Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editorAnglo-Australian biglaw’s Ashurst and US player Perkins Coie have decided to tie the knot, crafting a new transatlantic megalaw entity – to be Ashurst Perkins Coie – pending the perfunctory partner vote and regulatory nods.The new firm will straddle 52 offices in 23 countries, weaving a legal web from Seattle to […]
GenAI, Fake Law & Fallout – New Australian report reveals surge in legal cases involving generative AIThe UNSW Centre for the Future of the Legal Profession has dropped a sober but necessary reality check on the messy intersection between generative AI and actual courtrooms. Reviewing more than 520 cases from January 2023 to September 2025
Courts Drowning in Fake AI Cases as New Report Sounds Alarm Read More »
Big Law’s Next TabooBen Thomson, LawFuel contributing editorMcDermott Will & Schulte has decided to dip a cautious toe into capitalism’s deep end, confirming it’s in “preliminary discussions” about selling a slice of the firm to outside investors. Chairman Ira Coleman delivered the usual corporate zen: they get “inbound interest,” they “listen to new ideas,” all
Slaughter and May’s Billion-Dollar Dilemma – Expand or PerishJohn Bowie, LawFuel publisherSlaughter and May, a member of the UK’s elite Magic Circle, has proudly charted a different course to its contemporaries. Rebuffing endless international expansion and a bigger partnership, it has maintained a tightly-knit operation. But is it sustainable? Where Slaughters’ rivals have worked hard to
Can the Magic Circle’s Most Profitable Firm Survive Its Own Success? Read More »
From ABC to BBC – Trump’s Media Litigation Roadshow Claims New VictimBen Thomson, LawFuel contributing editorThe BBC finds itself staring down the barrel of Donald Trump’s latest legal offensive, this time demanding $1 billion for a Panorama documentary edit. With two top executives already out the door, Britain’s public broadcaster faces what may be its
Riyadh Rising For Big LawBen Thomson, LawFuel contributorIn the kind of year when seismic regulatory shifts and eye-popping economic ambition collide, 2025 has positioned Saudi Arabia as the world’s most coveted legal hot spot. Heavyweights like Reed Smith, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Trowers & Hamlins, and Stephenson Harwood have placed big bets on Riyadh’s future,
Saudi Market Lures BigLaw with Cash, Contracts and Headaches Read More »
Private jets, yachts and lavish spending are some of the claims against Thomas Goodhead, co-founder of Pogust Goodhead who is now at the center of one of the most significant governance crises in modern UK law firm litigation, according to a Times report.
Pogust Goodhead (former SPG Law) secured a £450 million debt facility and is now seeing its co-founder CEO ousted before its headline case reaches judgment.
Thomas Goodhead co-founded Pogust Goodhead with U.S. class action veteran Harris Pogust, propelling the firm into the big league in 2023 when it secured a reported £450 million investment . . . log in to read more
Kirkland & Ellis and the Fine Art of Saying Sorry Without Saying SorryNorma Harris, LawFuel contributorThe 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 market feedback
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 Chancellor Reeves Aims Her Sights on Lawyers & OthersBen Borman, LawFuel contributing editorUK 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 as self-employed individuals
