Latham Watkins Chambers USA AI M&A Restructuring — Lawyer Monthly

Latham & Watkins has won three Chambers USA 2026 Law Firm of the Year awards — in Artificial Intelligence, Bankruptcy Restructuring and Liability Management, and Corporate M&A — announced on 12 June 2026, the same day the firm led the SpaceX initial public offering as the largest public market debut in history at a $1.77 trillion valuation.

The Chambers USA recognition confirms Latham’s position across three of the most commercially significant and rapidly growing practice areas in global law. In AI, Chambers described Latham’s Band 1 practice as market-leading, noting its cross-disciplinary platform spanning transactions, disputes and regulatory matters for chip providers, data centre infrastructure companies and frontier model developers.

The AI practice’s scope — from semiconductor supply chain transactions to AI regulatory compliance and AI-related litigation — reflects the breadth of legal work the technology transformation is generating across practice groups simultaneously.

In Bankruptcy Restructuring and Liability Management, Chambers recognised a recent period of high-profile expansion that has cemented Latham’s position at the top of the restructuring market, with the firm advising on some of the most significant and market-defining Chapter 11 restructurings and liability management transactions globally. Ray Schrock and John Sobolewski lead the New York restructuring team. The practice has competed directly with Kirkland & Ellis and Weil Gotshal for the largest Chapter 11 mandates in each of the past three years.

In Corporate M&A, Chambers recognised Latham’s sustained performance on large-scale cross-border transactions — in 2025 the firm advised on 779 M&A transactions globally with a combined deal value of US$790 billion, including five of the ten largest M&A deals in the world. That volume places Latham in direct competition with Sullivan & Cromwell, Kirkland and Davis Polk for the largest corporate advisory mandates across technology, private equity and capital markets.

The triple award on the same day as the SpaceX IPO mandate — arguably the most significant capital markets instruction of 2026 — illustrates how Latham has positioned itself across multiple high-growth practice areas simultaneously rather than building dominance in a single sector.

For law firm management teams the Chambers assessment provides a useful external benchmark — each award is backed by client interview data and comparative market analysis rather than firm self-reporting. For in-house legal teams at technology companies, private equity sponsors and corporate issuers evaluating panel firms, the Chambers triple recognition adds independent external validation to Latham’s market position in AI, restructuring and M&A that will influence panel review decisions through the remainder of 2026.