Law Firms Win When Shareholders Go to War With Their Companies
Activist shareholders can make things difficult for the companies they target. But they represent a significant source of revenue for the law firms that represent those companies—and their shareholders.
Bloomberg Law reporters Drew Hutchinson and Andrew Ramonas recently dug through the data on which firms did the most work on shareholder fights in the first half of this year. And Hutchinson talks about what they learned on this episode of our podcast, On The Merits.
She said this spring's stock market dip is likely contributing to more activity in this space because it allowed activist investors to purchase more of their target companies at discounted prices.
Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.
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11:00
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11:00
Big Law Has a New M&A Top Dog—Can It Keep Kirkland at Bay?
Latham & Watkins took the perch as Big Law's leading M&A dealmaker in the first half of the year, surging past rival Kirkland & Ellis as things started to look up for firms whose fortunes are closely tied to corporate transactions.
Many law firms were expecting a spike in M&A deals in the first quarter of this year, but that largely failed to materialize. Now, with 2025 half over, we're starting to see a lot more activity on this front and firms are reaping the financial benefits.
Global deal volume for the first half of the year is up nearly 20% compared to the same time last year, and that includes Meta Platforms' $14 billion investment in Scale AI. In fact, deals involving AI, either directly or indirectly, have been driving a lot of the activity of the past few months, according to reporter Mahira Dayal, who crunched the numbers for Bloomberg Law's quarterly league tables.
On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Mahira speaks to host Mike Leonard about this and other reasons why the deals market is rebounding after a slow start to the year why it's probably a little too early to start betting against Kirkland.
Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.
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10:34
McDermott Chief Bets on 'Scale' With Schulte Merger
McDermott Will & Emery just put the finishing touches on a big merger with another firm, and on today's On The Merits podcast, we speak to the firm's chairman, Ira Coleman, about the firm's audacious goals, why he thinks it's important to listen to everyone in the organization, and the firm's bet on tech.
"If you're going to put $30 million in AI this year, you have to have scale," he told podcast host Jessie Kamens. "You can't do that if you're a four or five hundred lawyer firm. It's pretty hard to do it if you're a 1,500 lawyer firm."
This conversation is a part of our Leading Law Firms project, in which we score law firms using more than just traditional metrics like a firm's bottom line. Throughout the rest of this month, we'll be sharing more interviews with the leaders of other firms like Cahill Gordon & Reindell, DLA Piper, and Susman Godfrey.
Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.
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19:04
What Does the Future of DEI Programming for Law Firms Look Like?
Since the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling, and especially since Donald Trump's anti-DEI campaign, many law firms have swiftly moved to alter or dismantle their programs promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI.
So where does that leave people like Oyango Snell, a full-throated, unapologetic advocate of DEI in the legal industry?
Snell is a former law professor who now runs a legal operations professional group, and he joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about how the profession can still achieve diversity despite the DEI backlash, but why he thinks it will "get worse before it gets better."
Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.
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Alternatives to Bar Exam Met With Dueling Relief and Skepticism
The bar exam is in a state of flux. A new "NexGen" test is about to debut, while several states now offer licenses to attorneys who haven't taken the exam at all.
These bar exam alternatives, many of which originated as emergency pandemic measures, are proving successful in smaller states, like South Dakota and New Hampshire, and even some larger ones, like Arizona and Oregon. But a nationwide bar exam alternative is not on the horizon, and large corporate firms have shown little willingness to hire attorneys licensed through these alternative programs, according to Bloomberg Law reporter Maia Spoto.
Maia spoke to Jessie Kamens, the host of our On The Merits podcast, about how these programs work and why some advocates say we need to finally ditch the grueling, multi-day test. Maia also gets into what's happening in California, where the development of a new exam went disastrously wrong.
Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.
On The Merits takes you behind the scenes of the legal world and the inner workings of law firms. This podcast offers in-depth analysis on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the business of law and the legal industry overall. You'll gain insights into how the latest government actions, policies, and business developments are impacting the industry and hear from leading attorneys, legal scholars, industry experts, and our own team of journalists as they share their perspectives on the forces driving change.
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