Law.com International

✅Clive Luck joins Jones Day in Perth from Clayton Utz as a partner in its global disputes practice and is the latest disputes partner to change firms in Australia in this increasingly sought-after practice area. ✅In Singapore, Greenberg Traurig has added Mitch Reynolds as of counsel in its real estate and hospitality practice. ✅In Hong Kong, Han Kun Law Offices has added Joanne Loi as a partner, strengthening its capital markets offering. ✅In India, Trilegal has appointed Ashish Teni as a senior specialist in insurance and reinsurance, reinforcing its regulatory and compliance offering in the financial services sector. He joins from Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, where he was a partner and had worked for over nine years. More on Asia Pacific moves from Jessica Seah: https://lnkd.in/e_Q9EDNz

The stakes were high heading into the appeal of a staggering $16 billion New York court judgment against Argentina, which had grown with interest to $18 billion by the time the appeal was argued last October. The award amounted to nearly half the South American country’s annual budget and came just as President Javier Milei’s reforms promised to finally turn the economy around and as an energy boom beckoned in the Vaca Muerta shale deposit. It was also the biggest award in the history of the Southern District of New York. Robert Giuffra, lead counsel for Argentina and co-chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, was determined to overturn the massive judgment, which he remembers feeling like a “gut punch” when it came down in 2023. “I tend to be someone who plays the long game,” said Giuffra, recalling several cases where he lost in trial but won on appeal. “If you think you’re right, you have to stay the course. It takes a certain amount of confidence in your position, and also you have to keep the client’s confidence, too.” Read Amy Guthrie's full story on the long road to victory for Argentina and what President Milei called “the greatest legal achievement in [Argentina’s] national history”: https://lnkd.in/eRTd4b6y

A new report commissioned by legal AI platform Legora polled 31 firms in 14 different jurisdictions and asked them a variety of questions on their AI usage and how it was changing workflows. 42% of firms polled said that AI was helping them win new work and 45% reported that it has helped them expand existing client relationships. Of the participants, around a quarter were partners, just under 40% were innovation leaders at the firm and 16% lead the AI initiatives. 55% of respondents to the survey said that they are able to take on briefs that, before onboarding AI, they would not have had the scope to accept. Kyle Poe, Legora’s VP of legal innovation, points out that clients don’t want work cheaper, they simply want it done faster and delivered more efficiently. Read the full story from Oscar Glyn: https://lnkd.in/eGNuC6yp

Baker McKenzie Loses Paris Employment Partner to Addleshaw Goddard

Clifford Chance, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Hogan Lovells and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP are among the firms advising on Unilever’s $44.8 billion combination of its foods business with U.S.-listed McCormick, in one of the largest consumer sector transactions of the year. The combined company will bring together brands including French’s Mustard, Frank’s RedHot sauce and Old Bay spice with Unilever Foods’ portfolio, which includes Knorr, Hellmann’s and Marmite. The combined business is expected to generate approximately $20 billion in annual revenue based on 2025 figures. Meanwhile, the transaction could be seen as the finalisation of Unilever's CEO Fernando Fernandez, pivot away from food to its "faster, higher-margin growth" beauty and personal care businesses; brands within its porfolio include Dove, Vaseline and TRESemmé. Read the full story from Habiba C.: https://lnkd.in/euKjw_FB

Bird and Bird has re-elected CEO Christian Bartsch to a second four-year term as the firm aims to be a €1 billion firm by 2029. Bartsch, who set the firm’s goal in 2024, sees the target as integral to his premiership and the direction in which he wants to take the firm. To reach €1 billion, the firm ran more than 40 workshops to stress-test the ambition and secure partner backing. The firm's most recent revenue posting was €672.6 million. “One of the things I was really keen to do in the first term, was to get a strategy that wasn’t a top-down strategy," Batsch said in an interview with Law.com. "It really held up a mirror to our people’s ambitions. The one thing I have learned from previous experiences is that momentum is very difficult to get in professional services firms, but if you inspire people then you do get that momentum and my job over the last five years has been to make sure that continues.” Read the full story from Oscar Glyn: https://lnkd.in/ebEdEUvd

Australia’s internet safety regulator is investigating Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for potential non-compliance with its ban on social media for under-16s. The regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, believes a large number of Australian children under the age of 16 are circumventing the social media ban and is gathering evidence for potential enforcement action against the social media platforms in mid-2026. In a compliance update three months after the start of the ban in December last year, eSafety says platforms have taken “some steps” to comply with the obligation, resulting in a significant number of social media accounts of children aged under 16 being removed, deactivated or restricted from signing into platforms since 10 December 2025. But it says gaps remain and a substantial number of children under 16 retain accounts. Read the full story from Christopher Niesche: https://lnkd.in/eZrka5mQ

Norton Rose Africa Practice in Reset Mode After South Africa Split

Bird & Bird CEO Handed Second Term as 1B Revenue Target at Heart of Strategy

Major Firms Assemble as Unilever Spins Off Food Business in $45B Deal