Good afternoon,

Today, as we mark 25 years since September 11, 2001. At BigLaw Markets we remember the near 3,000 lives lost in NY at the WTC, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our team joins the community in honoring the first responders and survivors.

Across Big Law, Weil Gotshal's corporate chair Michael Aiello is leaving for Cravath, a firm that rarely hires laterally. A summer cyber-siege widened, with McDermott, Quinn Emanuel, Greenberg Traurig and Eckert Seamans disclosing breaches. Munger Tolles is rebuilding its corporate bench, and Latham bought its own Nvidia servers to run AI in-house.

On the client side, private credit's stress is turning into a short-seller's thesis as the bond rout tests direct lending, the DOJ is probing whether Nvidia's $20bn Groq deal dodged merger review, and Microsoft plans to more than triple its data-center power. Dealmaking is busy: Saudi's PIF may merge EA with Savvy Games, and Clearlake is closing on Chelsea FC.

Across the markets, Ten-year yields are near 5%, the ECB hiked, and oil neared $107, and today's CPI could decide the Fed's next move.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Today’s Talking Points

-Weil corporate chair Mike Aiello departs for Cravath; Munger Tolles rebuilds its corporate bench

-Cyber-siege hits Big Law: McDermott, Quinn Emanuel, Greenberg Traurig and Eckert Seamans disclose breaches

-Laterals keep moving: McDermott/Hekmat, Reed Smith, Proskauer, DLA Piper, Winston Taylor, Troutman

-Latham buys Nvidia servers for in-house AI; Jones Day and Atlanta firms expand

-Private credit's 'Jenga tower' draws short-sellers as the 10-year nears 5%

-DOJ probes Nvidia's $20bn Groq licensing-and-hiring deal for merger-review evasion

-Data-center financing strains: Microsoft to triple power, Vantage seeks $2bn, states tighten rules

-ECB hikes to 2.5%, oil near $107, and CPI lands today

Talent Strategy

Latest Moves

What today's moves tell us: firms are paying up for marquee M&A and capital-markets names, and even Cravath, which rarely hires laterally, is buying in. Top-of-market corporate and finance talent is moving to platforms that can pay and capitalize.

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

As law firms keep expanding offices and AI infrastructure, cyber breaches are picking up across Big law, making cybersecurity a firmwide problem for the firms themselves.

Firms kept investing in footprint and technology. Latham & Watkins bought Nvidia GPU servers to fine-tune open-weight models in its own data-center environment, a first among Big Law in owning this kind of AI infrastructure, at a possible cost of tens to hundreds of millions a year, citing client-data control and flexibility. As AI strategy takes shape across Big Law, we are likely at the beginning of the customized end-to-end legal Firmwide buildout that most likely will take shape inside each practice, giving practicing attorneys access too the widest knowledge.

The cyber-siege on Big Law widened. McDermott Will & Schulte and Quinn Emanuel disclosed August breaches, and Greenberg Traurig said an unauthorized actor posted a limited set of client documents to the dark web; Eckert Seamans also reported an incident. At least 10 large firms disclosed attacks between Memorial Day and Labor Day, many involving social engineering; some drew proposed class actions, and some firms reportedly paid ransoms. BakerHostetler said it handled nearly 60 firm incidents last year, almost double the prior year.

Jones Day is hunting for larger London premises as headcount climbs, and Atlanta-rooted firms Alston & Bird, King & Spalding and Troutman Pepper Locke are deepening New York in transport, real estate, insurance and debt finance rather than core banking.

Practices

Private Credit and Restructuring

The bond rout is turning private credit from a growth story into a risk-management one. With the 10-year near 5%, lenders and their counsel are likely scrambling to separate a funding-and-liquidity problem from a credit-quality one. Fund managers will find themselves drawing hard lines on redemptions, the setup for liability-management, creditor-rights, and fund-terms work. In past cycles, credit scares have tended to begin as redemption and funding problems before they surface as defaults, and with spreads getting the worst of the bond market, a pattern starts to emerge.

Selected Press:

Corporate M&A and Private Equity

Dealmakers are leaning into portfolio reshaping, take-privates, and new platforms. Apollo's Scott Kleinman framed a 'golden age of capital' as corporate capex needs outrun public markets, a demand signal for sell-side, financing, and structured-capital mandates, even as high 2017-22 entry prices keep pressuring exits. This remains a buyer-led market that rewards prepared sponsors who did the analytical work through the slowdown.

Selected Press:

Antitrust, AI and Data-Center Regulation

Regulators are testing new deal structures while states tighten the screws on the AI buildout, both of which pull work toward antitrust, project finance, and energy-permitting teams. General counsel are watching whether licensing-and-hiring deals survive merger review and how far states will go on siting.

Selected Press:

Where the Work Sits

***

The credit cycle is sending a clear demand signal. A bond rout that lifts the 10-year toward 5% turns growth-era direct-lending books into candidates for liability management, and fights over redemptions, fund terms, and marks point to creditor-rights, fund-formation, and litigation-finance work. The market has seen this before: when funding tightens faster than borrowers can grow into their debt, the work moves to workout and liability-management teams first, and it concentrates in a smaller set of restructuring and finance groups.

Antitrust is now looking to deal architecture, not just size. The DOJ's look at Nvidia and Groq signals that licensing-and-hiring structures now draw merger-review scrutiny, driving second-request readiness, deal-structuring, and investigations work, while state data-center rules from Massachusetts to New York add permitting, community-benefit, and energy-contract mandates.

The AI buildout keeps routing work to finance and real-assets desks. Microsoft's power expansion and Vantage's $2bn financing generate project finance, structured credit, and energy-regulatory work, and hyperscaler borrowing that crowds public markets keeps capital-markets and disclosure teams busy.

Deal execution is favoring carve-outs, take-privates, and platform builds. PIF's gaming play, the Chelsea sale, Kinetik's process, and Aramco's chemicals review generate cross-border M&A, financing, and antitrust diligence, and activist pressure at Bath & Body Works adds governance and defense work.

Global Markets

A hot inflation backdrop and a global bond rout are pushing rates higher just as central banks split. Treasurers and sponsors are weighing whether to pull financing forward before next week's Fed meeting, with the 10-year near 5% and today's CPI in view.

Energy-exposed boards are re-running cost scenarios as oil nears $107, and executives are reading a more hawkish ECB and a resilient UK as signals for where cross-border financing stays open. Decision-makers are also watching whether official reassurance can steady a Treasury market that keeps calling the bluff.

Selected Press:

Stories to Watch

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.