The scorecard
what crossed markets this week
The Six-Minute Brief · The Docket, No. 2 · bryan.canni.ng
Three patterns
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The referees switch sides.
Four firms in two markets brought in government-side experience in this week's issues. Sullivan & Cromwell made Ryan Shores, a former Associate Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ, co-head of its Antitrust Group; Skadden added two former SEC leaders to strengthen its private capital work; De Brauw hired Marc van der Woude, President of the EU General Court until September 2026, as Of Counsel in Brussels; and Clifford Chance hired Kasia Bojarojć, a former CMA Director of Mergers, as counsel in London. The pitch is no longer just expertise but a read on how the enforcer thinks.
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AI became the deal, not just the tool.
Kirkland advised Blackstone on a US$63 billion structure in which a new vehicle buys Broadcom AI chips and leases them to Anthropic. A&O Shearman billed Sequence's sale to Intuit as one of the UK's stand-out AI exits. In Singapore, WongPartnership picked August to build AI tools shaped by its own knowledge and methods. Even the release for Canada's Best Law Firms rankings put AI in its headline: its accompanying market report says 80% of firms with 100 or more lawyers now pilot generative AI tools in select practice areas.
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Everyone is counting out loud.
Freshfields called Brett Bush its 11th strategic US partner addition this year; Clifford Chance says its antitrust practice has added 10 lateral partners since 2021; White & Case says its M&A practice added more than 30 lateral partners globally over the past year; Simmons & Simmons named Yves Moreau as its fourth lateral partner hire in Brussels in 2026. On the awards side, Torys said it ranked first by deal count, with 22 deals, in LSEG's Canada All Debt issuer legal advisor table for the first nine months of 2026, and Allen & Gledhill claimed Tier 1 in all nine eligible Singapore practice areas in asialaw 2026.
The BD read.
If you have hired from a regulator or court, lead with what that hire can tell clients about how the body decides now, not with the CV. Four rivals made exactly these hires this week.
Give AI matters their own credential list. Compute financing, AI-company exits and in-house AI builds read as a practice, not as "we use AI."
Keep the running tally, but tie each number to a client outcome; a count on its own is a press release, not a pitch.
Coming up
Nov 12: The American Lawyer Industry Awards at Cipriani Wall Street, New York.
Jan 1, 2027: Ropes & Gray's 26 and Cleary Gottlieb's 15 new partners take effect.