Good afternoon,

Skadden is using a new nonequity partner tier to grow its pipeline and compete harder for laterals, while Vorys is building AI replicas of its own partners with a Stanford Law School research lab. Goldman Sachs Investment Banking now expects pure M&A volume to hit $3.8 trillion this year, and Anthropic's $65 billion raise at a $965 billion valuation is pulling in a $36 billion private credit deal from Apollo and Blackstone for AI infrastructure.

On the client side, CVC is closing in on a $4 billion PE carve-out of IFF's food ingredients unit, Autodesk is buying MaintainX for $3.6 billion, and CNN sued Perplexity over AI copyright. US GDP was revised down to 1.6%, CEO confidence is falling, and a tentative US-Iran ceasefire extension is pulling oil lower.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Skadden Adds Nonequity Tier, Targets Lateral Market / Paul Hastings, Holland & Knight, DLA Piper Add Partners

-Vorys Builds AI Partner Personas with Stanford

-Goldman Calls $3.8T M&A Year / CVC-IFF $4B Carve-Out / Autodesk-MaintainX $3.6B

-CNN Sues Perplexity on AI Copyright / Trump Refiles $10B WSJ Defamation Suit / EU Fines Temu $232M

-Anthropic $65B Raise at $965B Valuation / Apollo-Blackstone $36B AI Debt Deal / SpaceX IPO Cut to $1.8T

-US GDP Revised Down to 1.6% / CEO Confidence Drops / US-Iran 60-Day Ceasefire Extension / Oil Slips

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

- Paul Hastings hired energy & infrastructure partner Tyler Brown from King & Spalding in Atlanta.

-Holland & Knight hired healthcare regulatory partner Kimberly Rai in New York.

-DLA Piper hired real estate partner Geoffrey Palachuk in Seattle.

-Hinshaw & Culbertson hired commercial transactions partner Robert Powell in Miami.

-Husch Blackwell added partner Greg Pimstone in Los Angeles.

-Sher Tremonte hired Catherine Dick, the DOJ Antitrust Division's former litigation director, who worked on the Apple, Google, and Live Nation cases.

What today's moves tell us: Firms are filling practice-specific gaps in energy, healthcare, real estate, and employment, with hires spread across multiple cities. The wider signal is that mid-market and platform firms are competing for lateral talent alongside the elite shops.

*Stay tuned for the weekly roundup of lateral hires (and executive moves) delivered on Monday in your inbox.

Operations and Strategy

Firms are rethinking partnership structures and AI strategy at the same time, each as a tool for competitive positioning.

Skadden Chairman Jeremy London said the firm's new nonequity partner tier helped it increase partner promotions this year and the firm now aims to be more active in the lateral market. The nonequity tier gives Skadden a structural lever that firms like Freshfields and A&O Shearman have also adopted recently, a sign that partnership economics across the top end of the market are being redrawn to retain and attract talent.

Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, a 375-attorney Ohio firm, is working with a Stanford Law School research lab to build AI "personas" of 19 of its partners. The tools can pressure-test legal arguments and redline documents in the style of a specific attorney. The project sits at the opposite end of the AI spending spectrum from Kirkland's $500 million platform bet but signals that mid-market firms are also investing in differentiated AI capabilities.

Separately, A&O Shearman finalized its board with two additional partner appointments from its Singapore and Austin offices.

Practices

M&A and Private Equity

Dealmakers are reading Goldman Sachs' $3.8 trillion M&A forecast and the steady flow of PE carve-outs as confirmation that the deal calendar will accelerate through the end of the year. AI-related positioning and PE exits are the two drivers Goldman highlights. Corporate clients weighing divestitures and sponsors hunting carve-outs are both feeding demand for dealmaking advisory, financing, and due diligence work.

Selected Press:

Goldman Sachs predicts pure M&A volume could hit $3.8 trillion in 2026, surpassing 2025 and the 2021 pandemic-era peak, driven by AI positioning and PE exits.

CVC nears $4 billion deal for IFF's food ingredients division, the latest in a run of PE carve-outs from large corporates.

Autodesk to buy MaintainX for $3.6 billion in cash, expanding its industrial software platform.

Southwest Airlines CEO said 'never say never' to M&A in an industry ripe for consolidation; United Airlines CEO won't push without a 'willing partner.'

Jana Partners pushing fintech Alkami to restart a sales process after the company tapped advisers months ago.

Capital Markets and Private Credit

Fund managers and sponsors are watching the Anthropic financing and the SpaceX IPO repricing as guidelines for how the market prices AI risk and growth. The $36 billion Apollo-Blackstone debt deal for Anthropic’s infra is one of the largest private credit transactions on record and will generate work across fund finance, structured lending, and technology licensing teams. Meanwhile, redemption pressure at Vista and Apollo's credit funds is pushing restructuring and fund-level advisory into the spotlight.

Selected Press:

Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI's last reported valuation.

Apollo and Blackstone are shepherding ~$36 billion in debt financing for Anthropic's AI infrastructure build using Google TPU leases.

SpaceX cuts IPO valuation target to at least $1.8 trillion, down from an earlier goal above $2 trillion.

Vista Equity Partners limits withdrawals from its credit fund after a single retirement fund investor sought to redeem. Fund assets dropped ~18% from year-end.

IP, Copyright, and Litigation

General counsel at media companies and AI startups are tracking the CNN-Perplexity complaint as the latest test of whether AI platforms can use published content without licenses. The case adds to a growing docket of AI copyright actions and points to steady demand for IP, media, and technology litigation teams. The Trump-WSJ defamation refiling and the EU's $232 million Temu fine add to the list of high-profile disputes driving billable work.

Selected Press:

CNN sued Perplexity alleging the AI startup unlawfully copied and distributed its journalism without a licensing agreement.

Trump refiled $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over a 2025 Epstein-related article.

EU fined Temu $232 million for failing to prevent the sale of unsafe products on its platform.

Illinois passed landmark AI safety bill requiring companies to submit model safety plans for third-party audits and creating whistleblower protections.

Where the Work Sits

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The Goldman $3.8 trillion M&A call, the CVC-IFF carve-out, and the Autodesk-MaintainX deal all point to a deepening pipeline of sell-side advisory, financing, and due diligence work. Airline consolidation talk from Southwest and United puts antitrust and regulatory teams on notice for what could become a major merger review cycle. The Jana-Alkami activist campaign adds corporate governance and M&A defense mandates.

The Anthropic $65 billion raise and the $36 billion Apollo-Blackstone debt package are generating fund finance, structured lending, and technology licensing work at a scale that few transactions have matched. SpaceX's repriced IPO and the broader IPO pipeline in Hong Kong ($21 billion YTD) signal growing capital markets demand. Redemption pressure at Vista and Apollo's credit funds is feeding restructuring and fund-level advisory work.

CNN's copyright suit against Perplexity, the Illinois AI safety bill, and the Trump-WSJ defamation refiling create IP litigation, regulatory compliance, and media defense work. The EU's $232 million Temu fine points to rising consumer protection enforcement mandates for global e-commerce platforms.

Global Markets

Two signals are pulling in opposite directions for clients. A tentative US-Iran ceasefire extension is pushing oil lower and giving CFOs room to model tighter financing spreads, while a downward GDP revision to 1.6% and falling CEO confidence suggest the macro backdrop is softening. Executives are weighing whether the deal window stays open. For now, treasury and finance teams are watching 10-year yields at 4.455% (down 23 bps in six sessions) and Brent at $93.36 as the inputs that determine financing costs on live transactions. In Europe, inflation jumped in France, Italy, and Spain, backing the case for an ECB rate hike and adding pressure to cross-border deal structures.

Selected Press:

US and Iran reached a tentative 60-day ceasefire extension, with plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin new nuclear talks. Trump has yet to sign off.

US Q1 GDP revised down to 1.6% from 2.0%, on weaker inventory investment and softer consumer spending. Corporate profits rose 17% YoY.

CEO confidence dropped to 47 (Conference Board), a 12-point fall from Q1. 40% of Fortune 500 CEOs expect conditions to worsen in the next six months.

Treasury Secretary Bessent and Fed Chair Warsh held their first weekly breakfast. Bessent said rate cuts did not come up and expects one to two more hot inflation prints from energy costs.

Russia drone struck apartment in Romania (NATO member), injuring two people. NATO and the EU condemned the attack.

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.