ZipLaw Briefing

Trump's tariff machine got knocked down by the Supreme Court and this week he tried to rebuild the whole thing in five days. We break down the legal mechanics behind Section 301, why stretching it across 60 countries at once is legally untested, and how a single trade shift creates billable work across regulatory, employment, disputes, supply chain and M&A teams all at once. If you want a stor...

The ZipLaw Briefing returns with the week’s biggest commercial and legal stories, decoded for training contract and vacation scheme applications. 🤖 Anthropic’s $65 billion AI funding round . The company behind Claude has raised one of the largest private funding rounds in history, valuing the business at $900 billion and putting it ahead of OpenAI. We unpack the circular financing concerns, why c...

The ZipLaw Briefing returns with the week's biggest commercial and legal stories, decoded for training contract and vacation scheme applications. 🤝 Deal of the Week: Reed Smith and Osborne Clarke on the Essensys take-private. Founder Mark Furness is buying back his own AIM-listed company for £11.3m, 85% below its 2019 float price. We break down the squeeze-out mechanics under the Takeover Code, t...

In this episode of ZipLaw Briefing, we break down four major stories shaping commercial law right now — with the legal angles you need for vacation scheme and training contract interviews. First, Meta is cutting 8,000 jobs — not because it's struggling, but to fund a $135 billion AI infrastructure bet. We explore Mark Zuckerberg's vision for "personal superintelligence," the reported plan to track...

Anthropic's new AI model Mythos has found thousands of cybersecurity vulnerabilities across global financial infrastructure and the people who run the world's banking system are seriously rattled. We break down what happened at the IMF spring meetings, why European banks have been locked out of the tool, and what it all means for tech transactions, financial regulation and disputes work. Then we l...

In this episode, we break down a looming jet fuel crisis hitting European aviation, with airports warning supplies could run dry within weeks. We explain how disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is driving prices to double, and why this is triggering legal work across energy and commodities contracts, force majeure disputes, EU passenger compensation claims, insurance coverage, and potential airline...

Anthropic takes the US government to court — and wins. A food crisis nobody's talking about. Merck drops $6.7bn on a drug that isn't even approved yet. And a landmark jury verdict that just cracked open Big Tech's legal shield. In this episode of the ZipLaw Briefing, Ludo and Liv break down the stories that matter most for law students, vacation scheme applicants, and training contract candidates...

Central banks have frozen interest rates as Middle East tensions send energy prices soaring. We break down why rate cuts are off the table and what that means for law firms. Then we look at OpenAI's proposed $10 billion joint venture with private equity giants Bain Capital, TPG and Advent, and why AI distribution is becoming just as important as innovation. Our case of the week is a brilliant trad...

Episode 2 – Revolut’s Banking Licence, the Global Oil Shock, and Estée Lauder v Jo Malone In this week’s episode of The ZipLaw Briefing, Liv and Ludo break down some of the biggest business and legal stories shaping the week — and explain what they mean for aspiring lawyers. First, they discuss Revolut finally securing a full UK banking licence after a four-year regulatory process. What does this...

Welcome to the very first episode of The ZipLaw Briefing! Each week, we break down the biggest business and legal stories shaping the global economy — and explain why they matter for law firms and aspiring lawyers. In this episode we discuss: The Iran War and the global oil shock How disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is pushing oil prices higher and raising the risk of renewed inflation. Hollywoo...