All articles tagged with #law firms
The American Lawyer’s 2026 A-List ranks the 20 largest US law firms by metrics including RPL (revenue per lawyer), pro bono work, diversity, female equity-partner percentages, and associate satisfaction. Munger Tolles remains No. 1, Ropes & Gray stays No. 2, Jenner & Block moves up to No. 3, and Wilmer Cutler Hale and Dorr drops to No. 6, with other firms adjusting positions based on the same performance indicators.
Two senior Wachtell Lipton partners, William Savitt and Sarah Eddy, were reportedly romantically involved; Savitt jumped to Gibson Dunn with a roughly $96 million three-year package after leading OpenAI’s Musk v. Altman case, taking Eddy and four other senior partners with him. Two junior team members, Nathaniel Cullerton and Kesley Borenzweig, were seen canoodling in Central Park and had Gibson Dunn offers pulled. Wachtell Lipton has no non-fraternization policy; Savitt denies an affair. The saga highlights the personal and financial drama roiling elite Big Law.
A married Wachtell Lipton partner, Nathaniel Cullerton, 45, is on leave after a viral Central Park kiss with a younger associate; the episode reportedly led Gibson Dunn to scrap his planned relocation, risking tens of millions in earnings as his lucrative move falls through and insiders note the high pay at Wachtell Lipton.
45-year-old Nathaniel Cullerton, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, was placed on leave amid an investigation after a viral TikTok captured him kissing a younger colleague, Kelsey Borenzweig, in Central Park; Borenzweig’s status wasn’t confirmed, and the report notes that several Wachtell partners recently moved to Gibson Dunn this week.
Seward & Kissel said it will adopt Milbank's new associate salary scale effective July 1, joining a broader industry push to align pay with the market. In a memo, Daniel Bresler framed the change as an exciting update and noted that moving quickly helps the firm stay competitive for talent, contrasting with peers that have been slower to act. The report also highlights the firm’s playful culture (miniature golf hole, ugly sweater contest) and invites tips on other salary announcements.
Milbank kicked off a $235K associate salary scale in June 2026 and many firms have since matched it or raised salaries, with seasonal bonuses following the same timeline. The piece provides a live table showing which firms matched, the 2026/2025 scale at $235K (and $455K for older classes), minimum billable-hours requirements for bonuses (often 1,800–2,000 hours), and payout dates, with daily updates and a tips line for corrections.
Seattle-based Talairis Law Group launches as an AI-powered firm designed to handle startup legal work with a four-layer stack (base LLM, 100+ specialized AI agents, a per-client “client genome,” and partner oversight). Founders Sam Shaddox and Matt Souza—former Perkins Coie partners now in-house general counsels—say the model offers bespoke, faster, and cheaper service at roughly half the typical big-law rate. They emphasize data privacy (client data is never used to train models) and demonstrate a concrete workflow for SAFEs that delivers a built-out cap table and terms, not just a legal opinion. The bootstrapped firm aims to provide day-to-day legal support across multiple areas, positioning itself within a broader wave of AI-native law firms and viewing Claude for Legal as validation of the trend.
The DOJ charged 30 individuals, including former Biglaw attorneys, in a decade-long insider-trading operation that allegedly leveraged non-public information from major law firms, routed through a layered network of traders and sources, and used burner phones and coded language; the scheme referenced deals like iRobot and Amazon, with 19 arrests and two fugitives, while unnamed victim firms likely include some of the country’s largest M&A practices.
A decade-long insider-trading scheme allegedly run by elite corporate lawyers used code words like 'rabbi' and 'coffee' to discuss confidential merger information harvested from firms such as Wachtell Lipton, Latham & Watkins, and Goodwin Procter, enabling trades on deals including Anadarko-Occidental and Tim Hortons-Burger King. The operation spanned 2014–2024 with about 30 defendants across two indictments, numerous arrests, some fugitives, and sophisticated concealment via burner phones, offshore accounts and shell entities.
The SEC charged 21 individuals in a decade-long insider trading scheme (2018–2024) that misappropriated material nonpublic information from multiple global law firms, with leaders Nicolo Nourafchan and Robert Yadgarov allegedly tipping others who traded for illicit profits; a third corporate lawyer joined the scheme and helped expand it to more deals, including misused information from more than twelve pending transactions and generating millions in profits. The SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties, in a case filed in Massachusetts alongside parallel criminal charges announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. prosecutors unsealed charges against 30 individuals—mostly corporate attorneys and financial traders—for a decade-long insider trading scheme that stole confidential information from major law firms about nearly 30 mergers and acquisitions, netting tens of millions in illicit profits. Nineteen defendants were arrested in the United States; others include fugitives in Russia and Israel. The scheme used burner phones, encrypted apps, shell accounts, and kickbacks to move MNPI to traders across the U.S. and overseas, with potential penalties including multi-decade prison terms if convicted.
AI is automating entry-level junior associate work in Big Law, reshaping training and the route to partnership. Firms are embedding AI into research, drafting and document review, speeding up tasks and trimming headcount and summer programs. While AI could create new legal roles, experts warn that without a new apprenticeship system, the talent pipeline may falter as junior work—traditionally used to train and bill—shrinks; the next year will be crucial as firms design AI workflows and address client data and consent issues.
The 2026 Am Law 100 by gross revenue shows seven of the top 10 firms remaining in the same spots as last year, with some shifts elsewhere in the lineup; the full revenue-based ranking is available in the Law.com report behind a paywall.
At Legalweek, AI is a major focus, but law firms remain wary about adopting tools due to fears over jobs and a lack of comprehensive training; vendors like Harvey and Legora are pushing capabilities, yet many lawyers need clearer risks, guardrails, and firm-wide training before widespread use. Clients demand faster, cheaper work, investors expect returns, and some firms experimenting with AI suggest adoption could become standard practice only if training and governance improve; the debate centers on whether AI can enhance service without eroding fees or jobs, with some considering lack of use potentially risky malpractice.
The Justice Department told four large law firms—Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr; Perkins Coie; Jenner & Block; and Susman Godfrey—that it would drop lawsuits against them, only to reverse hours later and say it would continue pursuing the appeals over Trump-era executive orders restricting the firms’ access and activities. The back-and-forth follows anger from Trump and aides and underscores a broader fight over whether firms tied to Democrats can push back in court, even as the firms had won lower-court challenges and as critics condemn the reversal as political retaliation.