Ben Thomson

Baker McKenzie Dumping the Billable Hour as AI Threatens BigLaw’s Business Model

Law Firms /
Sunny mann lawfuel - new top lawyer at Baker McKenzie

Baker McKenzie is moving away from the billable hour as its default pricing model, in one of the clearest signs yet that artificial intelligence is forcing major law firms to rethink how they charge clients. The global firm’s chair, Sunny Mann, told the Wall Street Journal that the firm has begun adopting value-based pricing, reflecting

Baker McKenzie Dumping the Billable Hour as AI Threatens BigLaw’s Business Model Read More »

Weil Votes Itself Out of Existence. The Restructuring Firm Becomes the Case Study.

BigLaw, Law Firms, US Law /
Weilwindown

Partners at Weil, Gotshal & Manges have voted to wind the firm down, ending a 95-year run for one of the defining names in US corporate and restructuring law and the firm that built big law’s first major Chapter 11 practice. The 10 November vote passed with 97 per cent support, according to Bloomberg Law

Weil Votes Itself Out of Existence. The Restructuring Firm Becomes the Case Study. Read More »

A&O Shearman’s $1.1 Billion AI Bet Is Paid Mostly in Billable Hours

Legal AI /
Shearman

The headline number is enormous, but what it’s made of is more interesting. For decades, BigLaw has enshined the idea that time is money and now A&O Shearman is taking that literally by asking its lawyers to spend some of their billable hours building technology that could eventually make a good many of them unnecessary.

A&O Shearman’s $1.1 Billion AI Bet Is Paid Mostly in Billable Hours Read More »

Vedder Makes Its New York Move With 49,000-Square-Foot Manhattan Office Deal

BigLaw /
New york times square advertising

Chicago-based law firm Vedder is making a significant investment in its New York presence, taking an entire floor in one of Manhattan’s prominent Sixth Avenue office towers. Global law firm Vedder has signed a long-term lease for 49,000 square feet at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, securing the entire 34th floor of the Rockefeller Group-owned

Vedder Makes Its New York Move With 49,000-Square-Foot Manhattan Office Deal Read More »

Weil Plugs a London Gap with Freshfields PE Partner Rebecca Ward

BigLaw, Featured, UK Law /
Rebecca ward lawfuel

Weil, Gotshal & Manges has hired Freshfields private equity partner Rebecca Ward in London, a welcome arrival at a firm that has lately been better known for partners leaving than joining. Ward joined Freshfields in 2022 after 17 years at sponsor specialist Dickson Minto, nine of them as partner. Her client list includes CVC, TPG

Weil Plugs a London Gap with Freshfields PE Partner Rebecca Ward Read More »

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Takes the Police to Court, and the King Won’t Pick Up the Tab

Featured, Opinion, UK Law /
Princeandrewlawsuit

The Duke of York may be out, but the litigation claimant is in. Stripped of his royal titles and his dukedom last October, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has gone from pariah to a significant public-law litigant having launched judicial review proceedings against Thames Valley Police and the Central Criminal Court following his birthday arrest. The first round

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Takes the Police to Court, and the King Won’t Pick Up the Tab Read More »

Harvey Comes Calling As BigLaw Associates Trade the Billable Hour for “Legal Engineer”

BigLaw, Featured, Legal AI, Legal Careers /
LegalAIcareers

Power Points -Firm Prospects tracked nearly 16,000 moves in and out of the Am Law 200 in the first half of 2026. The headline number is small. What it tells you is not. For as long as anyone can remember, the BigLaw associate’s exit menu has been short and predictable, namely move to another firm,

Harvey Comes Calling As BigLaw Associates Trade the Billable Hour for “Legal Engineer” Read More »

The Fearsome Foursome Is Back. It’s the Same Four. Again.

BigLaw, Power Law Firms - Global, US Law /
Lion2

Quinn Emanuel tops BTI’s most feared litigation list for the fifth straight year. The top sixteen firms haven’t budged. The only real movement is further down, where some “Awesome” firms are quietly being reclassified as merely “Intimidating.” A particular kind of silence falls over a general counsel’s office when the other side’s notice of appearance

The Fearsome Foursome Is Back. It’s the Same Four. Again. Read More »

The Consigliere in the Red Mercedes – Neel Sachdev, Big Law’s Leading Man

BigLaw, Featured, Lawyer Salaries, Rankings, UK Law /
Sachdev financialtimes lawfuel

Neel Sachdev is the best-paid finance lawyer in London, the most-discussed lateral hire of the decade, and possibly the only Big Law partner who has consulted an astrologer before hiring associates. He’s also been continuing to attract a lot of publicity lately.

Most partners at elite law firms prefer to be invisible outside a small circle of clients and headhunters. Neel Sachdev has taken a different approach. The Paul Weiss London co-head is the subject of a new Financial Times profile, and it may be the most entertaining piece of legal journalism this year.

The FT’s legal correspondent, Suzi Ring, met the 51-year-old lawyer in Portugal, where he has invested in a luxury property development on the site of a former orange grove in the Algarve. He did not arrive quietly, but rather in a red open-top 1977 Mercedes 450 SL, wearing a matching outfit, sunglasses and his trademark beaded bracelets.

The Consigliere in the Red Mercedes – Neel Sachdev, Big Law’s Leading Man Read More »

The Original Boomerang Boomerangs Out: Mike Aiello Quits Weil for Cravath

BigLaw, Rankings, US Law /
Aiello Michael

Power Points: Weil, Gotshal & Manges has spent three weeks losing partners and then on Friday it lost the one who mattered most. Michael Aiello, chairman of Weil’s 600-lawyer corporate department and the man colleagues routinely describe as the firm’s most powerful partner, has told Weil he is resigning. He is expected to surface at

The Original Boomerang Boomerangs Out: Mike Aiello Quits Weil for Cravath Read More »

Scroll to Top