Good afternoon,
Firms are wiring AI into the core of the business. Willkie Farr & Gallagher struck a build partnership with OpenAI — the AI company’s first big legal-industry move — while lateral hiring stayed brisk, with Gibson Dunn, McGuireWoods, Sullivan & Cromwell, Baker McKenzie, and Proskauer all adding partners. Washington lobbying firms posted record first-half revenue, and Senate Democrats opened a new front against Big Law, pressing Skadden over its Trump deal and its work on Intel’s government stake.
On the client side, Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery buyout faces an August hearing that could cost it more than $1 billion in late fees, and Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy bill topped $1.1 billion. Trump threatened a 100% duty on generic drugs with another tariff salvo due Friday, oil climbed as the Houthis eyed a second chokepoint, and UK markets wrestled with a Thames Water debt fight and a $60 billion takeover raid.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Willkie Farr partners with OpenAI to build custom AI tools; lobbying firms post record first-half revenue
-Laterals continue: Gibson Dunn, McGuireWoods, Sullivan & Cromwell, Baker McKenzie, and Proskauer announced new partners today
-Senate Democrats press Skadden over its Trump deal and Intel government-stake work; $940M pledged across nine firms
-Paramount-Warner faces an August hearing and ~$7M/day late fees; Purdue's Chapter 11 bill tops $1.1B
-Sidley faces a disqualification bid in Genesis Healthcare; NLRB loses a post-Chevron test at the DC Circuit
-Trump threatens a 100% generic-drug tariff with another salvo due Friday; Medicaid funds paused for two states
-Oil climbs on a Houthi Red Sea blockade threat as 10- and 30-year yields hit two-month highs
-UK in focus: Thames Water debt fight, a $60B takeover raid, and LSE's move to 24/7 trading
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Gibson Dunn hired real estate partner Angus Lennox from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in London.
McGuireWoods brought on debt finance partner Michelle Williamson from Kirkland & Ellis in Houston.
Sullivan & Cromwell added national security partner Charles Capito to its national security and foreign investments and trade regulations practice in Washington.
Baker McKenzie hired Khelin Aiken from Johnson & Johnson as a corporate and deals partner in Washington.
Proskauer rehired private funds partner Emily O'Brien from Gunderson Dettmer in Boston.
Chris Kercher is leaving Quinn Emanuel — where he acted for clients including Elon Musk and Ken Griffin to launch an AI-driven litigation boutique that uses AI for what he calls "context assembly."
What today's moves tell us: firms are loading up on deals, funds, and national-security talent, and a wave of AI-native launches is starting to reshape how disputes practices are built.
Operations and Strategy
AI vendors are courting law firms directly, and Washington work is filling fee pools as the midterms approach.
OpenAI and Willkie Farr & Gallagher are teaming up to build AI tools for the firm. This is OpenAI's first major push into the legal industry since it hired Ironclad founder Jason Boehmig. Willkie will roll out ChatGPT Enterprise and use OpenAI models to extend its Wendell Intelligence platform, and plans to build custom products that connect across tools for clients. The firm already uses Harvey and LexisNexis's Protégé and will keep buying where it makes sense, but chief digital and information officer John Elbasan said Willkie wants to stand out by building on what he called a "treasure trove" of firm data. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are chasing the same buyers, betting lawyers will be heavy AI users.
Top Washington lobbying firms hauled in record revenue in the first half of 2026, driven by companies gearing up for possible new rules on everything from trade to AI. Ballard Partners led the group with $63.5 million representing an 84% increase compared to last year’s 1H results.
Practices
Regulatory and Governance
The pressure on Big Law’s Trump deals is moving from the executive branch to Congress, and Big Law GCs and management committees are watching disclosure and governance rules tighten in parallel. For GCs at client firms the through line is exposure: counsel conflicts tied to government stakes, shifting federal reporting duties, and a Delaware bench in transition.
Selected Press:
Senate Democrats — Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff, and Rep. Jamie Raskin — pressed Skadden over its free-legal-services deal with Trump, citing conflicts from its work on the sale of the government’s 10% stake in Intel, and demanded records by Aug. 4; nine firms collectively pledged $940 million to avoid punitive orders, and a Democratic House or Senate in November would carry subpoena power.
Delaware Supreme Court Justice Karen Valihura steps down July 25, a notable change on the court that anchors US corporate law, even as Delaware judges take a harder look at noncompetes and other restrictive covenants.
The EEOC moved to end employer reporting of workers’ race and sex data, reshaping compliance for large employers.
Litigation, Bankruptcy, and White Collar
Deal and restructuring litigation is where the high-end matters are stacking up. A merger injunction fight, an outsized bankruptcy fee tab, and a disqualification bid all point to steady work for restructuring, appellate, and defense teams, while general counsel weigh how a shifting federal posture changes settlement math.
Selected Press:
Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery face an early-August hearing before US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on whether to freeze their $110 billion deal pending a full trial; California and 11 states, which sued July 13, want a trial in April 2027. If Paramount cannot close by end-September it owes late fees of about $7 million a day — potentially well over $1 billion — even as European regulators are expected to clear the deal and the DOJ already has.
Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy lawyers and advisers won approval of their final fee applications, pushing the opioid maker’s six-year Chapter 11 tab to roughly $1.1 billion.
Genesis Healthcare investor Joel Landau moved to disqualify Sidley Austin from representing the bankrupt nursing-home operator, saying lead partner Thomas Califano previously advised on Landau’s investments.
A federal judge trimmed plaintiffs’ counsel fees in Anthropic’s $1.5 billion author-copyright settlement, rejecting what he called a “windfall” and awarding below the $187.5 million the firms sought.
Trade, Healthcare, and Federal Enforcement
Tariff and funding moves out of Washington are creating fast-moving advisory work for trade, healthcare, and regulatory teams. Executives are pricing supply-chain risk and clawback exposure as the administration reaches deeper into pricing and program funding.
Selected Press:
Trump told drugmakers to move production to the US or face a 100% import duty on generic drugs — doubling the following year — a move critics warn could worsen shortages of painkillers, antibiotics, and cancer drugs, with another tariff salvo expected by Friday.
The administration will withhold more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota after an audit flagged suspected fraud.
California and more than a dozen states sued the EPA over a rule extending deadlines to phase out pollution-heavy refrigerant chemicals.
The DC Circuit invalidated a longstanding NLRB rule on post-merger union bargaining, one of the first labor casualties of the post-Chevron shift; separately, News Corp countersued Brave for allegedly scraping its articles to train AI.
Where the Work Sits
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The clearest new pool is AI adoption inside firms and their clients. The Willkie-OpenAI build, and the vendor land grab behind it, points to technology-transaction, data-governance, and IP work as firms move from buying tools to building them — and the News Corp-Brave scraping fight shows the litigation that follows. This is where a small set of firms will concentrate high-end AI matters.
Merger and bankruptcy litigation is the other center of gravity. The Paramount-Warner injunction fight feeds antitrust and appellate and deal-certainty mandates with real money on the clock, while Purdue's fee approval and the Sidley disqualification bid keep restructuring and conflicts teams busy.
Washington is generating advisory work faster than it is generating enforcement. The Skadden inquiry and the $940 million in pledged services point to privilege, congressional-investigations, and defense mandates across the upper echelons of the profession, while tariff threats, the Medicaid clawback, and the EPA suit hand trade, healthcare, and regulatory teams parallel work.
Governance and employment round out the demand. A shifting Delaware bench, tighter noncompete scrutiny, and the EEOC's reporting rollback give corporate and labor teams new questions to answer for boards and general counsel.
Global Markets
Tariffs, oil, and a jittery bond market frame the day.
Clients are watching Trump's 100% generic-drug threat and a fresh tariff salvo due Friday, with the US and Mexico set to resume USMCA talks amid new Canada duties. Executives are weighing an oil bid as the Houthis threaten to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a second chokepoint alongside Hormuz, while renewed Iran tensions have bond markets again pricing a rate hike this year and 10- and 30-year Treasury yields at two-month highs. UK dealmakers are tracking a market under a takeover raid and a Thames Water debt fight, and positioning around SoftBank's OpenAI financing.
Selected Press:
Trade: Trump floated a 100% duty on generic drugs and another tariff round by Friday; the US and Mexico will resume USMCA talks as new Canada tariffs take hold.
Oil: crude firmed as the Houthis threatened a Bab el-Mandeb blockade, raising the risk of a supply shock if both Red Sea and Hormuz routes are squeezed.
UK: creditors signaled willingness to share control of Thames Water with the Burnham government, and the UK equity market is losing about $2 billion a week to takeovers — roughly $60 billion this year — as the London Stock Exchange plans 24/7 trading.
Financing: JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs stand to earn about $100 million in fees on SoftBank's OpenAI loan, and developed-market debt is set to hit a record $76 trillion.
Stories to Watch
Alphabet, Tesla, and IBM earnings (today) — key reads on AI spend and demand as Nasdaq nerves show.
New tariff salvo expected by Friday as the current stopgap expires — trade and supply-chain exposure.
US-China AI talks (September) — a possible reset on export controls and chip access.
Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery hearing (early August) before Judge Martínez-Olguín on freezing the deal.
SpaceX share lock-up ends with debut earnings Aug. 4; OpenAI to add two independent board members ahead of its IPO.
House Oversight hearing on DEI in law-school accreditation (today), with ABA President Michelle Behnke in focus.
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.
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