On The Merits

When it comes to winning the legal industry talent wars, the best defense is a good offense, according to K&L Gates' global managing partner, Stacy Ackermann. Her firm is "going out into the market" rather than "being in a reactionary mode of 'Let's see what comes to us and what the headhunters bring to us,'" Ackermann said. She spoke to Bloomberg Law editor Chris Opfer on our podcast, On The Merits, about how competitive the market for legal talent has gotten, even in secondary markets like her home base of Charlotte, N.C. She also talked about why K&L Gates is continuing to push its attorneys to use AI, even after some of its attorneys got reprimanded last year for using hallucinated citations in a court case. "I remember not so long ago that clients would say to me 'Please tell me you're not using AI,'" Ackermann said. "And now they're saying to me 'Please tell me you are using AI.'" Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Law firms bringing in outside investors is one of the hottest topics in the legal industry right now. John Quinn, founder and chairman of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, says firms that want to take the cash need to figure out how to avoid alienating their younger attorneys. Non-lawyer investment isn't common yet in the US, but some firms are experimenting with different ownership models—especially as they consider the price tags on AI tools. Bringing in outside investment can help raise capital. It can also dilute the pool of profits that associates and younger partners were hoping they'd one day get to enjoy, Quinn said on our podcast, On The Merits. "They have to be persuaded that that's in the long-term interest of the firm," he told Bloomberg Law reporter Roy Strom. "But these are some awkward conversations. And it's a generational conversation." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Outside investors circling law firms may help some shoulder the growing costs of artificial intelligence, according to Mayer Brown's Jon Van Gorp. "I could see private capital providing specific funding for AI with a use agreement between the firm and the AI vehicle where it's tailored, just like litigation funding," Van Gorp, the firm's chairman, said on Bloomberg Law's On The Merits podcast. Still, the unique aspects of the legal services business pose challenges for broader outside investment in large firms, Van Gorp said. The "practice of law is still a profession, and lawyers still have their way of doing things," he said. Van Gorp spoke to Bloomberg Law reporter Roy Strom about AI's "big question that everybody's talking about." He also discussed his firm's focus on servicing energy markets, the turbulent times for private credit markets, and the impact of President Donald Trump's war on the legal industry. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Prominent lawyer and high-stakes poker player Tom Goldstein was convicted on some, but not all, of the 16 criminal charges against him when his federal trial wrapped up this week. But Goldstein's legal fight may be far from over. Several issues came up during the trial that could be fodder for a successful appeal, according to Bloomberg Law reporter Holly Barker, including a dispute over where Goldstein was physically located when some of these crimes were committed. Barker covered the trial of the disgraced SCOTUSblog founder and she joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about why the jury split its verdict and about how Goldstein's famous propensity for risk taking influenced his defense strategy. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's been over a year since Donald Trump returned to the White House and almost immediately made it a priority to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at large law firms. There's evidence that this effort is bearing fruit for the president, even after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission walked away from investigations into several firms. The EEOC recently told a court it dropped the probes without getting most of the information it sought on firms' recruiting programs and promotion decisions. Still, the move came after some of those firms struck deals with the White House and several others—including some not involved in the inquiries—scaled back diversity initiatives. Citing the cost of defending itself against Trump's attacks, a DEI nonprofit said it's shutting down its Mansfield Rule program that sought to have firms consider underrepresented candidates in hiring and promotions. To talk about all of this, Bloomberg Law reporter Tatyana Monnay joins our podcast, On The Merits. She explains all the recent developments on this front and also talks about the risks that firms may face if they shut down all of their DEI programs entirely. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Legal giant Paul Weiss is getting a new chairman for the first time in nearly two decades, but this transition is definitely not happening in a planned, orderly fashion. Brad Karp stepped down from the role yesterday after the latest tranche of Justice Department documents showed he had surprisingly close ties to disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—far closer than what Paul Weiss had originally indicated. On this special episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law editor Chris Opfer talks about what happened at this elite law firm and about the informal work Karp did for Epstein shortly before his death. Opfer also talks about why the firm's profits may not actually suffer that much from this abrupt change in leadership. "Long gone are the days of Paul Weiss being this, sort of, large litigation boutique," Opfer said. "It's much more a corporate-focused mega-firm." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Last year, the litigation finance industry was nearly taxed out of existence by a measure Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) tried to attach to a big tax and spending package. The measure, which would have imposed a 41% tax on litigation finance profits, didn't become law. But it did spook many who work on this fast growing $16 billion industry. Two attorneys have responded by launching the American Civil Accountability Alliance, a lobbying group designed to push back against laws targeting the outside funding of lawsuits. One of those two co-founders, Houston patent lawyer Erick Robinson, is our guest on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits. "I think we were all just shocked," Robinson told Bloomberg Law's Emily R. Siegel. The litigation funding tax "came very close, a lot closer than anybody including, I think, Senator Tillis, thought to passing." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Latham & Watkins beat out its rival Kirkland & Ellis in our annual League Tables ranking of M&A activity for 2025. And on this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, the firm's M&A co-chairs talk about what went down in what one called "the year of the mega deal." Alex Kelly and Paul Kukish spoke with Bloomberg Law reporter Mahira Dayal about why Latham was able to work on almost 800 deals in 2025 totaling more than $780 billion in value. Kukish said AI and AI-adjacent deals were a big part of the firm's success—success that smaller firms just now getting into the AI space may not be able to replicate. They also talked about how they think tariffs and other Trump administration policies affected the market this year for buying and selling companies. "There has been an increased focus by our clients on how the president views a particular industry, or a particular company, or a particular country," Kelly said. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's not a very controversial statement to say that Donald Trump's attacks on law firms were the biggest Big Law story in 2025. But, according to the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, the ramifications of those attacks are still playing out and may spill over into next year and beyond. Bloomberg Law editors Chris Opfer and Alessandra Rafferty said the attacks are still affecting the decisions firms make, or don't make, in hard-to-detect ways—even though the president is no longer actively lobbing punitive executive orders at firms. The two Big Law editors discuss how this is playing out and also whether—and why—we may see more firms merge in 2026. They also get into how the legal industry will be affected if we see an AI bubble burst. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's become common now for firms to recruit elite law students even before the end of their first semester of their first year of law school, something that would have been unheard of before the pandemic. That's a far cry from the days when firms waited until the summer before the 2L year to start recruiting students through on campus interviews. It's a trend that hurts everyone involved, according to the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits: columnist David Lat and Nikia Gray, the head of the National Association for Law Placement. Law schools have lost the control over this process they once had; law firms now have to make recruiting decision with far less information about the candidates; and, worst of all, law students now must make important career decisions in some cases just months after they arrive on campus. "I have not heard from a single student yet that thinks this is a good process," Gray said, "nor a single school that feels that way." "I've talked to the firms," Lat added. "They say 'Look, we don't like this process either. But our rivals are recruiting this early and so we can't sit on the sidelines.'" Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

OpenAI is a relatively new tech startup with the litigation demands of a massive Fortune 500 company. That means that Che Chang, its general counsel, has had to scale up his department fast. On today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Chang speaks with Bloomberg Law reporter Aruni Soni about how he hires lawyers to work for the ChatGPT maker and how OpenAI works with its outside law firms. On top of these usual legal officer duties, Chang discusses the "immense responsibility" of guiding decisions around the "future of human intellect." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

As Big Law looks for ways to scale up, McDermott Will & Schulte says it's looking at outside investment in the firm—a move that could set off a paradigm shift in how law firms run their businesses. If it does sell a part of itself to investors, McDermott would be by far the largest publicly known firm to take this step. Outside investment represents a new source of capital for law firms looking to expand, but does come with myriad risks and potential roadblocks. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Jessie Kokrda Kamens and Justin Henry talk about why McDermott is doing this now, whether they can pull it off, and how they're going to get around the ethical rules prohibiting outside ownership of firms. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Most of the biggest law firms in the US have a two-tier partnership model, where some partners have equity in the firm while others don't. So it was a bit of a surprise when the firm Ropes & Gray announced last month it will be sticking with its one-tier model. Is this a sign that the trend toward non-equity partners is starting to reverse? Not according to today's guests on our podcast, On The Merits, law firm consultant Janet Stanton with Adam Smith Esq. and legal recruiter Scott Love with The Attorney Search Group. They talk with Bloomberg Law editor Jessie Kokrda Kamens about how prevalent non-equity partnerships are, how they benefit law firms, and what firms need to avoid doing to make sure they work. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.