Law Firm Crackup Comes Amid Anti-Plaintiff Mood in Delaware

There's never a good time for a law firm to see one of its most prominent partners leave and take several attorneys with him. But this is especially bad timing for Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann. The firm specializes in representing shareholders suing companies in Delaware, the incorporation capital of the world. But ever since Elon Musk reincorporated Tesla outside the state in response to a lawsuit over his pay package—a lawsuit Bernstein Litowitz led—the state has changed its laws to make it harder for shareholder plaintiffs to succeed. In this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporters Jennifer Kay and Tatyana Monnay talk about the unusual bitterness Bernstein Litowitz expressed to its departing colleague after he exited the firm. They also talk about why, after the seismic corporate law changes of 2025, it may no longer be as lucrative as it once was to represent shareholders in Delaware. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's not a very controversial statement to say that Donald Trump's attacks on law firms were the biggest Big Law story in 2025. But, according to the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, the ramifications of those attacks are still playing out and may spill over into next year and beyond. Bloomberg Law editors Chris Opfer and Alessandra Rafferty said the attacks are still affecting the decisions firms make, or don't make, in hard-to-detect ways—even though the president is no longer actively lobbing punitive executive orders at firms. The two Big Law editors discuss how this is playing out and also whether—and why—we may see more firms merge in 2026. They also get into how the legal industry will be affected if we see an AI bubble burst. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

New York's oldest law firm answered the outstanding question surrounding its ability to remain independent with a resounding no when it announced a merger with Hogan Lovells last week. As Bloomberg Law reporter Meghan Tribe tells it, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft had been in a gradual decline since the 2008 global financial crisis. It also failed to adapt to the new reality of the legal industry in which lateral hiring is not just commonplace but necessary for a firm's survival, she said. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Tribe gets into what transpired that forced the more than 200-year-old firm to put itself up for sale, and also what made Hogan leap at the chance to merge with Cadwalader. Additionally, Tribe talks about what the tie-up could mean for the pro bono deal Cadwalader struck with the Trump administration earlier this year. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's become common now for firms to recruit elite law students even before the end of their first semester of their first year of law school, something that would have been unheard of before the pandemic. That's a far cry from the days when firms waited until the summer before the 2L year to start recruiting students through on campus interviews. It's a trend that hurts everyone involved, according to the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits: columnist David Lat and Nikia Gray, the head of the National Association for Law Placement. Law schools have lost the control over this process they once had; law firms now have to make recruiting decision with far less information about the candidates; and, worst of all, law students now must make important career decisions in some cases just months after they arrive on campus. "I have not heard from a single student yet that thinks this is a good process," Gray said, "nor a single school that feels that way." "I've talked to the firms," Lat added. "They say 'Look, we don't like this process either. But our rivals are recruiting this early and so we can't sit on the sidelines.'" Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Now is the time of year when many law firms pressure their attorneys to get their clients to pay bills before the end of the year. It's something that clients loathe just as much as their attorneys, according to today's guest on our podcast, On The Merits. Eric Dodson Greenberg, the general counsel of Cox Media Group, said the lawyer-client relationship can suffer when firms bill too aggressively and not thoughtfully enough—a problem made worse by the move toward automated billing. He said he's lost some trust in certain outside firms he's worked with when they send him surprise invoices. "What law firms have done is divorced the billing process from the exercise of judgment," he told Bloomberg Law editor Jessie Kokrda Kamens. "Law firms often prioritize that last push in December to get all that they can and not really focus on 'What's the relationship we inherit on January 1st?'" Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

OpenAI is a relatively new tech startup with the litigation demands of a massive Fortune 500 company. That means that Che Chang, its general counsel, has had to scale up his department fast. On today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Chang speaks with Bloomberg Law reporter Aruni Soni about how he hires lawyers to work for the ChatGPT maker and how OpenAI works with its outside law firms. On top of these usual legal officer duties, Chang discusses the "immense responsibility" of guiding decisions around the "future of human intellect." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's been a difficult year for Brad Karp, chair of Wall Street law firm Paul Weiss. In January he suffered a heart attack and then, a few months later, he chose to strike a pro bono deal with the Trump administration to stave off a punitive executive order.  In a recent speech at a gala event in New York, Karp said the latter was more painful than the former. But during that speech, a fellow attorney stood up and heckled him—an indication of how raw feelings within the legal industry still are over the pro bono deals. Bloomberg Law reporter Mike Vilensky was at the event and saw all of this go down. He joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about who shouted at Karp, why, and what the two had to say to each other after the event concluded. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

As Big Law looks for ways to scale up, McDermott Will & Schulte says it's looking at outside investment in the firm—a move that could set off a paradigm shift in how law firms run their businesses. If it does sell a part of itself to investors, McDermott would be by far the largest publicly known firm to take this step. Outside investment represents a new source of capital for law firms looking to expand, but does come with myriad risks and potential roadblocks. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law's Jessie Kokrda Kamens and Justin Henry talk about why McDermott is doing this now, whether they can pull it off, and how they're going to get around the ethical rules prohibiting outside ownership of firms. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The top lawyers at the largest publicly traded companies in America are being asked to wear many hats at once—and also getting paid handsomely to do so. That's the takeaway from a recent story by Bloomberg Law senior reporters Brian Baxter and Andrew Ramonas, who crunched data from SEC filings of S&P 500 companies and found out how much these attorneys are making. Alphabet's J. Kent Walker Jr. leads the list with a total compensation package exceeding $30 million. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Baxter and Ramonas talk about who these highly paid executives are, the new responsibilities they have, and why they don't always hold the titles of "general counsel" or "chief legal officer" at their respective companies. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Most of the biggest law firms in the US have a two-tier partnership model, where some partners have equity in the firm while others don't. So it was a bit of a surprise when the firm Ropes & Gray announced last month it will be sticking with its one-tier model.  Is this a sign that the trend toward non-equity partners is starting to reverse? Not according to today's guests on our podcast, On The Merits, law firm consultant Janet Stanton with Adam Smith Esq. and legal recruiter Scott Love with The Attorney Search Group. They talk with Bloomberg Law editor Jessie Kokrda Kamens about how prevalent non-equity partnerships are, how they benefit law firms, and what firms need to avoid doing to make sure they work. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.