As predicted on last week's episode, Brad Karp left the top post at Paul Weiss following the disclosure of friendly correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein. But Karp wasn't the only Biglaw lawyer in the files, nor were his conversations the most troubling. A former Clifford Chance trainee drafted a sex contract with Epstein, Goldman Sachs GC Kathy Ruemmler made a joke with Epstein that normally you wouldn't make with someone who already pleaded guilty to child prostitution charges,
When Baker McKenzie announced plans to cut roughly 700 business services staff, the firm pegged some of the blame squarely on AI, feeding into the technology-fueled paranoia surrounding artificial intelligence. It certainly doesn't help that the AI hype cycle turns on tech gurus juicing up their VC sugar daddies with promises that AI will replace human workers any moment now,
Law firms took nearly 800,000 square feet of New York City office space in Q4 2025, according to data provided to Law.com, with firms including Kirkland & Ellis, Goodwin Procter, and McGuireWoods expanding their Manhattan footprints. Gibson Dunn and Baker Hostetler renewed in place, underscoring that firms are holding onto - and adding to - their office space, not shedding it.
Cravath was one of the first longtime holdouts to cut bait and create a "salaried partner tier" (i.e., nonequity partners) back in November 2023. That move gave other highly ranked firms permission to tread the same path, including Paul Weiss, which announced its new two-tier partnership plan in March 2024; WilmerHale, which added a nonequity partnership tier in August 2024; Cleary, which announced its own new partnership platform in October 2024;
Biglaw firms are ranked in a multitude of ways, from gross revenue to size to quality of life and even prestige. But what about what may actually matter most, the number of people who are searching for these Biglaw firms on Google? Those searching could be associates and partners interested in salary information or looking to lateral, existing or potential clients, and even members of the media interested in tracking down a hot law firm story.
We begin the year by peering into our crystal balls and issuing some predictions for 2026. Who will be fired? What's going to happen with law schools? Is a big change on the horizon for Biglaw? Our predictions will inevitably be wrong, but we'll offer them with a lot of confidence - just like AI would. Also a whole lot of sports talk for a law podcast.
Many readers of Above the Law eagerly await news about annual bonuses around the end of the year. Most Biglaw law firms award those bonuses based on seniority and perhaps other performance-based metrics. Some smaller law firms also have institutionalized year-end bonus initiatives through which attorneys may receive a bonus equal to one or two months of salary. However, most attorneys work at small law firms and are much less likely to receive an annual bonus at such firms.
You'll recall, early in his second term, Trump launched a war on Biglaw through unconstitutional Executive Orders designed to break major law firms unless they bent the knee. In the face of financial harm, nine major firms (Paul Weiss, Skadden, Kirkland, Latham, Cadwalader, Willkie Farr, Simpson Thacher, Milbank, and A&O Shearman) sought Trump's seal of approval, providing millions in pro bono payola, that is, free legal services on behalf of conservative clients or approved causes in order to avoid Trumpian retribution.
BigLaw firms are moving further to the left, according to an analysis of campaign contributions by lawyers and staff members in BigLaw and larger plaintiffs-side law firms. The findings: 92.45% of campaign contributions by that group went to Democrats in 2023 and 2024, according to a Bloomberg Law column and a slightly different version of the story published by Original Jurisdiction.
If the [Biglaw] firms had just stuck together no one would be in this tough place of having to capitulate or suffer consequences. Super disappointed in Paul Weiss, Latham, Kirkland, etc. and they were all immediately taken off my list of places to work. - A summer associate from Fish & Richardson, in response to a question posed in the American Lawyer's annual Summer Associate Satisfaction Survey.
Cooley Law Has Real Trouble Getting Its Graduates To Pass The Bar Exam: And the ABA has a real issue with that. Everyone Knows Biglaw Associates Work A Lot Of Hours: But where do the work the *most*? Biglaw Firm Files Lawsuit Against A Former Associate: After they say she made false allegations of sexual assault against a partner. Paul Weiss And Kirkland Got Some 'Splainin To Do (Again): Because how they're paying off their pro bono payola sure seems like it violates the law.
Since the start of the Trump II reign, and the attack on the rule of law that coincided with that, it's been clear that Biglaw wasn't going to be our savior. When d irectly confronted with unconstitutional Executive Orders targeting firms on Trump's list for retribution, more than twice as many major law firm were willing to promise the president nearly a billion dollars in pro bono payola for conservative causes or clients as were willing to fight the EOs in court.
Biglaw in particular runs on insecurity. Not only do lawyers work insane hours, they're expected to perform with absolute precision. From day one, the message is clear: Miss a deadline (even if arbitrary) or make an error (however inconsequential), and your career is toast. The culture of extreme perfectionism breeds fear and anxiety, yet it remains the industry standard. The question is what this is doing to lawyers' mental state.
Armed with data from SurePoint Legal Insights about changes in headcount over the last six months, Lat concludes that "the Trump deals might be affecting, but not fundamentally altering, law firms' overall trajectories." Whether coincidence or cause and effect, or some combination thereof, a few stats are worth highlighting: On average, Am Law 100 firms saw attrition of -1.7% The five firms subjected to executive orders that did not capitulate averaged a 2.8% decline in headcount The nine firms that made deals with Trump averaged a 4.9% drop
Associates crave training and mentorship opportunities, but not every Biglaw firm has been able to fulfill their end of the bargain. The American Lawyer just released its midlevel associates survey, and as noted by Dan Roe, "the sheer existence of a mentorship program or formal training doesn't guarantee that midlevel associates are being adequately mentored." He goes on to explain that today's midlevels are seeking out guidance, but that some programs are missing the mark:
* Google avoids having to spin off Chrome. [Law360] * Lawyers using time saved by AI for more work. [Legal Cheek] * Charging documents for former Biglaw associate arrested in D.C. say someone said hostile things to National Guard troops and a day later they decided it was him. We might have another no bill on our hands. [National Law Journal]
Assuming 52 weeks a year, working 2400 hours means working over 46 hours a week, week in and week out. That's a little over 9 hours a day assuming a five-day week. I know, what big law associate works 5 days a week? At 6 days a week, your daily grind is manageable 7.6 hours a day. Of course, that means working what most people would consider a full day every single Saturday.
Donald Trump's efforts to defend the executive orders targeting Biglaw firms that have earned his ire are loser cases. Four different district court judges from across the political spectrum have all ruled that EOs aimed at Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey, respectively, are unconstitutional on a variety of grounds. Yet, the administration is appealing the Jenner & Block case, and the WilmerHale case, and the Perkins Coie one too.
Some of the attorneys are resurfacing months later in jobs outside of Big Law, from running for Congress to working at a small firm taking on the Trump administration.
The 6th Circuit cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 1981 decision in Upjohn Co. v. United States, which held that attorney-client privilege applies when companies seek legal advice through internal investigations.
Milbank has taken a lead on attorney compensation for a while now, causing ripples in the old guard "wait and see" approach in Biglaw by issuing earlier bonuses and even cost of living adjustments to keep its team properly valued.
Neal Katyal, a partner at Milbank, typically charges $3,250 per hour, but will charge $300 per hour to defend Newark and Hoboken in immigration policy lawsuits.
A legal secretary at the Big Law firm I worked at knew she was going to be fired, so the day before, she went into a bunch of partners' emails and sent their wives evidence of infidelity, printed out confidential employee evaluations and communications about bonuses/pay and left them in everyone's desk, and then cleaned out the swag closet and dropped several thousand dollars' worth of merchandise with the law firm's name and logo off at a homeless encampment.
Kirkland & Ellis introduced a new question regarding in-office attendance on their associate review questionnaires, prompting speculation about forthcoming changes in attendance policy.
