London's "magic circle" law firms have been overtaken by US rivals as the most profitable in the City, according to Law.com analysis. Only one magic circle firm, A&O Shearman, now ranks among London's 10 most profitable partnerships, down from three last year. Paul Weiss, a New York firm, tops the rankings with average revenues per lawyer exceeding £2 million. A&O Shearman placed 10th at £1.2 million. Of 18 firms averaging over £1 million per lawyer, 14 were American. US firms in London grew revenues by 14.7% last year, double the 7.1% growth of British counterparts. They're also outbidding UK firms on salaries, with top US firms offering newly qualified lawyers £180,000 compared to the magic circle's £150,000. Kirkland & Ellis leads in partner payouts at over £8 million each.

Global law firm Freshfields and AI company Anthropic have signed a multi-year agreement to co-develop AI legal workflows and deploy Claude across the firm's 5,700 employees globally. Within six weeks of initial deployment, usage increased by approximately 500% through Freshfields' proprietary AI platform. The collaboration includes firmwide deployment across 33 offices, spanning all practice groups and business services. Freshfields and Anthropic will co-develop legal-focused AI applications and agentic workflows for tasks including legal research, contract review, document drafting and due diligence. Through its Freshfields Lab, the firm has created platform solutions integrating Claude, providing secure access to AI-powered workflows connected to institutional knowledge. The partnership aims to deliver faster, more efficient legal services whilst maintaining security and compliance standards. Freshfields is also an early adopter of Thomson Reuters' CoCounsel Legal, rebuilt using Anthropic's technology.