Some Law Firms Are Finding Ways to 'Thrive' in 2025 Climate of Uncertainty
With a potentially rocky economy still on the horizon, some Big Law firms have “embraced the uncertainty" of 2025, courting big teams of litigators, announcing blockbuster tie-ups, and setting high-water marks in deal work through the first half of the year.
Despite a potential cool-down in hiring, law firms are “finding a way to thrive” in a climate of unknowns, analysts and firm leaders say. That goes especially for dealmakers.
Indeed, transactions have been “surprisingly robust” in 2025, said Bill Kucera, co-leader of the global M&A practice at Mayer Brown. He and Paul Theiss, a corporate partner at the firm, said the year has been “a tale of two parts,” with buyers and sellers feeling things out at the beginning for the first couple of months. “What it feels like has happened in the interim, financial parties, buyers and sellers, have embraced the uncertainty,” Kucera said in an interview, adding that they’ve essentially said, “we need to do deals, or we’re never gonna do deals.”
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) found global M&A deal value up 20% from January through May, relative to last year during that stretch. The group also noted that the $1.5 trillion value on such announced deals was a three-year high. That comes, of course, against the backdrop of an on-again, off-again tariff situation under by the Trump administration.
Mayer Brown itself did about $30-plus billion worth of deals last month, including 10 deals worth $1 billion or more, the firm said, with Theiss pointing to strength in industry areas like financial services, projects and infrastructure, food and beverage and aerospace and defense. Key clients include Boeing, as well as Conagra, in its $600 million sale of the Chef Boyardee brand. Kucera added that several deals, including in the infrastructure space, are arguably “tariff-agnostic” because they deal with longer-lived assets.
“The last couple months for us have been as busy as any two-month period in my memory,” Theiss added.
The partners said that Mayer Brown is also “more international” than some competitors. The firm lost more than 6% of its lawyer head count over the course of last year, significantly because of planned splits and spin-offs with offices in Mexico City and Hong Kong. Even as LSEG found cross-border deal value up 34% year-to-date broadly, Kucera and Theiss said the percentage of their deals that are cross-border have gone down recently.
“Given the uncertainty on the international landscape, we’ve seen a slight downturn in the percentage of our deals that are cross-border,” Theiss said. “But not significantly.”
The firm increased its spread last year, noted firm leader Jon Van Gorp in an interview earlier this year, “in order to be able to be competitive in the market for talent and talent retention.” And in its corporate practices, at least this year, Mayer Brown has added more than 40 lawyers so far: 12 partners, 25 associates and four counsel, the firm noted. Kucera said he’s hopeful deal flow will continue apace. “I will be the optimist and say I think this will continue in the relatively near-to-midterm,” he said, adding: “Parties still need to do deals.”
‘Finding a Way to Thrive in It’
The increase in broader M&A deal activity comes even after uncertainty from tariffs, federal government cuts, and a Trump administration that has targeted certain Big Law firms.
The deal business also dovetails with a continued appetite for scale in 2025. While some law firms have been more measured and deliberate in their hiring lately, others are willing to go wherever they can find scale.
In fact, it’s hard to read too much into the growth or additions in specific markets, because many firms are primarily just looking for scale, said Kent Zimmermann, law firm management consultant at the Zeughauser Group.
That includes cities like Chicago, where most indigenous firms put up double-digit growth in several key financial categories, and billing rates, talent and the city’s reputation as a hub and commercial center are often cited as a draw.
Zimmermann added: “When we see firms grow there, part of what we’re seeing is that the benefits of scale are increasingly clear to a growing group of law firms, and the scale that most firms would like to build can’t all be achieved in one place.”
Those indigenous firms, though, have made some of the biggest splashes in the market this year. Kirkland & Ellis picked off multiple marquee litigation teams and has added more than 100 litigators this year. McDermott Will & Emery made waves when it announced a merger with Schulte Roth & Zabel, setting course to create a $2.8 billion firm that would land somewhere in the top 20 of the Am Law 100.
In an interview, Craig Savitzky, manager of research and insight at legal recruiting and intelligence firm Leopard, said firms are possibly seeking other ways of growth, "or sort of, faster avenues to growth, outside of the traditional hiring market. "Maybe the deal activity is a means of reconciling the current climate and finding a way to thrive in it.”
Reprinted with permission from the June16th edition of The American Lawyer © 2025 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.
