North America/US
'A natural next step': RPC marks US debut with New York launch
Insurance partner hire Scott Schechter joins from national US firm Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan to lead new office
Kirkland tops global M&A rankings after strongest first nine months for dealmaking since 2021
Chicago-founded giant comfortably ahead of Sullivan & Cromwell and Latham & Watkins in second and third spot respectively
Mori Hamada pushes international growth with two new offices in Texas
Japanese Big Four firm to open in Dallas and Houston next year, giving it five US offices
Diabetes tech company MiniMed hires ex-Incyte GC as next legal head
Sheila Denton replaces Courtney Nelson Wills in the role
US eDiscovery and legal data business Repario acquires ALSP UnitedLex
Deal will blend companies’ services and extend Repario’s reach globally
Epiq acquires US data-breach response firm Canopy
Deal is US ALSP’s third acquisition of the year, adding cyber incident services to its Epiq AI product suite
Weil recruits Cravath private equity chief as US practice co-head
Peter Feist returns to Weil in New York in major hire for firm following string of high-profile exits
Kirkland, Latham and Jones Day steer Royal Caribbean’s $3bn acquisition of stake in Sandals
Kirkland & Ellis is advising cruise operator on its largest-ever deal, with Latham & Watkins and Jones Day acting for Sandals
Almost half of US companies skip their AI governance policies to speed up deployment - EY study
Survey finds that while majority of companies have AI governance policies, many are willing to ignore them
Israeli-founded AI contract review start-up Chamelio raises $26m in Series A funding round
Financing to accelerate firm’s proprietary legal action model development
More than half of directors want at least one fellow board member removed - study
PwC report showed 39% of those want a board member replaced due to lack of expertise
US care home giant PACS Group hires King & Spalding partner as next CLO
Patrick Murphy replaces John Mitchell as group’s top lawyer
Houlihan Lokey hires Paychex CLO as next legal chief
Prabha Sip Bhandari replaces Christopher Crain after more than 20 years as investment bank’s GC
Class actions across borders: different regimes, common challenges
As collective actions evolve across jurisdictions, lawyers, funders and disputes specialists explore the common challenges shaping the future of mass claims
Vinson & Elkins adds Latham’s structured finance vice chair in double hire
Loren Finegold joins as V&E’s new structured finance chief in New York alongside newly minted partner Ed Comber
Online education business Coursera hires ex-Red Hat GC as CLO
Tom Savage replaces GC Alan Cardenas, who is leaving the company at the end of the year
US infrastructure company AECOM promotes internally for CLO role
AECOM’s GC for corporate Manav Kumar will replace David Gan as chief legal officer in October
Womble Bond marks Florida debut with Jacksonville launch
Firm cites commitment to financial services sector as it launches 34th US office with trio of finance, bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers recruited earlier this year from Burr & Forman
Sullivan & Cromwell and Cooley among early adopters as OpenAI unveils new legal AI platform
Astra for Law combines GPT-6 Astra with US legal research database enabling law firms and legaltech companies to develop their own AI tools and workflows
US employers face raft of Trump-flavoured labour law changes – Littler report
Littler’s Labor Day Report highlights moves to overturn Biden-era rules and enact Trump’s policy agenda