katie Sluss from TikTok to lead its technology litigation practice in Washington.
Goodwin re-hired Ian Stearns as a government investigations and securities litigation partner in Boston from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Linklaters added three more Paul Weiss litigators, building on two sports-litigation partners it hired last month.
What today's moves tell us: firms are buying funds, energy, and government-enforcement firepower, and they are reaching into corporates and agencies to get it.
Operations and Strategy
Japan land grabs show where fee pools are pointing as settlements reset firm-risk conversations.
Jackson Walker will pay $15 million to end the U.S. Trustee's suit over an undisclosed relationship between former attorney Elizabeth Freeman and former top bankruptcy judge David R. Jones. The figure lands below the roughly $23 million the watchdog sought, but UNLV's Nancy Rapoport notes the reputational drag on Jones-era bankruptcies will linger, keeping conflicts vetting and disclosure squarely on management-committee agendas.
The buildout story is about where fee pools are moving. Sidley's 11-lawyer funds lift and Kirkland's recent Tokyo launch point the same way: firms are planting flags where sponsor capital is concentrating, with Japan increasingly described as a magnet for private equity. Expect more targeted team hires than headline mergers as firms chase funds, energy, and cross-border sponsor work.
Practices
M&A and Antitrust
Dealmakers are getting mixed signals on execution risk. General counsel are watching whether state enforcers can gum up federally cleared deals, while boards on large cross-border tie-ups treat leadership and regulatory planning as day-one workstreams rather than closing formalities.
Selected Press:
A dozen state attorneys general sued to block Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros., days after the DOJ reviewed more than two million documents and concluded the deal would increase competition.
Anglo American and Teck named a former BHP group general counsel to the executive team steering their $69 billion mining merger.
TotalEnergies agreed to sell a 50% stake in a €1.8 billion renewable portfolio to a KKR-managed account and to buy Shell's European onshore renewables assets.
Private Equity and Funds
Sponsors are pressing on fundraising and liquidity engineering even with exits slow, and the capital forming now points to fund-formation, secondaries, and co-investment mandates. Fund managers are also fighting over economics, a sign that LP-GP terms are in play and driving demand for talent.
Selected Press:
KKR raised $19.2 billion for its biggest-ever infrastructure fund.
Sponsors pushed for a larger share of continuation-fund profits in the first half, reopening negotiations over carry and alignment.
Sidley's 11-lawyer funds hire underscores demand for private-funds formation and structuring talent.
Litigation and IP
Trade-secret and product-liability fights are setting the tone, and the results are shaping how far plaintiffs and regulators can stretch existing theories. GCs are watching the AI disputes closely because they will define how model developers protect and share technology.
Selected Press:
Apple sought a preliminary injunction against OpenAI in a trade-secrets case.
TikTok agreed to settle three teen social-media suits ahead of trial, and the NLRB found Whole Foods' ban on Black Lives Matter apparel lawful.
Enforcement, Trade, and Sanctions
Enforcement and trade policy are throwing off compliance and litigation work at scale. Clients are recalculating exposure as regulators press money-laundering cases and as tariff and export-control fights move into court.
Selected Press:
UBS agreed to pay $125 million to settle U.S. anti-money-laundering allegations.
A coalition of states sued the Trump administration over new tariffs built on legal grounds the Supreme Court previously rejected, with roughly $166 billion collected and refund demands mounting.
The White House is drafting a ban on Chinese data-center devices, even as HP, Asus, and Acer began using CXMT memory chips amid a global shortage.
Where the Work Sits
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Merger agreements are the clearest mandate signal today. A state-led challenge to Paramount–Warner Bros. after a federal clearance hands antitrust and litigation teams parallel tracks, and the Anglo American–Teck combination adds cross-border regulatory and governance work on a $69 billion base. When enforcers and courts disagree, the billable question is not whether a deal closes but how many forums it has to survive.
Private capital is the second engine. KKR's record infrastructure raise, the TotalEnergies renewables trade, and sponsors' push for richer continuation-fund economics feed fund-formation, secondaries, and co-investment mandates, and Sidley's funds lift shows firms staffing directly against that demand. Japan's pull for private equity extends the same build.
Enforcement and trade are the steady grind. UBS's $125 million settlement keeps anti-money-laundering and monitorship work live, while the tariff litigation and a looming ban on Chinese data-center gear push sanctions, customs, and export-control mandates toward firms that can move fast across jurisdictions. The chip-shortage scramble adds supply-contract and diligence work behind the AI buildout.
The disputes pipeline stays full. Apple's move against OpenAI, Gilead's products-liability win, and TikTok's teen-suit settlements point to trade-secret, product, and platform-liability work clustering around technology clients.
Global Markets
Clients are reading a constructive tape: equities near records, oil sharply lower, and manufacturing firming. Executives and fund managers are weighing whether a calmer geopolitical backdrop and an open financing window justify moving on strategic deals now, while treasurers track rates and a fresh round of yen intervention that has markets pricing a Japanese rate hike.
Selected Press:
The S&P 500 closed within 0.1% of a record and the Dow set an all-time high as Brent crude fell about 8% to $83.76 after the U.S. called off strikes on Iran.
ISM manufacturing rose to 55.6, its highest since May 2022, while the 10-year Treasury yield eased to about 4.70% ahead of Friday's July payrolls.
The U.S. and Japan made their first coordinated yen purchases in decades, lifting expectations for a rate hike; Saudi Arabia's economy shrank 4.8% as the Iran war cut oil output.
Stories to Watch
July payrolls (Friday) — the marquee read on labor and Fed expectations that shapes deal confidence.
Iran talks — Trump calls his latest offer a "last chance," with Strait of Hormuz traffic still thin.
Paramount–Warner Bros. — the multistate suit tests whether state AGs can block a federally cleared deal.
Apple v. OpenAI — an injunction fight that could set guardrails for AI trade-secret disputes.
Tariff litigation — states challenge the new duties as businesses press refund claims on ~$166B collected.
Chip supply — a possible U.S. ban on Chinese data-center gear meets a global memory shortage.
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.
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