Ben Thomson

A 30-person federal indictment has implicated attorneys from Wachtell, Latham, Willkie, Goodwin, Cleary, Sidley, Weil and DLA Piper in what prosecutors call one of the most sweeping M&A intelligence networks ever prosecuted on American soil.

The access a law firm grants its attorneys is built on a simple, foundational covenant: what comes through the door stays within those walls. For a decade, federal prosecutors allege, a network of Ivy League-trained lawyers decided that covenant was negotiable — and that confidential merger data was simply a different kind of billable asset.

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Partners at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Hogan Lovells have just delivered the final, resounding “yes” on what the industry is already calling the largest law firm merger in history. The votes closed this month, clearing the runway for the combined firm — Hogan Lovells Cadwalader — to open its doors on July 1 with a projected $3.6 billion in annual revenue and roughly 3,100 lawyers spread across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.

It’s the kind of deal that makes managing partners lose sleep and rainmakers salivate. Cadwalader, Wall Street’s oldest firm, brings its legendary finance, structured products, and capital markets firepower.

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Updated 16 March with clarification on the DLAPiper profit pool arrangements following the restructuring. For years, the Swiss verein has been BigLaw’s favourite legal fiction as a neat way for sprawling global firms to present as “one firm” while keeping the money, liabilities and politics carefully ring‑fenced by region. Now DLA Piper, is preparing to

It has been a year — twelve months of watching the most powerful law firms on the planet twist in the wind at the pleasure of a sitting president. And just when it looked like the drama had finally resolved itself, Washington reminded everyone that in this administration, nothing is ever quite over.

On Monday, the Trump administration quietly announced it was abandoning its executive orders against Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey — four firms that had the nerve, and the litigation chops, to fight back. All four had beaten the orders in the lower courts.