Despite ongoing headwinds, global dealmakers are gearing up for a massive rebound in transaction activity, according to Norton Rose’s latest Global M&A Trends report. According to the report, market sentiment has shifted dramatically upward, with over half of corporate and legal insiders forecasting a sharp uptick in deal volume. Driven by a mountain of private […]
BARBRI Swallows Startup ‘Lega’ To Teach Lawyers How To Talk To Robots Sonia Hickey “AI fluency” is now part of joining the bar before lawyers are let loose on the billable hour. BARBRI. The bar prep behemoth that still haunts your stress dreams has just acquired Lega, a generative AI platform founded by legal tech
Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editor An AI-only law firm, Garfield, has just notched up what is being billed as the first courtroom win by an “AI lawyer” against human opposition in England in a story made for law marketing, legal tech and AI-watchers. An AI-only law firm that once made headlines for sending “polite chaser”
Changing the traditional law firm model is generating a lot of talk these days, but what can change for law firms when they seriously alter the model can turn a moribund operation into something like a high-growth startup. All of which is what happened with Olliers Solicitors in the UK, which went from £2m to a massive £6.5m in annual fee income.
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The ‘Year Zero’ Pivot That Tripled This Law Firm’s Revenue Read More »
Sonia Hickey, LawFuel contributing editor Anyone tracking the London legal market has watched this coming for three years. On 15 June 2026, Paul Hodkinson at Law.com International (left) was the first to put it on the record. London’s Magic Circle, he wrote, now consists of Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Paul Weiss, Simpson Thacher
The Magic Circle Just Got Replaced. Four Of The New Five Are American Read More »
Half of women working in legal services say their current working pattern is unsustainable for their long‑term health, and 67% have considered changing jobs or taking a career break because of wellbeing concerns. For a profession obsessed with retention and reputation, that is less a wellbeing problem and more a pipeline crisis. The new Pressure Points:
Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editor The confirmation of Justin Smith to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit is a major moment in Donald Trump’s second‑term judicial strategy. The Senate voted along party lines to hand Smith a lifetime seat on a key federal appeals court that covers seven states. To much
The Rise of Justin Smith – How a Missouri Boutique Cornered the Federal Judiciary Read More »
Generative AI has arrived inside BigLaw carrying a question that no one is quite ready to answer out loud: if the technology can do what junior associates do, what exactly are junior associates for? It is the most uncomfortable conversation in the legal profession right now and it is only getting louder from what we
The AI Question BigLaw Doesn’t Want Junior Lawyers Asking Read More »
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is steering SpaceX through what has become the largest stock market debut ever, while Davis Polk & Wardwell is guiding the underwriting banks led by Goldman Sachs. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that SpaceX has committed to $25.5 million in legal costs in its amended S-1 — a figure that dwarfs the typical IPO legal spend, though it’s broadly in line with what other mega-deals have paid out.
For context, the largest US IPO of 2025, Medline’s $6.3 billion listing advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, generated $25.2 million in legal fees and expenses, while Cerebras Systems’ $5.5 billion IPO, handled by Latham & Watkins, racked up $4.1 million.
SpaceX’s number sits almost exactly where Medline landed except SpaceX is aiming for a deal roughly twelve times the size.
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SpaceX’s $75 Billion Liftoff – Meet the Lawyers Steering History’s Biggest IPO Read More »
London Law’s Senior Associate Problem No One Wants to Talk About Fresh from Quinn Emanuel joining the fray in London, as we reported last week, the latest 5% across-the-board hike has pushed newly qualified lawyers to £189,000 from 1 July, with the scale running up to £373,000 for the most experienced associates. That puts QE
