Good afternoon and happy Friday,
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is fielding a wave of partner departures, with a private equity group heading to Paul Weiss and others weighing Simpson Thacher, a sign of how hard elite firms are competing for high-end deal talent. Kirkland & Ellis added London lawyers to a new "senior income partner" tier, and McGuireWoods, Akerman and Ashurst Perkins Coie all made partner hires.
On the client side, dealmakers are keeping busy. Banca Monte dei Paschi moved to counter Intesa's $42bn approach with bids for Banco BPM and Banca Generali, Santander closed its Webster takeover, and KKR's Arctos bought into the Atlanta Falcons. Anthropic said it expects to match or top SpaceX's record IPO, and a Justice Department probe of billionaire Mark Walter began rippling into private credit. Treasury Secretary Bessent's bond buybacks kept the "Sell America" trade alive as the 30-year yield topped 5.25%.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Weil Gotshal faces partner defections — a PE group to Paul Weiss, others eyeing Simpson Thacher
-Kirkland adds London lawyers to a new "senior income partner" tier; McGuireWoods, Akerman, Ashurst Perkins Coie hire partners
-BMPS counters Intesa's $42bn bid with offers for Banco BPM and Banca Generali; Santander closes Webster deal
-Anthropic expects to match or beat SpaceX's record IPO and adds Citigroup; SHEIN sets a $26–27bn Hong Kong listing
-DOJ probe of Mark Walter hits Egan-Jones and pushes a $1.2bn Guggenheim loan into distress
-Lutnick asks a judge to toss the Intel-stake suit; Apple cuts EU App Store fees; Australia taxes Big Tech ad revenue
-"Sell America" risk builds as Bessent's buybacks stoke dollar-debasement fears and a higher risk premium
-US debt tops $40tn; Fed minutes lean toward tightening; UK posts a surprise July deficit
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is facing a wave of partner exits, with a private equity group headed to Paul Weiss and other partners exploring a move to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, per the Wall Street Journal.
McGuireWoods hired commercial litigation partners Jeff Golimowski and Jeremy Baker from Womble Bond Dickinson in Tysons, Virginia.
Akerman named Lisa Lim a real estate partner and chair of affordable housing transactions in New York.
Ashurst Perkins Coie added former DOJ national security lawyer Prava Palacharla as a complex litigation partner in Chicago.
What today's moves tell us: the competition is concentrated at the top of the market, with a PE-heavy firm losing partners to larger platforms, and litigation, real estate and national security driving the rest of the hiring.
Check our Rolodex newsletter delivered on Monday at 7:30 am for a weekly overview of the lateral market and executive moves.
Operations and Strategy
Firms are reworking pay structures and defending their partnerships as the fight for high-end talent intensifies.
Kirkland & Ellis added a group of London lawyers to a new "senior income partner" tier, extending the salaried-partner model that US firms have used to compete for talent without diluting equity profits. The move underscores how far the world's highest-grossing firm will go to hold and attract lawyers in a market where London remains a talent battleground.
The Weil departures show the pressure from the other side. A firm long known for shepherding companies through bankruptcies and advising private equity is now watching partners leave for larger, higher-paying platforms. For management committees, retention and compensation design are becoming as important as origination, and rivals are competing on a smoother path to partnership and lighter hours rather than matching the very top of the pay scale.
Practices
M&A and Private Equity
Dealmakers are leaning into bank consolidation, sports franchises, and cross-border carve-outs, and the pipeline points to busier sell-side, financing, and antitrust calendars. European banking is the clearest signal: contested bids force boards and their counsel into defense strategy, regulatory review, and fast execution, the kind of complexity where elite counsel and their sponsor clients tend to lean in.
Selected Press:
Banca Monte dei Paschi approved plans to bid for Banco BPM and wealth manager Banca Generali to counter a $42bn takeover approach from Intesa Sanpaolo.
Santander completed its acquisition of Webster Financial and executed a related capital increase, one of the largest US takeovers ever by a European lender.
KKR-owned Arctos Partners agreed to buy a 10% stake in the NFL's Atlanta Falcons at a $10.6bn valuation, its fourth NFL position.
WSP Global will press ahead with a $6.3bn bid for Dutch peer Arcadis after two unsolicited offers were rejected.
T. Rowe Price agreed to acquire $20bn fixed-income manager F/m Investments, while a Warburg Pincus-led group explores a sale of online bank EverBank and Virtu weighs a $3.5bn-plus sale of its brokerage unit.
Capital Markets and IPOs
The listing window is reopening for the largest AI and consumer names, and capital-markets teams are positioning for a heavy fall calendar. Sponsors and their counsel are watching whether mega-IPOs price the way private rounds implied, because each large filing pulls in highly sophisticated securities, governance, and cross-border regulatory work.
Selected Press:
Anthropic expects to match or top SpaceX's record ~$86bn IPO and is adding Citigroup to a syndicate that already includes Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.
SHEIN is targeting a $26–27bn valuation in a Hong Kong IPO — down from nearly $100bn in 2022 — with Boyu, Tencent, General Atlantic and UBS lined up as cornerstone investors and orders expected Monday.
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the company expects to go public in 2027 or sooner, with its revenue run rate up 35% quarter to date against an $852bn valuation.
Broadcom is in talks with lenders to raise $60bn–$70bn in debt for an AI chip financing deal that would benefit Anthropic and others.
Private Credit, Restructuring, and Investigations
A federal probe of billionaire Mark Walter is turning into a private-credit story, and general counsel and fund managers are likely to price in valuation disputes, ratings scrutiny, and workout work. When an investigation touches the ratings behind insurance balance sheets, the second-order effects reach lenders, auditors, and the funds that hold the paper.
Selected Press:
The Justice Department sought records from Egan-Jones as it probes Mark Walter's business; his insurers relied on the firm for the only known ratings on more than a fifth of their bond holdings.
A $1.2bn loan to Guggenheim fell into distressed territory on concerns tied to Walter's federal investigation.
PGIM, Prudential's asset manager, agreed to buy $3bn of loans from home-improvement lender GreenSky.
Carlyle-backed TAMKO Building Products reported a 50% drop in earnings weeks after a $415m dividend recap, while Clearlake-backed FinThrive drew on a $150m credit line after earnings fell 17%.
Regulatory and Antitrust
Enforcement and regulatory friction are generating compliance, competition, and cross-border disputes work. Executives and general counsel are watching how aggressively agencies and foreign governments press, because each action sets the terms for how deals get defended.
Selected Press:
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asked a federal judge to throw out a suit alleging corruption in Trump's deal to take a stake in Intel.
The SEC's digital-assets proposal faces legal hurdles without the backing of a crypto bill that remains stalled in Congress.
Apple agreed to cut several EU App Store fees and allow more third-party stores to resolve a long-running antitrust dispute.
Australia passed a 2.5% levy on local ad revenue from Meta, Google, Microsoft and TikTok unless they strike deals with local news publishers.
Where the Work Sits
***
European bank consolidation — BMPS versus Intesa, Santander-Webster — plus sports-franchise deals and a reopening IPO pipeline in Anthropic, SHEIN and OpenAI fold sell-side, financing, securities, and cross-border regulatory mandates together. Contested bids in particular reward counsel who can run a defense while modeling the antitrust and financing paths at once.
The Mark Walter probe and the Egan-Jones records demand pull in white-collar, valuation, and workout teams, and the distressed Guggenheim loan shows how quickly an investigation reprices the paper that funds hold. This is where complexity converts directly into high-end matters.
The Intel-stake suit, the SEC’s crypto proposal, Apple’s EU concessions, and Australia’s tech levy each open compliance, competition, and cross-border disputes mandates for in-house teams across corporate America.
Interest rates and financing advisory rounds out the map. As long-dated yields stay volatile and the Treasury changes how it manages debt, treasurers and sponsors will lean on counsel to structure financings and hedge policy risk.
Global Markets
Bessent's bond intervention is keeping the “Sell America” trade alive and forcing clients to reassess dollar and financing exposure.
Sophisticated clients with global exposure are weighing whether the Treasury’s buyback push reopens a financing window or raises long-term borrowing costs, while fund managers are watching the dollar and reading a $40tn debt load as a sign that rates policy alone will not set financing terms. Dealmakets with cross-border exposure are also tracking China’s fiscal turn and Iran tensions for the next leg of risk.
Selected Press:
The “Sell America” trade risks turning real as Bessent’s bond buybacks stoke dollar-debasement fears; JPMorgan flagged a credibility risk and investors warned of a higher risk premium on Treasuries.
Bessent said buybacks could exceed $4bn per issue as the 30-year yield topped 5.25% and both stocks and bonds fell; US public debt has passed $40tn.
Fed minutes showed several officials backed higher rates in July if inflation stays elevated.
China plans new fiscal support as growth slips below target, while Trump’s plan to isolate Iran’s economy risks friction with China, its biggest oil buyer.
The UK posted a surprise £1.8bn July deficit even as consumer confidence hit a two-year high; euro-area manufacturing was the strongest since 2022.
Stories to Watch
NVIDIA earnings (Wednesday, Aug 26) — consensus near $91.9bn in revenue, the marquee read on AI capex and chip demand.
SHEIN's Hong Kong IPO — orders expected to open Monday for a debut around Sept. 1, a test of appetite for discounted mega-listings.
Broadcom's $60–$70bn AI-chip debt financing — a barometer for how much leverage the AI buildout can absorb.
China's new fiscal support package — scale and timing will shape cross-border deal and financing appetite.
UK autumn budget prep — a surprise July deficit raises the stakes for Chancellor John Healey's tax and spending choices.
Iran tensions — the UAE suspended trade after missiles entered its waters and Trump threatened severe economic action, with oil near $93.
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.
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