Tom Borman

BigLaw’s AI Arms Race Just Escalated As Kirkland & Ellis Puts $500 Million Behind Its Own Generative AI Platform

Big Law / May 29, 2026

The legal tech arms race just moved up a weight class. Kirkland & Ellis, the world’s highest‑grossing law firm, has set aside an eye‑watering $500 million to build its own proprietary generative AI platform, rather than relying on the same off‑the‑shelf tools everyone else can buy.

The strategy, revealed by firm chair Jon Ballis and first reported by the Financial Times, marks a deliberate pivot away from simply licensing commercial software. Ballis says the firm expects to spend more than $100 million this year alone on custom AI services, with hundreds of millions more to follow over the next three to four years – roughly 1% of Kirkland’s annual revenue.

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Inside Moritz: The AI‑Native Law Firm Taking Aim at Big Law’s Business Mode

Australia Law News, Lawpreneur, Legal AI / May 26, 2026

For Pamir Ehsas (pictured), co-founder of AI-powered law firm Moritz, a tech-trained former Oxford lawyer who advised Open AI among others, Moritz Legal is the fast-turnaround, non-billable hour perfect law firm.

Moritz is pitching itself as an AI‑native, YC‑backed alternative to Big Law: fixed fees, fast turnaround, senior lawyers only, and software claiming to do most of the heavy lifting so humans focus on judgment.

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Australian Firm Thomsons Bets on AI With Launch of New AI Legal Brand

Australia Law News, Featured, Law Firm Management, Law Firms, LawPreneur, Power Briefs / May 25, 2026

Australia’s legal market has its latest sign that AI is moving from conference-room buzzword to business model as national law firm Thomsons (formerly Thomson Geer) unveils a major rebrand alongside the launch of Faculti Lawyers, a new incorporated legal practice built to handle high-volume legal work using proprietary AI technology. The move reflects a growing

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Legora Hires Atlassian CMO Star To Sell AI To Sceptical Lawyers

Featured, Legal AI / May 22, 2026

Tom Borman Lawyers are trained to pull apart arguments, not sign up for AI hype. Swedish legal AI startup Legora has just hired someone whose job is to change that, according to a report from BusinessInsider. The company has appointed former Atlassian marketing leader Zeynep Inanoglu Ozdemir as its first chief marketing officer, handing her

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$230bn in Five Days, Two Partners Out the Door – Wachtell’s High-Stakes Reckoning

Big Law, Headlining, Law Firms, Press Releases / May 11, 2026

The firm that pays its partners $12 million a year just can’t stop losing them. Here’s why that paradox may be the most important story in Big Law right now.

Wachtell Lipton broke every profitability record in Am Law 100 history in 2026 — and watched nine partners walk out the door to rivals offering something the numbers alone couldn’t match. What’s really driving the exodus from Wall Street’s most envied firm, whether the lockstep model can survive the age of the $80 million guarantee, and what it all means for the future of elite legal practice: it’s all inside.

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Paul Weiss Sheds Litigation Associates Citing Performance Reviews as Firm Navigates Litigation Slowdown

Big Law, Headlining, Law Firms / May 8, 2026

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has parted ways with several litigation associates following its annual performance review cycle, possibly marking a structural change from the relatively recently annointed firm chair Scott Barshay (pictured).

According to reporting by The American Lawyer, the New York-based firm, which has long prided itself on avoiding public layoffs, including during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2022 financial correction . . Log in to read more . . .

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DLA Piper Votes Overwhelmingly to Scrap Verein Structure

Big Law, Briefings, Featured, Press Releases / April 25, 2026

DLA Piper is scrapping its Swiss verein structure and pulling the operation under a single leadership umbrella after partners in both its US and International LLPs voted overwhelmingly in favour.

The firm is betting that a more unified structure will make it easier to chase high-value, cross-border work and compete for top-tier talent without the usual internal friction that verein structures quietly encourage.
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Sports Law Explodes As Elite Deal-Makers Command $10M+ in Poaching Frenzy

Headlining, Law Firms, US Law / April 13, 2026

If you’re a sports lawyer with a strong book of business, or an ambitious associate eyeing the biggest payday of your career with BigLaw firms currently writing checks most lawyers only dream about.

Elite transactional rainmakers who live and breathe NBA, NFL, MLB, WNBA and private-equity sports deals are now routinely commanding $8 million to $12 million-plus in annual compensation, with the very top names clearing eight-figure packages in the fiercest poaching war the practice has ever seen.

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London Law Boss ‘Spitting Feathers’ Over Partners’ Sexual Harassment Pattern

Big Law, Headlining, UK Law / March 27, 2026

The boss of one of the London’s elite insurance law firms has taken the extraordinary step of personally overseeing misconduct complaints after rising allegations of bullying and sexual harassment among senior partners, shining a fresh, unflattering light on law firms’ ongoing struggle to clean up their cultures.
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Ropes & Gray Raids Latham & Watkins for Eight-Lawyer Paris PE/M&A Team

Big Law, Headlining, Power Firms / March 25, 2026

In a bold lateral strike that underscores the fierce talent battle in Paris Big Law, Ropes & Gray has snapped up a high-powered eight-lawyer private equity and M&A group from rival Latham & Watkins.

The move, confirmed by multiple sources including The Lawyer andLaw.com International, brings three partners — Denis Criton, (pictured) Gaëtan Gianasso, and Michael Colle

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