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Weil Gotshal's turnaround hopes took another hit as incoming leader Ramona Nee turned down the top job, days after merger talks with Willkie Farr collapsed and a fresh wave of partners left for Davis Polk, Paul Weiss and Sidley Austin. Latham & Watkins, Orrick and Akin kept hiring, and major firms booked record third-quarter lobbying fees.
On the client side, Meta set out a $95 billion stock sale to fund its AI buildout, SpaceX worked on a $40 billion off-balance-sheet chip financing, and Apollo moved for a stake in Mubadala Capital while Veritas and Instacart weighed sales.
Markets stayed tense: Brent hit a six-month high near $117, the 10-year held near 5%, and Lula won Brazil as France dodged a downgrade.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Weil's incoming leader Ramona Nee backs out as partners exit to Davis Polk, Paul Weiss and Sidley
-Latham lands Paul Hastings IP head Jason Raeburn; Orrick, Akin and GRSM add partners
-Big Law books record Q3 lobbying fees from tech, energy and defense clients
-Meta plans a $95B stock sale; SpaceX structures a $40B off-balance-sheet chip financing
-Apollo nears a 10% Mubadala Capital stake; Veritas weighs a $10B Chromalloy sale; Instacart explores a sale
-Private credit goes small-ball as banks reclaim the strongest borrowers
-Brent near $117 and a 5% 10-year greet a central-bank super-week (Fed, ECB, BoJ)
-Developments to Watch: Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon earnings, the FOMC and ECB, the UK Budget and Nov. 3 midterms
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Latham & Watkins hired Jason Raeburn, Paul Hastings' London IP and technology litigation head, to build its technology and AI disputes practice.
Paul Hastings countered with fund finance partner Mac Campbell from Reed Smith in London, reuniting him with Leon Stephenson.
Orrick hired data center real estate partner TJ Kuban from Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago.
Akin added tax partner Greg Arutiunov in New York.
Latham & Watkins also hired Michael Macko, who built the enforcement team at California's privacy agency, into its privacy and cyber practice.
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani added seven litigation partners across San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Sacramento.
The bigger story is at Weil Gotshal, where incoming executive partner Ramona Nee told the firm she will not take the role meant to succeed Barry Wolf. Her decision followed the collapse of Weil's merger talks with Willkie Farr and a new run of exits: Drew Tulumello and Chantale Fiebig to Davis Polk, Caroline Zalka to Paul Weiss, and corporate co-leader Lyuba Goltser to Sidley Austin. More than two dozen partners have left the roughly $2.1 billion-revenue firm this year.
What today's moves tell us: firms are still paying up for specialists in IP, data privacy, tax and data-center real estate, even as leadership stability becomes its own selling point. Weil's unraveling is a live test of whether elite-firm client relationships are institutional or travel with the partners who built them.
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Operations and Strategy
Firms are leaning into Washington influence work and specialist benches, even as one marquee New York partnership shows how fast a franchise can wobble.
Major firms booked record third-quarter lobbying revenue as technology, defense, energy and healthcare clients paid six-figure fees on critical minerals, trade, tariffs and AI policy. Brownstein Hyatt, Akin, Holland & Knight and Squire Patton Boggs each signed at least two dozen new lobbying clients since July 1, and Paramount Skydance alone paid Brownstein $370,000 tied to its Warner Bros. purchase. With more than $2.7 billion spent on federal lobbying this year, firms are positioning for possible Democratic gains in Congress that could drive oversight and investigations work.
Weil Gotshal's leadership gap stands out against that hiring strength. With Ramona Nee declining the executive partner role and no named successor to Barry Wolf, the firm faces open questions on governance and retention after a year of senior departures and a failed merger. Nee had been Weil's relationship partner to private equity client Advent International, a reminder of how much client coverage can ride on individual partners.
Practices
Corporate M&A and Private Equity
Dealmakers and sponsors are leaning back into sales and carve-outs, a sign boards see a workable window to move assets even with financing costs high. This remains a market that rewards prepared buyers: acquirers and sponsors that did the diligence through the slowdown can move first as processes come to market, which points to busier sell-side, financing and merger-control calendars.
Selected Press:
Veritas Capital is exploring a sale of aerospace parts maker Chromalloy that could top $10 billion, drawing both corporate and private equity bidders.
Apollo is nearing a deal for nearly 10% of Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital, which oversees more than $755 billion, deepening a standing private-credit partnership.
Instacart is working with bankers on a possible sale after talks with Uber and DoorDash, sending its shares up about 10%.
Calpers cut its direct Magnificent Seven holdings by 26% in the first half and is tilting toward private equity, a signal on where the largest allocators see value.
Smith & Nephew's talks to merge its orthopaedics unit with Johnson & Johnson at a $22 billion value collapsed over control.
Capital Markets and AI Finance
The AI buildout is now a financing-structure story as much as a technology one, and general counsel and boards are managing how to raise hundreds of billions without diluting control or ratings. The work is shifting toward bespoke equity structures, off-balance-sheet vehicles and disclosure rather than plain listings.
Selected Press:
Meta plans a $95 billion stock sale (a $35 billion underwritten portion plus a $60 billion at-the-market program) with Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom as cornerstone investors to fund its AI spending; shares fell 7%.
SpaceX is working with Goldman Sachs and Apollo-led investors on a $40 billion off-balance-sheet financing for Nvidia chips, routed through an Atlas SP vehicle to protect its investment-grade ratings.
Amazon Web Services is largely sold out of capacity into 2028, CEO Andy Jassy said, pointing to the demand behind the financing wave.
SK Hynix shelved a planned US listing of flash-memory unit Solidigm that had sought up to $15 billion, citing market conditions.
Private Credit and Restructuring
Fund managers and lenders are fighting for deals as large buyouts stay scarce, and the competition is reshaping terms and credit quality in ways that keep counsel busy on structuring and documentation. Lenders are pushing downmarket and defending share even as banks win back the strongest borrowers.
Selected Press:
Private credit direct lending fell to $38.9 billion in the third quarter, the lowest since mid-2023, as firms chased smaller borrowers on generous terms.
Banks have refinanced $22.9 billion of private-credit loans into the bank market this year, against $9.2 billion moving the other way.
Blackstone led a $300 million debt package (a unitranche, delayed-draw and revolver) backing Arlington Capital's take-private of UK aerospace supplier Gooch & Housego; Kirkland & Ellis advised Arlington.
Litigation and Regulatory
A run of large settlements and fresh enforcement signals points to steady work in mass-tort resolution, consumer protection and trade, where corporate clients are weighing liability against the cost of fighting.
Selected Press:
The Archdiocese of New York agreed to an $800 million settlement resolving clergy-abuse claims from about 1,300 people.
Shein agreed to pay $100 million to settle an FTC investigation into delivery delays and customer complaints.
BP and Louisiana agreed to resolve long-running Deepwater Horizon disputes, including an early payment of about $350 million.
The European Union plans safeguard measures in early 2027 to curb Chinese imports of chemicals, furniture and machinery.
Where the Work Sits
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The private-credit squeeze is where the next wave of structuring and workout mandates sits. When banks re-enter selectively, as this year's $22.9 billion of bank takeouts shows, they tend to refinance the strongest borrowers first and leave nonbank lenders with a weaker residual pool, which steers high-end work toward direct-lending documentation, intercreditor negotiation and, eventually, liability-management and creditor-rights teams in New York and London.
Reviving sale processes are the clearest source of new deal mandates. Veritas's Chromalloy sale, Apollo's Mubadala Capital stake and Instacart's sale talks each open parallel tracks of M&A, acquisition financing and merger-control review, while Calpers's tilt toward private markets points to more sponsor deployment to come.
The AI financing wave keeps the premium work in structuring and disclosure. Meta's equity program and SpaceX's off-balance-sheet vehicle put capital-markets, structured-finance and ratings-advisory teams at the center, with securities-disclosure exposure as investors test how much AI debt sits off the books.
Trade and enforcement are generating standing compliance mandates. The EU's planned China safeguards, record lobbying spend before the midterms, and a run of nine-figure settlements point to more work in international trade, government investigations and mass-tort resolution.
Global Markets
A central-bank super-week meets an oil-driven inflation scare. Clients are watching whether a fresh energy spike forces central banks to stay hawkish just as deal financing was reopening. In past cycles, oil moves the market first treats as contained have a way of forcing policymakers' hands, so executives and dealmakers are pricing both a near-term financing window and the risk of another inflation leg that lifts refinancing and hedging work.
Selected Press:
Brent crude hit a six-month high near $117 after Houthi strikes on Saudi airports and Aramco facilities and US preparations for post-election Iran action.
The US 10-year Treasury held near 5% as higher oil revived inflation worries days before the Fed meets.
France dodged a Moody's downgrade, holding at Aa3, easing a week of bond-market stress as the ECB succession race sharpens.
Lula won a fourth term in Brazil's runoff, leaving traders braced for a market selloff.
Bank of England officials turned their most hawkish since 2023, pointing to a possible November rate hike.
Stories to Watch
FOMC decision (Wednesday) — rates are expected to hold at 3.75–4.00%; the focus is Chair Warsh's messaging on a possible December hike.
ECB decision (Thursday) — a hold is expected, but France's bond stress and the Lagarde succession overshadow it.
Big Tech earnings — Alphabet and Microsoft (Wednesday) and Amazon (Thursday) are the clearest read yet on AI capital spending and data-center demand.
UK Budget (this week) — a closely watched test of fiscal credibility with gilt markets on edge.
US midterms (Nov. 3) — election litigation is already building, and firms are girding for congressional investigations if Democrats take control.
AWS capacity sold out into 2028 — a demand signal for project-finance, real-assets and energy teams chasing the data-center buildout.
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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