Which Law Firms Are Winning 2026's IPO Surge?

Law firms may not be partying like it’s 1999, but the current market for initial public offerings is certainly generating business that recalls the headier days of the fabled dot-com IPO boom at the turn of the century.

With SpaceX’s recent mega-offering and the debuts of artificial intelligence giants OpenAI and Anthropic expected soon, capital markets work is surging once again. Firms are reporting that those high-profile IPOs are prompting companies across the spectrum to consider going public at rates not seen in at least five years.

Indeed, during the first half of 2026, global IPO volume was six times higher than the same period in 2025, according to an August report on market trends published by EY. The last time the market was this frothy was in 2021, when pent-up post-pandemic demand, high valuations, low interest rates, and the advent of the trendy special purpose acquisition company business model combined to push new issues to record levels.

A Rocket Ride With SpaceX

Much of the global value during the first half of this year was driven by one IPO, the $75 billion market debut of SpaceX on June 12. The IPO is the biggest of the year to date—and for that matter, of all time—and it briefly made a trillionaire of the company’s chief stockholder, Elon Musk.

It also proved lucrative for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which served as the company’s lead counsel on the offering. According to its amended IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SpaceX expected to pay $25.5 million for legal fees and expenses for the IPO. That figure, LawFuel reported in June, “dwarfs the typical IPO legal spend, though it's broadly in line with what other mega-deals have paid out.” A breakdown of spending by law firm was not available, but presumably Gibson will receive a healthy chunk of the total.

“Many of the issues and solutions were the first of their kind,” the firm said in a news release. SpaceX, for instance, is the first IPO on the new Nasdaq Texas market. Gibson Dunn advised Nasdaq on the creation and launch of the Texas exchange.

More than 50 Gibson lawyers across a dozen practices worked on the deal. Hillary Holmes, Harrison Tucker, and Atma Kabad, based in Houston, led Gibson’s capital markets team. Among other partners working on the deal were: Julia Lapitskaya and Gerry Spedale, advising on governance issues; Thomas Kim, Brian Lane, Osman Nawaz, Mellissa Campbell Duru, and Alan Bannister, securities regulation; Gerry Spedale and Collin Cox, Texas corporate and litigation issues; Gina Hancock and Krista Hanvey, employee compensation; George Sampas, Rob Little, and Chris Trester, M&A; Cassandra Gaedt-Sheckter, Vivek Mohan, and Frances Waldmann, AI issues; Madalyn Miller, Matthew Axelrod, and Lindsay Paulin, aerospace regulatory matters; Michael Murphy, environmental law; Bradley Smith, antitrust; Brian Lutz and Stephanie Brooker, litigation; and Michael Cannon and Eric Sloan, tax.

Globally, Gibson partners Steve Thierbach, Michelle Kirschner, Chris Haynes, and Benjamin Fryer advised in the U.K. In addition, Madrid partner Armando Albarrán and Munich-based partner Ferdinand Fromholzer handled EU issues.

Davis Polk & Wardwell served as the lead adviser for the underwriters. Bloomberg said the deal included Davis Polk New York partners Byron Rooney, Stephen Byeff, and counsel Joze Vranicar, and California-based partner Alan Denenberg. Latham & Watkins led the team for underwriters in the United Kingdom and Europe.

A Spate of Big Deals

Among other major IPOs this year:

• Latham led the issuers’ side on the second-, third-, and fifth-largest U.S. IPOs by value during the first half of 2026. In second place was the $6.4 billion offering in May by Cerebras Systems Inc. Like many of the other companies going public, Cerebras focuses on artificial intelligence, developing AI processors, supercomputing systems, and cloud-based AI infrastructure. The company reported $4.1 million in legal fees and expenses for its IPO, according to an SEC filing. Davis Polk advised the underwriters.

• Innio NV’s IPO in June ranked third. Latham helped the company, which builds gas-engine power-generation systems for data centers, to a $2.8 billion Nasdaq offering. The Netherlands-headquartered company also relied on Amsterdam’s NautaDutilh for Dutch legal issues. The company said in SEC filings it had spent $1 million to date on legal fees. Milbank led the underwriters’ legal team. The fifth-largest deal saw Latham assist Fervo Energy, a company focused on advanced geothermal projects. The May IPO raised $2.2 billion. Legal fees have not yet been disclosed. Vinson & Elkins represented the underwriters.

• Data centers played a key role in another IPO—the $2.6 billion April 15 offering by Madison Air Solutions Corp. Madison makes ventilation, air-filtration and indoor air-quality systems for, among others, data centers. Kirkland & Ellis represented the company; Sullivan & Cromwell was lead counsel for the underwriters. The company has yet to file information about its legal fees and expenses with the SEC.

• Sullivan & Cromwell also took the lead counsel role in a complex deal that included an IPO and private placement for Pershing Square USA, a new closed-end investment fund, and its parent company Pershing Square Inc., which invests primarily in a portfolio of large North American public companies. The combined deal, valued at $5 billion, went to market on April 29. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom was listed as underwriters’ counsel in SEC filings.

• Among global deals, January saw the largest-ever global IPO by a defense contractor, the €3.8 billion debut of Czechoslovak Group (CSG). The deal is the largest European IPO since 2022 and the largest listing on Euronext Amsterdam in the past two decades. Clifford Chance served as lead legal counsel for the company, and A&O Sherman led the underwriters’ side.

Big IPOs to Come

The second half of 2026 may see the blockbuster public debuts of the two leading U.S. AI companies. In June, Open AI filed confidential pre-IPO paperwork with the SEC. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” Open AI said in a statement. According to news accounts, the company is relying on its longtime advisers Cooley and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to handle legal matters related to the offering.

Also in June, Anthropic filed a confidential draft of its pre-IPO filings. The date, number of shares to be offered, and price have not yet been set, the company said. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has worked with the company for several years, was hired to help with the IPO process, TechCrunch reported in December, and is helping the company in “tackling an internal checklist to prepare it for what could be one of the largest IPOs ever.”

The pre-IPO filings by AI giants highlight “the strong momentum in capital markets and securities practices now at some Big Law firms,” Law.com said in June. Not only are firms benefiting from the AI boom, but IPO interest is up in a variety of sectors, as the Fervo, Pershing Square, and CSG transactions show.

In a May 27 report, Morgan Stanley said the current IPO market is defined by “a maturing pipeline of issuers, wide breadth across sectors and deeper investor participation.” Two dominant long-term trends are shaping IPO activity, the investment bank said, “the large-scale buildout of AI and digital infrastructure ecosystems, and…rising investment across aerospace, defense and space-related technologies.” The investor base is diverse as well with strong demand coming from “growth investors, value investors, income-focused investors, and sector specialists,” Morgan Stanley said.

The Space Race

Morgan Stanley noted that because they have had abundant access to private capital in recent years, many of the companies coming to market are at a more advanced stage of development than in years past.

That should be good news for law firms, especially Big Law players. Larger, more complicated public offerings usually mean higher legal fees (see the SpaceX IPO), additional pre-IPO matters (OpenAI and Anthropic), more work across a variety of practices, greater room for multiple firms to share the pie, and better odds that a law firm will develop a long-term relationship with an institutional client.

The rise of new and growing industry sectors should also yield enduring benefits. Space-sector work is on the rise, for instance. As Bloomberg recently reported, law firms that had depended on NASA-related work are now sought after by companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. The work includes helping private space and satellite companies “license their satellites, execute contracts to fly in low-Earth orbit, and resolve intellectual property disputes tied to cosmic endeavors.” Lawyers, Bloomberg noted, “are as necessary as rocket fuel for legally complex space ventures.”

Gibson Dunn, for example, not only handled SpaceX’s IPO, but the company’s $17 billion acquisition of EchoStar’s wireless spectrum licenses in 2025 and its merger with Musk’s AI company xAI. Bloomberg noted other law firms drawing in space and satellite clients, particularly in Texas, including Baker Botts, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Kirkland & Ellis, Sullivan & Cromwell, Latham, and Holland & Knight.

Warning Signs Ahead

Whether the IPO market will continue to surge, however, is an open question. Concerns over an AI bubble, ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty, and a potential glut of new stock oversaturating the market could spell the end of the IPO party.

“The U.S. IPO market has reopened in a big way in 2026, with issuance already at a record high. But this activity has raised two key concerns for the equity market: whether it’s flashing a late-cycle warning sign and whether the market can comfortably digest so much new supply,” Goldman Sachs said in a July research report.

Goldman stressed that not every market watcher sees trouble in the near term and that, technically, the market may not have experienced a wave yet, in spite of the record-setting valuations. The actual number of deals “remains modest,” although that volume is expected to increase sharply in the months ahead.

Still, in an interview for the report, Owen Lamont, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management, warned that past bubbles “have often been fueled by new technologies” and a wave of new IPOs is “one of the ‘four horsemen’ of a market bubble.”

Such uncertainty may be prompting more companies to act now. As Ian Schuman, global chair of Latham’s capital markets and public company representation practices, told Bloomberg, companies are “pushing everything further forward so as to take advantage of this business cycle.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is SpaceX's law firm for its IPO? Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher served as lead counsel to SpaceX on its $75 billion IPO, with more than 50 lawyers across a dozen practice areas involved. Davis Polk & Wardwell advised the underwriters, and Latham & Watkins led the underwriters' team in the UK and Europe.

How much did SpaceX pay in legal fees for its IPO? SpaceX reported $25.5 million in legal fees and expenses in its amended IPO filing with the SEC—a figure well above typical IPO legal spend but broadly in line with other mega-deals of similar scale.

Which law firms are advising OpenAI and Anthropic on their IPOs? OpenAI is relying on Cooley and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for its pre-IPO process. Anthropic has engaged Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Neither company has set a confirmed IPO date as of this writing.

Is the 2026 IPO boom at risk of being an AI bubble? Market opinion is split. Goldman Sachs has flagged the current wave of issuance as a potential late-cycle warning sign, and analysts note that past market bubbles have often been fueled by new technologies. Morgan Stanley, by contrast, points to broad sector participation and deep investor demand as signs of a more durable market.

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David L. Brown is a legal affairs writer and consultant, who has served as head of editorial at ALM Media, editor-in-chief of The National Law Journal and Legal Times, and executive editor of The American Lawyer. He creates in-depth content for legal industry clients and works with Best Law Firms as senior content consultant.