Firm Overhauls, Bank Bids, and Pentagon Fights

~1,950 words | ~8-minute read

DLA Piper is abandoning its Swiss verein structure, a governance move that will reshape how the firm coordinates across its global offices — and puts pressure on other verein firms watching from the sidelines. Meanwhile, BigLaw collectively doubled its federal hiring, bringing in more than 1,100 attorneys at the counsel level from government roles following the Trump administration's federal workforce reductions. The talent wave is landing across regulatory, enforcement, and transactional practices.

On the companies side, UniCredit has submitted a formal bid for Commerzbank, setting up what could be the most significant European bank merger in years. Salesforce priced $25 billion in bonds alongside a $10 billion buyback, and Public Storage agreed to acquire National Storage Affiliates for $5.63 billion in an all-stock deal — both transactions anchoring a busy capital markets quarter.

From a macro view, Brent crude crossed $106 on IEA warnings of the largest energy supply disruption on record, with the Strait of Hormuz blocking roughly one-fifth of global oil and LNG flows. U.S. GDP for Q4 2025 was revised down to 0.7%, the S&P 500 hit its 2026 low, and the Federal Reserve meets Tuesday amid persistent inflation. The macro backdrop is compressing deal confidence even as corporate advisory pipelines remain active.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

Law Firm Talent Strategy

Partner and counsel moves across private credit, restructuring, capital markets, antitrust, funds, and EU competition.

•         Skadden welcomed Scott Heard from Paul Hastings, to join the New York office in Private Credit.

•         Skadden welcomed Matthew Murphy from Paul Hastings, to join the Chicago office in Restructuring.

•         Cleary Gottlieb welcomed Elizabeth Hanft from the SDNY, to join the New York office in Securities Litigation.

•         Sullivan & Cromwell welcomed Jenny Choi from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, to join the London office in Finance.

•         BCLP welcomed Abbey Raish from Kirkland & Ellis, to join the Los Angeles office in Capital Markets.

•         Simpson Thacher & Bartlett welcomed Keith Harden from Dechert, to join the New York office in Capital Markets.

•         Cadwalader welcomed Shai Schmidt from Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes, to join the New York office in Restructuring.

•         Cadwalader welcomed Jakeob Brown from Akin Gump, to join the London office in Restructuring.

•         Winston & Strawn welcomed Matthew Huppert from the U.S. Department of Justice, to join the Washington D.C. office in Antitrust.

•         Paul Hastings welcomed Salomé Cisnal de Ugarte from King & Spalding, to join the Brussels office in EU Competition.

•         Goodwin Procter welcomed Ed Kingsbury from CMS, to join the London office in Funds.

•         Mayer Brown added a six-partner team from McGuireWoods, joining the Texas office across corporate and finance practices.

•         Sidley Austin welcomed Steve Przesmicki from Cooley, to join the San Diego office in Private Equity.

•         August Debouzy added a five-lawyer antitrust team from Latham & Watkins, joining the Paris office in Antitrust & Competition.

Law Firm Operational Strategy

DLA Piper verein exit, BigLaw federal talent surge, Houston expansion race, Macfarlanes promotions, and AI training at Perkins Coie.

The gist of it: Firm structure, geographic strategy, and talent sourcing are all in motion — BigLaw is repositioning for a post-government, post-verein competitive landscape.

DLA Piper is unwinding its Swiss verein structure. The verein model has been a common framework for international law firms to maintain a global brand while keeping individual profit centers separate — but DLA's exit signals the limits of that architecture as clients demand more integrated cross-border service. Expect restructuring and governance advisory shops to watch this closely as a bellwether.

BigLaw firms collectively added more than 1,100 attorneys from the federal government, primarily at the counsel level. The hiring wave follows the Trump administration's reduction of the federal workforce and has deposited deep regulatory and enforcement expertise — particularly in antitrust, securities, and national security — across firms that are now positioning this talent as a premium advisory offering.

Houston is the sharpest growth market in American BigLaw right now. Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis are expanding fastest. Paul Weiss launched a Houston office. Clifford Chance named a new Houston head. Mayer Brown absorbed a six-partner McGuireWoods Texas team. The Texas Business Court is attracting corporate litigants as an alternative to Delaware, and that is driving geographic strategy decisions at the partnership level.

Simmons & Simmons is relocating Middle East staff amid regional restructuring, and Macfarlanes reported its lowest partner promotion cohort in six years. Meanwhile, Perkins Coie is piloting AI avatars for attorney training — the first major BigLaw firm to operationalize generative AI at scale in professional development.

Where BigLaw work sits: Verein unwinds create governance and partnership restructuring advisory work. Federal talent integration involves employment and professional responsibility considerations. Houston expansion and the Texas Business Court are generating M&A, corporate governance, and commercial litigation mandates from energy and financial services clients. AI training programs will require employment and IP counsel as firms manage data, bias, and confidentiality risks at scale.

Legal Practices

Antitrust enforcement shifts, European bank M&A, private credit buildup, tech regulatory warfare, and landmark labor deals. 

Antitrust & Competition

The gist of it: The DOJ-Ticketmaster settlement signals a behavioral-remedy-first enforcement model under this administration — a direct read-across for how ongoing monopolization cases get resolved.

The Department of Justice settled with Ticketmaster / Live Nation under what is being called the 'MAGA settlement model' — structured around behavioral remedies rather than the structural breakup that prior DOJ staff had pursued. The settlement reflects a genuine shift in enforcement philosophy: the current administration favors monitored conduct agreements over divestiture, particularly where breaking up a company conflicts with broader economic priorities. For competition counsel, this is the new compliance architecture to build against.

Where BigLaw work sits: Behavioral remedy monitoring, vertical integration counseling, and consent decree compliance work are expanding. The EU-US antitrust divergence — visible in the Latham team move to August Debouzy — is generating cross-border competition advisory demand, particularly for clients with transatlantic exposure.

Corporate M&A / Capital Markets

The gist of it: European bank consolidation, a $25B debt offering, and a $5.6B REIT deal are defining a quarter where M&A volume is rising faster than equity markets.

UniCredit has submitted a formal acquisition bid for Commerzbank. If completed, this would be the largest European bank merger in recent years, requiring multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearances — ECB, German federal financial regulators, EU antitrust — and generating significant M&A, banking regulatory, and capital markets advisory mandates across London, Frankfurt, and Milan.

Salesforce priced a $25 billion bond offering paired with a $10 billion share buyback, one of the largest combined debt and capital return transactions of the quarter. Public Storage agreed to acquire National Storage Affiliates Trust for $5.63 billion in an all-stock deal — the largest REIT transaction of the quarter, requiring REIT compliance, securities disclosure, and M&A closing counsel. Liontrust is merging with River Global in a UK asset management combination requiring FCA approval.

Wall Street is tracking strong Q1 advisory and underwriting fees despite equity market softness, driven by debt capital markets, M&A completions, and structured credit. Deal pipeline remains healthy but clients are watching the macro data closely.

Where BigLaw work sits: European bank M&A requires regulatory, antitrust, and capital markets counsel across at least three jurisdictions. Large debt issuances require underwriting, securities disclosure, and indenture counsel. REIT mergers generate tax structuring and securities work. UK asset management M&A involves FCA regulatory approval advisory.

Private Equity / Private Credit

The gist of it: $100 billion in uncommitted distressed capital is sitting at the major alternatives managers — the deployment trigger is defaults creeping toward 5% and a macro inflection point.

Apollo, Blackstone, Ares, and Carlyle collectively hold over $100 billion in uncommitted distressed and opportunistic capital. PIK loans now represent roughly 8% of the leveraged loan market — a signal that borrowers are deferring cash interest costs, suggesting stress below the surface of headline default rates. Real defaults are running near 5%, retail credit redemptions are surging, and Carlyle is overhauling its European PE structure. The distressed cycle appears to be building, not plateauing.

Where BigLaw work sits: Distressed M&A, debt restructuring, loan-to-own strategies, and creditor-side advisory are the primary practice areas in play. Credit agreement amendments, PIK intercreditor structuring, and bankruptcy are all live mandates. European PE restructuring generates governance and partnership advisory work.

White Collar / Government Investigations

The gist of it: Anthropic's Pentagon lawsuit is the most significant test of whether the government can regulate AI companies through procurement contracts rather than legislation.

The Pentagon designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, and Anthropic filed suit challenging the designation. A congressional hearing is set for March 24. The core legal question is whether the government can use federal procurement rules — specifically supply chain security frameworks — to impose AI governance requirements on companies that are not otherwise regulated by sector-specific statute. This 'regulation-by-contract' theory, if upheld, would give the executive branch significant leverage over AI companies without requiring Congressional action.

Adobe settled regulatory claims for $75 million and made a separate $75 million payment tied to its CEO's departure. The structure of the dual payment — one regulatory, one executive — raises corporate governance and executive compensation advisory issues. The DOJ's attempt to probe the Federal Reserve was blocked, raising separation of powers and administrative law questions. TikTok faces a potential $10 billion government fee structure as part of its ongoing U.S. ownership negotiations.

Where BigLaw work sits: Anthropic's case is generating administrative law, government contracts, and technology regulatory advisory mandates. Adobe's dual settlement structure involves securities disclosure, executive compensation, and governance counsel. TikTok's fee negotiations require foreign investment, national security, and regulatory counsel. The DOJ-Fed stand-off creates administrative law and separation of powers advisory opportunities.

Labor & Employment

The gist of it: Meta's 20% cut and Starbucks's first CBA are running in opposite directions — one is a mass reduction event, the other is a union-won collective agreement that will set a template for QSR labor negotiations.

Meta announced layoffs of approximately 20% of its corporate workforce — roughly 15,800 employees. The cuts generate WARN Act compliance, severance negotiation, equity acceleration analysis, and potential employment litigation exposure across multiple U.S. states and international jurisdictions. Separately, Starbucks and Workers United reached a first collective bargaining agreement, the first CBA for a major U.S. quick-service restaurant chain in decades. The agreement sets a template that other QSR and retail employers will be monitored against in ongoing union campaigns.

Where BigLaw work sits: Mass layoff events at tech companies require WARN Act compliance counsel, severance structuring, equity plan advisors, and employment litigators. The Starbucks CBA creates a bargaining template that will be cited in organizing drives across retail and food service — employers in those sectors should audit their labor relations posture now.

Global Markets

Brent crude above $106, U.S. GDP revised to 0.7%, S&P 500 at 2026 low, Fed meets Tuesday, and China beats expectations.

The gist of it: Energy shocks, slowing U.S. growth, and persistent inflation are converging just as the major central banks sit down to decide whether to cut. The macro risk environment is tightening around every deal structure in the market.

Brent crude closed above $106/barrel after the IEA issued its largest-ever energy disruption warning. The Strait of Hormuz is blocking approximately one-fifth of global oil and LNG flows, driven by a combination of geopolitical pressure and infrastructure constraints. Energy price shocks of this magnitude ripple into input cost inflation, freight contracts, and project finance for energy infrastructure — all live advisory areas.

The final revision of U.S. GDP for Q4 2025 came in at 0.7% — the slowest quarterly growth rate in nearly three years. Core PCE inflation is at 3.1%, well above the Fed's 2% target. Mortgage rates are holding at 6.41%. The S&P 500 hit its 2026 low after three consecutive weeks of losses. The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday, March 18. The European Central Bank, Swiss National Bank, and Bank of England all meet Wednesday, March 19. Markets are pricing out near-term rate cuts.

Against that backdrop, China's economic data — industrial output, retail sales, and fixed-asset investment — came in ahead of expectations, offering a counterpoint to Western slowdown concerns and supporting the thesis that Asian deal flow will remain more resilient than North Atlantic markets in Q2.

Goldman Sachs raised London compensation by approximately 26%, a data point that will anchor competitor pay benchmarking conversations in the City and set expectations for the upcoming European banking compensation cycle.

Where BigLaw work sits: Energy price volatility generates project finance restructuring, commodity derivatives advisory, and force majeure analysis across energy and infrastructure deals. Slowing U.S. GDP and rising credit stress increase demand for restructuring, credit workout, and distressed M&A counsel. Central bank rate decisions directly affect deal financing structures in leveraged buyouts and real estate transactions. China market resilience creates cross-border M&A and investment advisory mandates for Asia-Pacific practices.

What We Are Watching

SpaceX IPO mechanics, Revolut's U.S. banking licence, AI training at BigLaw, Anthropic's March 24 hearing, and the Texas Business Court.

•         SpaceX IPO Mechanics: The FTC approved a combined corporate structure for Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX. A pending SEC rule change could enable a direct public listing. SpaceX is currently valued at approximately $1.75 trillion. The structure and process will set the template for the next generation of mega-cap tech public offerings.

•         Revolut U.S. Banking Licence: Revolut's application for a U.S. banking licence is under active regulatory review. Approval would reshape the fintech compliance landscape and generate banking regulatory, licensing, and charter advisory work.

•         BigLaw AI Training: Perkins Coie's AI avatar program is the first visible operationalization of generative AI in BigLaw professional development. Watch for employment, IP, and confidentiality questions to emerge as other firms follow.

•         Anthropic-Pentagon Hearing (March 24): The congressional hearing on Anthropic's Pentagon supply chain designation is a live test of regulation-by-contract theory for AI companies. The outcome will shape how government counsel structures AI procurement and risk designation going forward.

•         Texas Business Court: The surge in BigLaw Houston expansion is partly driven by the Texas Business Court's emergence as a viable Delaware alternative for corporate disputes. Watch for corporations domiciled in Texas — and those considering redomiciling — to start routing M&A and governance litigation there.

That's the rundown. See you tomorrow where law meets the markets. -The Big Law Markets Team

The content reflects publicly available information and editorial analysis curated from market and legal news sources. N