#private-equity-in-law-firms

#private-equity-in-law-firms

For the first time in three years, more law firms are planning to expand their office footprint, rather than contract, according to a new report from commercial real estate brokerage CBRE.

Maven supported us at a key point when we were scaling our market presence, and that foundation has helped us reach over 1,000 customers globally.

Most employer 401(k) plans allow mid-year changes to the deferral election percentage. Before the bonus pay period, raise the deferral rate high enough to funnel as much of the bonus as possible into the 401(k), up to the annual limit.

I'm incredibly proud of the firm and what we've accomplished in the last year. We had certainly, the year before, a historic year financially, and this year was also historic in being one of our best financial years in history.

Private equity firms operating in the UK face a uniquely complex accounting landscape. Between fund structures, special purpose vehicles (SPVs), regulatory requirements and investor reporting, financial management can quickly become overwhelming. For many firms, legacy systems and spreadsheets are no longer sufficient to support the level of accuracy, transparency and efficiency required. As a result, an increasing number of UK firms are turning to dedicated private equity accounting software to simplify fund and SPV accounting while improving control and compliance.

Leading legal departments are shifting from reactive negotiation to proactive pricing design, setting guardrails before rates are proposed rather than responding after the fact. This approach enables departments to establish parameters and expectations upfront, fundamentally changing the negotiation dynamic and improving outcomes.

After a roughly six-month pause, private equity's on-cycle recruiting machine roared back to life last week. The process was just as frenzied, but recruiters said the extra time produced an unexpected upside: sharper, better-prepared candidates. The hiring restart came just as first-year bankers returned from the winter holidays. Firms began outreach for 2027 associate roles they had originally planned to fill in the summer, before banks cracked down on the practice.

The single biggest need I see is for firms to focus on nurturing, valuing and hiring meaningful trial talent. There is a growing generational divide in the profession. When I came of age as a litigator, my mentors were seasoned trial lawyers who had come through the ranks trying dozens of cases a year. The industry has changed and those opportunities have dwindled.

The Thomson Reuters Institute and Georgetown Law's Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession released their annual State of the U.S. Legal Market report today, and the good news is that law firms are absolutely crushing it. Profits are up. Rates are up. Demand surged in 2025 at levels the industry hasn't seen in more than a decade. The Am Law 100 is printing money, midsize firms are having a moment, and everyone is congratulating themselves for their "resilience."

From law firms to in-house legal teams, the rules of value are being rewritten. The question is: Who's ready to lead the change? In the first episode of 2026 for the UpLevel View podcast, Stephanie Corey and Ken Callander sit down with Rita Gunther McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and Wall Street Journal columnist, to talk about how AI is forcing professional services to price outcomes instead of hours.

India's top court has ruled against Tiger Global in a tax case stemming from its Flipkart exit during Walmart's 2018 takeover, a decision that strengthens New Delhi's ability to challenge offshore treaty structures and could raise tax risk for global funds counting on predictable exits from one of the world's fastest-growing major markets. On Thursday, the Indian Supreme Court backed the tax authorities in a dispute over whether Tiger Global could use its Mauritius-based entities to claim protection under the India-Mauritius tax treaty

A Virtuous Cycle If a legal tech solution has a high degree of adaptability, customers can start small and gradually secure buy-in and expansion. Initial wins create a virtuous cycle, where success leads to growth, and this growth leads to more success. A Cleary Gottlieb team that includes members of its Knowledge Management and Business Development groups has implemented such a cycle at that firm.

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;

A year or so ago, most legal departments were still testing. AI pilots. Workflow trials. Small process experiments. Everyone was learning cautiously. The stakes were relatively low, and the work was labeled "innovation," which made imperfection forgivable. Then something shifted. Those same pilots became part of day-to-day delivery, and the business started relying on them. Sometimes intentionally, because early results looked good.

too many powerful, wealthy people in venture act like it's OK to break the law and systemically underpay and abuse their employees.