Private equity can’t own a US law firm. So it bought everything else — and 2026 is the year the profession worked out that this was not a hypothetical. Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing editor For decades the answer to “can outside investors own a piece of your law firm?” was a flat no, and the
The Great BigLaw Heist. How Private Equity Is Buying Law Firms Through the Back Door Read More »
Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing editor Norm Ai’s latest funding round does more than crown the New York‑based startup as a $1.2 billion legal tech unicorn but displays full‑stack model for delivering complex legal work that sits very close to Big Law’s core business. The legal AI ‘infrastructure provider’, founded by John Nay (pictured), sits with
Australia is on the cusp of producing its first A$10 million‑a‑year law firm partner – and the smart money says that partner will sit at Corrs Chambers Westgarth or Gilbert + Tobin, according to a legal journalist who should know.
Veteran legal affairs journalist Michael Pelly made the claim in his Capital Brief’s Prima Facie newsletter, reporting that Australian legal partner earnings at the very top of the market have accelerated sharply since the pandemic, driven by fierce competition for rainmakers and a sustained boom in high‑value corporate work.
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Australia’s First $10 Million Law Partner? The Race Is On Read More »
Sidley Austin has deepened its raid on Magic Circle rival Clifford Chance, hiring a five-partner finance and tax team in New York and Washington, D.C., to bulk up its global finance and tax platforms. The group is led by former Clifford Chance US global financial markets co-head Lee Askenazi, alongside finance partners Alistair Dunlop, Rebecca
Sidley Raids Clifford Chance for Five-Partner US Finance & Tax Team Read More »
The glittering promises of the Big Law lateral market have hit a multi-million dollar roadblock with the Clifford Chance legal battle that pulls back the curtain on the closely guarded mechanics behind biglaw partnership agreements.
Clifford Chance, a lucrative biglaw firm providing rich partner rewards, is aggressively pursuing millions of dollars in compensation clawbacks from two of its former top US partners.
Just two months after stepping down, Clifford Chance’s former global managing partner, Charles Adams, delivered a financial bombshell via mail to Andrew Cone and Michael Sabin the former co-heads of the firm’s US-based funds and investment management practice.
The letters outlined a massive financial hit . . Log in to read more . .
Kirkland & Ellis leads the M&A rankings as the Chicago-founded firm advised on 350 deals worth close to $474.5 billion in the first half of 2026, being a comfortable 18% ahead of second-placed Skadden’s $402.8 billion across just 105 deals, according to LSEG data. All of which points once again to why Kirklands continue to reign supreme in partner remuneration.
Sullivan & Cromwell, which had briefly held the top spot in Q1, slipped to third with $395 billion. Wachtell Lipton rounded out the top four at $367.7 billion.
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Kirkland Wins Again As BigLaw’s M&A Machine Has Its Best Six Months Since Records Began Read More »
How Addleshaw Goddard Turned Nine Years of Growth into a £1.1m PEP Story Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing editor Addleshaw Goddard has dropped another set of headline‑grabbing numbers, posting 17% growth in both revenue and profit and pushing partner profits to £1.1 million for the year to 30 April 2026. It’s the firm’s ninth consecutive year
Is Addleshaw Goddard’s the UK’s Next Global Elite Contender?” Read More »
On 2 June 2026, Sidley elected 52 new partners. That is up 79% from its December 2025 class of 29 and reportedly the first and only summer round the firm intends to run. Sidley is the eleventh elite firm to create a salaried partner role since Cravath broke the seal in November 2023. The list
Sidley Just Made 52 Partners Showing The Salaried Tier Is BigLaw’s New Default Read More »
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is steering SpaceX through what has become the largest stock market debut ever, while Davis Polk & Wardwell is guiding the underwriting banks led by Goldman Sachs. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that SpaceX has committed to $25.5 million in legal costs in its amended S-1 — a figure that dwarfs the typical IPO legal spend, though it’s broadly in line with what other mega-deals have paid out.
For context, the largest US IPO of 2025, Medline’s $6.3 billion listing advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, generated $25.2 million in legal fees and expenses, while Cerebras Systems’ $5.5 billion IPO, handled by Latham & Watkins, racked up $4.1 million.
SpaceX’s number sits almost exactly where Medline landed except SpaceX is aiming for a deal roughly twelve times the size.
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SpaceX’s $75 Billion Liftoff – Meet the Lawyers Steering History’s Biggest IPO Read More »
The billable hour isn’t dead in the UK, but for the first time it’s looking genuinely ill. A growing slice of work is being priced on fixed or value‑based fees, clients are pushing back on “time spent” as a proxy for value, and AI is quietly blowing up the economics of the sacred six‑minute unit.
And we’ve talked about the BH’s death many times before.
The billable hour’s first real wobble
UK legal spend is still mostly billed hourly, but value‑based and fixed‑fee work has crept up to take a sizeable minority share of the market, and it’s moving in one direction. Clients like predictability, finance teams like budgetable numbers, and nobody likes the month‑end surprise when a “quick” matter turns into a timesheet novella.
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UK Law Firms Are Finally Coming for the Billable Hour – Sort Of Read More »
