Stories making recent headlines on LawFuel . .
- Macfarlanes’ Curious New York Move: A Manhattan Office With No U.S. Law
Macfarlanes Opens Manhattan Office – With a Deliberately Limited Mission Macfarlanes is joining the steady procession of London firms establishing a presence in New York. But unlike the usual BigLaw expansion playbook, the firm insists it has no intention of practising U.S. law. Instead, the profile City firm is opening what it calls a “representative… Read more: Macfarlanes’ Curious New York Move: A Manhattan Office With No U.S. Law - Personal Injury Law Powerhouses – The Overlooked Business Geniuses Crushing Big Law
Snobbery alert: while Big Law partners chase prestige, lockstep compensation, and sky-high billable-hour targets, those flashy “billboard lawyers” at personal injury firms like Morgan & Morgan are quietly running the smartest, most scalable legal businesses in America. And the data proves it. Morgan & Morgan isn’t just big (as LawFuel has previously reported) it’s the largest personal injury firm in the country, with over 1,000 attorneys (ranking 42nd overall on the 2025 NLJ 500 and 34th on the Law360 400), offices in every state, and more than $30 billion recovered for 700,000+ clients. - Law Firm Marketing in 2026: What Stopped Working and What Replaced It
Let’s be honest with each other for a moment. You didn’t go to law school to become a content creator. You went because you’re sharp, you like solving problems, and — let’s be real — the billing rates don’t exactly hurt. But here you are in 2026, staring down a marketing landscape that looks absolutely nothing like it did three years ago, while some LinkedIn bro in a blazer-and-jeans combo tells you to “post consistently or die.” You’re not dying because you’re bad at marketing. You’re struggling because the rulebook got shredded and nobody sent you the memo. Here’s what’s actually happening: clients are asking ChatGPT “what happens to the house if we divorce?” before they ever type your name into Google. Your lovingly crafted blog post — the one your firm spent four hours approving — is sitting underneath an AI summary that answers the question completely and sends precisely zero traffic your way. And the referral you were counting on last month? That client quietly asked an AI about you first. It didn’t go well. The numbers bear this out, and they’re not comfortable reading. AI Overviews are slashing organic click-through rates by somewhere between 58 and 61 percent the moment they appear on a results page (Seer Interactive, September 2025; Ahrefs, December 2025). - US Law Firms: Prosperity Peaks Amid Hidden Perils
In 2025, the US legal market hit new heights, with industrywide revenue climbing 12.6%, matching the blistering pace of 2024. Am Law 50 firms stole the show, boasting 13.3% revenue growth and 3.6% demand surge, while the broader Am Law 100 notched 3.7% demand growth. Overall demand averaged 2.5%, peaking at a robust 4.4% in… Read more: US Law Firms: Prosperity Peaks Amid Hidden Perils - Mishcon de Reya – From Mandelson Brief to Battle Stations
For the law firm managing the defence of Peter Mandleson — Mishcon de Reya — today’s arrest represents a decisive escalation. What began as a high-profile reputation management brief has become one of the most significant criminal defence instructions in the firm’s history. Mishcon de Reya was first reported to be representing Mandelson by The Lawyer earlier this month, with Johanna Walsh (pictured) head of the firm’s white-collar crime and investigations practice, leading the team. The choice of Walsh, recognised by Legal 500 as a first-tier practitioner in serious and organised crime and by Who’s Who Legal as a Global Leader in Investigations, signalled from the outset that Mandelson and his advisers anticipated criminal exposure well before today’s arrest. - Royal Reckoning – The Legal Anatomy of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Arrest
LawFuel Law Briefing – In what legal historians are already calling a watershed moment, a former member of the British royal family was arrested, questioned for 11 hours, and released under investigation — all on his 66th birthday. For lawyers, the procedural and substantive law at play here is as significant as the headlines. The… Read more: Royal Reckoning – The Legal Anatomy of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Arrest - How Brad Karp Lost the Plot: David Lat’s Forensic Dissection of the Paul Weiss Chairman’s Downfall
BigLaw • Analysis The Karp Collapse: David Lat Dissects the Emails That Ended an Era at Paul Weiss Five takeaways from Brad Karp’s Epstein correspondence—and what BigLaw should learn from this masterclass in how not to manage a client relationship By LawFuel Staff • February 16, 2026 When the DOJ released millions of Jeffrey Epstein… Read more: How Brad Karp Lost the Plot: David Lat’s Forensic Dissection of the Paul Weiss Chairman’s Downfall - Legal Market Analysis – BigLaw’s Lateral Frenzy Is Reshaping the Market
The Perkins Coie exodus in Seattle signals a permanent shift in the lateral hiring labor market that is changing the way top law firms operate. Lateral hiring is no longer just a tactic but an entire business model. When Perkins Coie lost lawyers to the announcement new offices for Morrison Foerster and McGuireWoods. It was in fact a signal of something structural. The departures came as Perkins Coie prepares for its merger with Ashurst, a combination that will create a global platform of roughly 3,000 lawyers. The timing reveals a pattern that now defines elite legal practice: mergers create opportunity, but they also create instability. And instability is oxygen for competitors. What we are witnessing is not a phase. It is the emergence of lateral acquisition as BigLaw’s dominant growth strategy. The New Economics: Why Firms Are Buying Revenue - Clooneys Team Up with Legal Heavyweight Quinn Emanuel To Don the Cape for Global Justice
In a world where celebrity philanthropy often feels like a scripted sequel, the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) – that noble venture launched in 2016 by Amal Clooney, the hard-wired international barrister from Doughty Street Chambers, and her silver-screen spouse George – has rolled out its Justice Champion Program with all the flair of a premiere. Snagging litigation titan Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as the inaugural partner, this initiative promises a pro bono powerhouse to shield at-risk women from discrimination and violence, while springing journalists from unjust detention for daring to ink the truth. - Meet Scott Barshay – Paul Weiss’s New Chairman and Wall Street’s Most Prolific M&A Lawyer
From Cravath Star to Paul Weiss Chair Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing writer In one of the most dramatic leadership transitions in Big Law history, Scott Barshay has been appointed Chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, effective immediately, following Brad Karp’s decision to resign as Chairman. The sudden change, announced February 4, 2026,… Read more: Meet Scott Barshay – Paul Weiss’s New Chairman and Wall Street’s Most Prolific M&A Lawyer - Brad Karp’s Paul Weiss Exit – When ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Evenings Come Back to Haunt You
Brad Karp’s 18-year reign atop Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison ended Wednesday night not with a bang, but with a carefully worded statement about “distractions.” Translation: the Justice Department’s release of millions of Epstein-related documents last week made his position untenable faster than you can say “conflict of interest.” The emails paint a picture that’s more uncomfortable than a BigLaw associate’s billable hours target. In July 2015, Karp thanked Epstein for “an evening I’ll never forget,” describing it as “truly ‘once in a lifetime’ in every way, though I hope to be invited again.” Epstein’s response? A promise of “many many nights of unique talents” and assurances Karp would “be invited often.” Spoiler alert: those invitations are now exhibit A in why being Chair of a white-shoe law firm and socialising with convicted sex offenders don’t mix well. - Anthropic’s Legal AI Plugin Triggers ‘SaaSpocalypse’ — $50B Wiped from Legal Tech Stocks
Anthropic’s Legal AI Plugin Exposes the Vulnerability of the Legal Tech Emperor’s Wardrobe The legal software establishment just experienced its worst week since the internet arrived—and this time, they can’t buy their way out of trouble. Barbara Napolitano When Anthropic dropped its legal plugin for Claude Cowork on January 30th, it wasn’t just another product… Read more: Anthropic’s Legal AI Plugin Triggers ‘SaaSpocalypse’ — $50B Wiped from Legal Tech Stocks