The scorecard
what crossed markets this week
The Six-Minute Brief · The Docket, No. 3 · bryan.canni.ng
Three patterns
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Whole teams, not single names.
Kirkland is taking 40 Weil lawyers in January, including six named private equity and debt finance partners. Latham took five energy and infrastructure partners from three firms at once. Bae, Kim & Lee paired three antitrust hires with an expanded economics and data analytics centre, and Ashurst Perkins Coie's Risk Advisory business took two Deloitte financial crime partners. These firms announced capabilities, not just CVs.
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Texas is the expansion market.
Latham tied its five hires to energy and infrastructure growth in Texas. Kirkland added Russ Falconer in Dallas, after Andrew LeGrand, Prerak Shah and Alex Kaplan. Anderson Mori & Tomotsune plans its first US offices, in Dallas and Houston, for spring 2027. Texas now draws Tokyo firms as well as US ones.
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AI gets a budget line.
A&O Shearman put a number on it: US$1.1 billion over five years, mostly in lawyer time. Sullivan & Cromwell and Ropes & Gray are building tools with OpenAI, and Rajah & Tann hired a technology partner whose focus includes data and AI. Clients can now compare investments, not adjectives.
The BD read.
When you add a team, announce the capability it gives clients and name who leads it, not just the headcount.
If you are building in a growth market such as Texas, present each hire as part of a sequence so the story compounds.
Put a figure or a usage metric behind AI claims; A&O Shearman, for example, published 96% partner usage for September 2026.
Coming up
January 2027: Kirkland's 40-lawyer Weil team joins.
Early 2027: Shield AI expects to close its Echodyne deal.
Spring 2027: Anderson Mori & Tomotsune plans to open in Dallas and Houston.