Good afternoon,

Weil Gotshal has recruited A&O Shearman's global co-head of fund finance to London, the latest signal that private capital advisory remains the talent battleground for elite firms on both sides of the Atlantic. Debevoise picked up a finance partner from Ropes & Gray in New York, while Robins Kaplan added four former DOJ attorneys to build out its investigations bench. On the operations side, Baker Botts' managing partner says AI will not reduce associate hiring at his firm, even as industry-wide entry-level hiring dropped 22% last year.

On the client side, KKR agreed to buy EDF's North American renewable power portfolio as AI data-center demand drives energy M&A, Martin Marietta struck a $13.5 billion deal for Lhoist North America, and Comcast confirmed a tax-free spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky. The Supreme Court handed Bayer a major win in its Roundup litigation, and the DOJ signaled a shift toward antitrust settlements over lengthy trials.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Weil recruits A&O Shearman fund finance co-head to London / Debevoise adds Ropes & Gray finance partner in New York

-Baker Botts says AI will not cut associate hiring; industry entry-level hiring down 22% / Sullivan & Cromwell matches Milbank's $235K first-year salary scale

-KKR buys EDF's North American renewables portfolio / Martin Marietta–Lhoist $13.5B combination / Comcast to spin off NBCUniversal

-Onsemi–Synaptics $6B chip deal / Safran eyes Exail for €2.2B / Stellantis and Nissan pursue Marelli assets in bankruptcy

-Supreme Court blocks thousands of Roundup lawsuits in Bayer win / DOJ shifts antitrust toward settlements

-OpenAI delays IPO to 2027 / Sovereign funds rotate into private markets to capture AI build-out

-US–Iran ceasefire and Hormuz shipping / ECB Sintra forum / South Korea's $880B+ tech investment plan

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

What today's moves tell us: Fund finance, investigations, and executive compensation are drawing the most lateral activity today, with firms building deep benches in London and New York to capture private capital and enforcement-related mandates.

Operations and Strategy

Firms are drawing sharper lines on how they plan to absorb AI into their operating models, while the compensation race at the associate level picks up again.

Baker Botts managing partner Danny David says AI will not reduce associate hiring at his firm. Baker Botts hired 84 entry-level associates for this summer and fall, a 2% drop from a year earlier. That compares with a 22% decline in entry-level hiring across the 100 largest firms by revenue, per Firm Prospects. David argues that firms relying on high volumes of associates for routine work face greater exposure: "For some firms, AI may well result in pink slips falling from the ceiling. That will not be our experience."

The associate salary race added another chapter. Sullivan & Cromwell has reportedly matched Milbank's new scale, setting first-year associates at $235,000 and eighth-year associates at $455,000. More than a dozen firms have followed. At the top end, leading firms are paying top partners above $30 million, and a record 83% of associates who left in 2025 departed within their first five years.

Proskauer Rose updated its brand under chair Timothy Mungovan, emphasizing client experience over pure efficiency and profit maximization. The firm has revamped its leadership team and increased headcount while investing in technology designed to improve how clients experience the firm.

Practices

Corporate M&A and Energy

Dealmakers and sponsors are moving on energy and industrial assets at scale, with AI infrastructure demand compressing timelines for power-sector transactions. Executives and board directors are watching how quickly the energy M&A pipeline converts, because the capital intensity of data-center buildouts is pulling buyers into competitive processes faster than in prior cycles.

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Capital Markets and Private Credit

Fund managers and sponsors are recalibrating deployment timelines as the IPO calendar shifts and private credit risk surfaces. OpenAI's decision to push its IPO to 2027 removes a marquee listing from the near-term calendar. At the same time, sovereign wealth funds are rotating capital into private equity and infrastructure to capture AI-related build-out, which is generating fund formation and co-investment mandates for firms with deep benches in private capital work.

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Regulatory and Litigation

The Supreme Court's Roundup ruling removes a major litigation overhang for Bayer and signals tighter standards for failure-to-warn claims where federal labeling requirements are at issue. General counsel and product liability defense teams are watching closely, as the decision could reshape how companies price and defend against mass tort exposure. At the DOJ, the shift toward settlements over trials in antitrust cases may reduce the litigation cycle for pending matters but will increase demand for negotiation and consent decree work.

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Where the Work Sits

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The energy M&A wave driven by AI data-center demand is creating a pipeline of high-end mandates across project finance, regulatory approvals, and asset acquisition. KKR's EDF deal, Martin Marietta's $13.5 billion combination, and the Comcast spinoff will each generate significant advisory, tax structuring, and regulatory clearance work. The semiconductor deals (Onsemi–Synaptics) and cross-border M&A (Safran–Exail, Bridgepoint–Kayne Anderson) add antitrust, CFIUS, and cross-border structuring mandates to the calendar.

On the capital markets and credit side, OpenAI's IPO delay and the sovereign fund rotation into private markets point to sustained fund formation and secondary work. The stress signals in private credit from Altana's bearish positioning to the BNPL forward-flow surge are the kind of conditions that generate restructuring and workout mandates when credit conditions tighten.

The litigation docket is shifting. Bayer's Supreme Court win will reshape product liability defense strategies and could reduce mass tort exposure for companies operating under federal labeling regimes. The DOJ's tilt toward antitrust settlements will shift work from trial preparation to negotiation and consent decree drafting. Chemours' $480 million environmental settlement and Polestar's US ban will generate regulatory compliance, trade advisory, and corporate restructuring work.

Global Markets

Clients are watching the US–Iran ceasefire and Hormuz shipping recovery as a test of whether energy-market stability will hold through the summer. Executives and dealmakers in Asia-Pacific are positioning for what JPMorgan's regional head calls a strong second half for M&A, IPOs, and capital markets activity, with deal volumes across the region already up 28% year-over-year. In Europe, the ECB's Sintra forum will focus on feeble growth and AI's role in addressing productivity gaps, while Trump's threat of 100% tariffs on EU countries imposing a new digital services tax adds a fresh trade risk.

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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.