Kirkland & Ellis and the Fine Art of Saying Sorry Without Saying Sorry Norma Harris, LawFuel contributor The planet’s most profitable law firm, Kirkland and Ellis, has decided its famously steely negotiation style could do with a coat of polish. The firm, long the darling (and occasional demon) of private equity clients, apparently received the clearest
Etiquette 101 for Kirkland & Ellis – How to Say Please Read More »
The masters of the M&A universe are discovering what the rest of us have known all along – that litigation pays, and it doesn’t evaporate when the dealmakers take a sabbatical.
Fresh data from Bloomberg Law reveals that some of the legal industry’s most ludicrously profitable firms, the ones that built fortunes advising private equity titans, are now scrambling to stockpile litigators like they’re preparing for the apocalypse.
Four heavyweights – Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Weiss, Davis Polk, and Paul Hastings – have inflated their litigation benches by at least 22 percnt since early 2024. It is noteworthy that these are firms that climbed to the top of the profitability charts primarily by perfecting the art of billing seven figures for corporate transactions, not courtroom combat.
What’s Behind The BigLaw Litigation Hiring Surge? Read More »
UK Government’s Supreme Court Champion – The ‘Treasury Devil’ For Sir James Eadie KC, Britain’s Supreme Court could well provide a sleeping arrangement for one of Britain’s outstanding, leading Silks, whose near-standard appearances in the highest court in the country are countless. James Eadie is both Whitehall’s secret weapon in constitutional battles and a barrister
The UK Bar’s Law Star ‘Devil’ – Sir James Eadie KC Read More »
UK Chancellor Reeves Aims Her Sights on Lawyers & Others Ben Borman, LawFuel contributing editor UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves is eyeing roughly £2 billion a year by slapping employer-style National Insurance contributions (NICs) on members of LLPs, that’s lawyers, accountants and anyone else who looks suspiciously well-remunerated. Under the current regime, LLP members are taxed
Lincoln Lawyer AI Copyright Case Ben Borman, LawFuel contributing editor Lincoln Lawyer creator Michael Connelly has joined other bestselling authors like John Grisham to battle OpenAI and its ChatGPT empire in an alleged ‘book heist’. The class action involves not only Connelly and Grisham, two of the world’s bestselling writers, but also other names including
Lincoln Lawyer Creator Joins Grisham in AI Copyright Battle Worth Billions Read More »
Media reports show a new funding surge for plaintiff side legal AI with EvenUp and Eve raising rounds that put both firms at or above the billion mark. EvenUp closed one hundred and fifty million and says most new revenue comes from AI products for demand letters and prep, Reuters report. Eve raised over one
Investors Back Plaintiff Side Legal AI with Fresh Cash Read More »
Plaintiff firms just got their own AI arms dealer. San Francisco startup Eve raised $103 million (Series B) at a $1 billion valuation to fuel AI for plaintiffs’ firms. Led by Spark Capital with a16z, Lightspeed, and Menlo piling in. Eve now claims 450+ law firm customers, touts tools for case evaluation, demand letter drafting,
Eve Hits $1B Valuation as VC Money Bets on AI-Native Plaintiff Firms Read More »
Well, well, well . . nothing says “strategic legal planning” quite like hiring the very lawyer who helped broker your multibillion-dollar acquisition to then become your top legal talent. Makan Delrahim has officially traded his Latham & Watkins partnership for the corner office at Paramount Skydance Corporation, stepping into the CLO role on October 6th
Paramount’s Legal Musical Chairs Sees BigLaw Partner Cash In on His Own Deal Read More »
The Role of Junior Lawyers in the Age of AI Norma Harris, LawFuel contributor Business Insider reports that Harvey’s chief executive Winston Weinberg, himeelf not long out of the junior lawyer blocks, told TechLaw Fest that junior lawyers remain central to the future of legal work as AI changes training and tasking. Business Insider The
Harvey’s CEO says junior lawyers still matter in the AI era Read More »
Big pay cheques, flashy AI demos, bold merger promises — these are all the usual theatrics in law firm press releases. But beneath the PR sheen, cracks are widening: not every firm can sustain both rising compensation and heavy AI spending without wobbling.
Some are already looking shaky.
Which Law Firms Could Be Left Behind in the 2025 Pay + Legal AI Shake-Up? Read More »
