• Latham & Watkins gathered over 400 associates for its second-annual AI Academy this past weekend.
• The firm is leading Big Law in deploying artificial intelligence in response to client demands.
• Lawyers pushed for adoption while reminding associates to always check the accuracy of tool outputs.

The legal profession is facing disruption, and its newest recruits are on the front lines.

On Friday, Latham & Watkins packed its first-year associate class, more than 400 lawyers in total, into a Washington, D.C., hotel for a mandatory two-day “AI Academy.” The firm laid out how partners already use tools like Harvey, an OpenAI-backed legal tech startup, and Microsoft Copilot. It also brought in outside voices, including Meta’s top privacy lawyer, Steve Satterfield.

It was all a not-so-subtle cue that artificial intelligence isn’t optional, but part of the firm’s standard operating procedure. The Big Law firm hit $7 billion in revenue last year, making it the second-highest-grossing firm in the US, and employs over 3,500 lawyers globally.

Latham partner Michael Rubin, who represents tech clients in high-stakes litigation and regulatory fights, says the firm is eyeing AI as a “generational opportunity” to equip all of its lawyers with the most advanced tools and provide clients better, more efficient service.

“Turning away from it as opposed to embracing is just not an option,” Rubin told Business Insider from Washington on Saturday. “We are going to run as fast as we can toward it.”

The routine legal work often handed to associates — think legal research, citation checks, and first drafts — is exactly the type of task that firms can automate with software. The job-market anxiety is real. Many believe that law firms will need fewer associates to drive profits even higher, and in-house legal teams are already exploring ways to reduce head count.

The global firm is pitching a win-win. It trains associates to use the tools that boost revenue and client service, and those early-career lawyers stay relevant as the nature of their work changes.

Over the weekend, Rubin encouraged associates to seize the “powerful new tool” in their kit.

“It’s a revolution that we’re all experiencing,” Rubin told Business Insider. “It doesn’t change the fundamental point that at Latham, we provide the best client service and that means ensuring that the work product that goes out the door is always exceptional.”

Proceed at your own risk

Across Big Law, client pressure has turned curiosity into urgency. In-house counsel want efficiency gains and are asking law firms about their AI plans. Firms are now racing to pilot and roll out software to automate mundane tasks. Results are mixed.

This spring, a Latham lawyer defending Anthropic in a copyright lawsuit made headlines after an expert’s testimony cited an article that does not exist. The lawyer said the mistake stemmed from using Anthropic’s own chatbot, Claude, which fabricated an article title and authors.

Adam Ziegler, who leads Latham’s AI strategy, pushed firmwide adoption while also stressing the importance of personal responsibility. Lawyers are expected to “review the output of the tools they have” and to “keep their hands on the wheel,” Ziegler told Business Insider.

This was Latham’s second run of the AI Academy and the first time it was offered to first-year associates across global offices. Senior lawyers walked through actual cases that were sped up by using AI. Junior litigators participated in breakout sessions on relevant tools, while young corporate attorneys discussed how the tech is transforming the way clients do business.

Fiona Maclean, a longtime Latham partner and vice chair of the technology and AI practices, says the training will continue long after the weekend academy. It runs structured training programs for different associate years and offers skills training on a rolling basis. Rubin says the firm is also developing a virtual AI Academy for lawyers of any experience level, launching early next year.

Rubin says he doesn’t believe the tech will cannibalize opportunities for junior attorneys.

“We think this is an opportunity for lawyers to step up,” Rubin said, “and do more engaging work, more strategic work — the very work that clients turn to Latham to do.”

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• Football fans with YouTube TV are at risk of missing another “Monday Night Football” matchup.
• YouTube and Disney are still at odds over how much channels like ESPN and ABC are worth.
• Advertisers hoping to reach sports fans ahead of the holiday shopping season are also out of luck.

Are you ready for some football? If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, you might be out of luck — again.

Another “Monday Night Football” showdown on ESPN and ABC will be blacked out on YouTube TV unless Google and Disney reach a new carriage deal in the next few hours. The two companies have spent the past week and a half negotiating over how much YouTube should pay each month to let its 10 million or so customers watch Disney’s networks.

In the last 11 days, YouTube TV customers couldn’t watch a slew of college football games, an NFL game, and NBA games featuring the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers. The blackout also impacted Disney’s other shows, including ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Disney analyst Joe Bonner of Argus Research said he’s “a little surprised” that Disney and Google haven’t come to terms yet.

“The prospect of missing an NFL game typically creates enough subscriber discontent to bring parties to the table, though that doesn’t seem to be happening in this case,” Bonner said.

Advertisers are collateral damage

It’s not just sports fans who’ve missed out. The advertisers hoping to reach fans ahead of the lucrative holiday shopping season are also affected by Disney and YouTube’s standoff.

“While a couple of days might not hurt people, a couple of weeks could, especially coming into the end of the year,” Tim Lathrop of media agency Mediassociates told Business Insider last week.

Live sports are a key way to reach audiences — especially the higher-income cohort that pays to remove ads on other streaming services, said Alan Wolk, an analyst at research firm TVREV. Sports are also one of the best ways to cut through a polarized and fragmented media landscape.

The rise of personalized, curated algorithms means that audiences are rarely in the same place at the same time, Wolk said.

Ashley Silver of media agency Crossmedia said that ad buyers impacted by this blackout “have fewer viable alternatives,” and added that “lost reach in this window is materially harder and more expensive to replace than usual.”

Disney may also have to issue so-called “make-good” credits to advertisers if it doesn’t deliver as many ad impressions as it promised. It’s unclear how big that financial hit would be for the Mouse House, which is also missing out on carriage fees from YouTube TV.

Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne just reduced his Disney earnings estimate by nearly $25 million, or 2 cents per share. He wrote that Disney’s carriage dispute with YouTube will cost it $60 million, based on an assumption that the standoff will last two weeks. That suggests Disney is losing $30 million revenue per week from YouTube TV. Disney reports quarterly earnings on Thursday.

The PR tide could turn

Meanwhile, Google just gave YouTube TV subscribers a $20 credit, even though there are some caveats: Customers must take action to get the rebate, which won’t arrive until their next bill. Still, Wolk said this move by YouTube removes some pressure and makes them look like the “good guys.”

This current fight is approaching the length of Disney’s longest carriage battle. The company had an 11-day spat with Charter in 2023 and a 13-day skirmish with DirecTV last year.

If YouTube TV doesn’t get a deal done soon, and the standoff threatens to stretch from Halloween to Thanksgiving, Wolk said Disney could regain the upper hand in the PR wars.

“They’re banking on the fact that people will eventually get pissed about not being able to watch the games,” Wolk said of Disney.

• Laura Sterner resigned as Citadel’s head of BD for Global Equities after two months on the job.
• Her exit follows recent departures and ongoing turnover in Citadel’s BD team.
• Sign up for Business Insider’s daily markets newsletter here.

Another senior business development exec is out at hedge fund giant Citadel.

Laura Sterner resigned last week as head of BD in Citadel’s Global Equities unit after only two months on the job, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss private information.

The departure, the latest churn in Citadel’s BD ranks, comes just a few weeks after Citadel’s top quant recruiter, Ansh Kalra, left for rival multistrategy hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management.

The reason for Sterner’s quick departure wasn’t immediately clear. She previously spent a decade at Steve Cohen’s Point72, where she worked as the fund’s chief fundraiser before leaving earlier this year, Business Insider previously reported.

After a short-lived stint at a healthcare investment firm starting in May, Citadel brought Sterner on in September to replace Alex Topkins. Topkins left in April as head of BD in the Global Equities division, which is run by former Point72 portfolio manager Justin Lubell.

A Citadel spokesperson declined to comment. Sterner did not respond to requests for comment.

The talent war among hedge funds in recent years has shifted the power balance toward employees, as top investment firms scramble to hire the best money managers.

One knock-on effect has been increased competition for BD executives capable of identifying and hiring elite portfolio managers and researchers. As a result, top recruiters can now fetch multimillion-dollar compensation packages at the multistrategy hedge funds at the center of the talent war.

This has fueled turnover in the BD ranks across the multimanager hedge fund world. But industry titan Citadel — Ken Griffin’s $69 billion powerhouse — has seen notable reshuffling within its BD team over the past year, as Business Insider previously reported.

• Warren Buffett published a rare letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Monday.
• The business icon is set to step down as CEO at the end of this year after six decades in charge.
• Buffett said he would continue writing a Thanksgiving letter to shareholders.

Warren Buffett plans to keep writing a yearly letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders — but it’ll be in November, not May.

The famed investor, 95, who rocked the business world this spring by announcing he would step down as CEO at the end of this year, revealed he’s only “sort of” going quiet.

“I will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving message,” he wrote, adding that he appreciates his shareholders’ generosity and enjoys staying in touch with them.

Buffett also hailed his planned successor, Greg Abel. “I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member of government — you name it — that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine,” he wrote.

Discussing when he would hand his fortune to his children, who are now in their 60s and 70s, Buffett said he wanted to retain a “significant amount” of his Berkshire stock until his shareholders “develop the comfort with Greg that Charlie [Munger] and I long enjoyed,” but added that he didn’t expect that process to take long.

In his letter, Buffett said he was grateful to have lived into his mid-90s, given he “nearly died” as a child in 1938, when he had to have an emergency appendectomy, and his life was saved by doctors on two other occasions.

The billionaire also reflected on how lucky he’s been and how unfair life can be.

“Dynastic inheritors have achieved lifetime financial independence the moment they emerged from the womb, while others have arrived, facing a hell-hole,” he wrote, adding that if he were born in some other parts of the world, he “would likely have had a miserable life and my sisters would have had one even worse.”

Buffett said that Lady Luck has been good to him over the years, but “she has better things to do than work with those in their 90s,” whereas Father Time “now finds me more interesting as I age.”

Buffett said that he feels good, continues to work at Berkshire’s headquarters five days a week, and still finds opportunities.

“Occasionally, I get a useful idea or am approached with an offer we might not otherwise have received,” he wrote. “Because of Berkshire’s size and because of market levels, ideas are few — but not zero.”

Much of Buffett’s latest missive serves as a love letter to his hometown of Omaha. He reflected on the lives of several close friends and business associates, including his late right-hand man, Munger, and former Coca-Cola president Don Keough, and how Omaha played a role in all of their lives.

Buffett also struck a measured but positive tone on Berkshire’s prospects, although “our size takes its toll.” He said that Berkshire has “less chance of a devastating disaster” and a “more shareholder-conscious management and board” than virtually any other company he’s come across. While its stock price will occasionally plunge 50%, as it has done three times during his time in charge, he wrote: “Don’t despair; America will come back and so will Berkshire shares.”

The so-called Oracle of Omaha also offered some life advice, encouraging readers to learn from their mistakes, “get the right heroes,” and live lives deserving of the obituaries they desire.

“When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world,” he wrote. “Kindness is costless but also priceless.”

Buffett signed off by wishing a happy Thanksgiving to his readers — “even the jerks” — and reminding his shareholders to “thank America” for the opportunities it has provided, while acknowledging it can be “capricious and sometimes venal in distributing its rewards.”

Buffett’s Thanksgiving gift

Buffett embraced his new Thanksgiving tradition for a third consecutive year. Expressing his admiration for his three children’s philanthropic work, he gifted Berkshire stock to their foundations.

The investor said that on Monday, he converted 1,800 of his Class A shares into 2.7 million Class B shares, worth about $1.35 billion. He pledged to distribute 1.5 million of those shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation — named after his late wife — and 400,000 shares to each of his kids’ foundations: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation.

Buffett has given away close to 60% of his Berkshire shares since pledging to give 99% of them to good causes in 2006.

The legendary stock picker has charged his three kids with distributing his Berkshire shares, which make up 99.5% of his wealth, to worthy causes once he’s gone.

Buffett’s time as CEO is nearly over

Abel, Buffett’s chosen successor and Berkshire’s head of non-insurance operations, is set to succeed him as CEO in the new year with Buffett staying on as chairman.

Berkshire was a failing textile mill when Buffett acquired it in 1965. He has spent the past 60 years transforming it into one of the world’s largest companies with roughly $400 billion in annual revenue, 400,000 employees, and a $1 trillion market value.

Berkshire owns scores of businesses, including Geico, See’s Candies, and the BNSF Railway, and ranks as one of the largest shareholders of huge companies such as Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola.

News of Buffett’s impending departure has weighed on Berkshire stock: it has climbed 10% this year, trailing the S&P’s 16% gain. That may have been a factor in Buffett reassuring shareholders in his latest letter that he intends to hang on to a large portion of his shares.

Buffett, perhaps the world’s foremost bargain hunter, has balked at high prices for stocks and companies in recent years. Berkshire’s third-quarter earnings this month showed it was a net seller of stocks for a 12th straight quarter, and refrained from buying back any Berkshire shares for a fifth consecutive quarter.

The lack of spending contributed to its cash pile hitting yet another record, $358 billion, after subtracting Treasury payables.

• Trump said he will use tariff revenue to send $2,000 checks to Americans.
• While a welcome short-term infusion for cash-strapped Americans, it could cost them in the long run.
• The combination of tariffs and a cash injection into the economy could drive up inflation.

Most Americans would probably welcome an unexpected $2,000 infusion to their bank accounts, courtesy of their federal government.

It might, however, be too good to be true.

President Donald Trump said Saturday in a Truth Social post that the government would use revenue from tariffs to send the cash to “everyone” except “high-income people.”

It’s not the first time the president has floated this idea. He dangled the prospect of sending checks to Americans in fundraising emails over the summer.

The idea is reminiscent of the pandemic-era relief checks, when the government sent three rounds of payments directly to eligible Americans totaling over $800 billion.

Like those pandemic checks, however, a new round of tariff dividend payments, while offering some short-term gain, could ultimately cause long-term pain for the average consumer.

Giving consumers more cash to spend creates more demand for goods, which can lead to higher prices. The tariffs themselves can also lead to higher prices as businesses pass the higher cost of imports on to their customers.

All of this could throw a wrench in the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep cutting interest rates, and could eventually lead to rate hikes if inflation runs persistently hot. That could hurt American wallets over the long run and erase any gains they receive from a one-time check as the cost of consumer goods, securing loans, and buying a house increases.

Trump’s idea to redistribute tariff revenue to Americans comes at a time when consumers, while seeing some relief, are still struggling with living costs after years of high inflation. Prices for everything, from groceries to rent, have increased in recent years. The president largely defeated former President Joe Biden on a promise to lower those prices, a message that resonated with struggling Americans.

For Trump, the tariffs serve as a catch-all solution to address multiple problems. Beyond paying down the debt and putting cash in people’s pockets, his administration has also argued before the Supreme Court, which is now weighing the legality of the sweeping tariffs, that they are meant to provide leverage for the US government in its trade negotiations with foreign powers.

Sending $2,000 checks to hundreds of millions of Americans, however, would put a major dent in the Trump administration’s ability to resolve the debt crisis.

Ultimately, even if Trump is serious about the payments, they would likely need approval from a Congress that is deeply divided. The government has been shut down now for 40 straight days with no end in sight, forcing hundreds of thousands of federal employees to go without pay.

So, probably best not to count on that $2,000 infusion anytime soon, or ever.

• “Vibe-coding” is Collins Dictionary’s “word of the year” for 2025.
• Collins Dictionary classifies it as a noun, not a verb.
• The term was originally coined by OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy in February.

AI is changing everything — including the English lexicon.

Andrej Karpathy, the OpenAI cofounder and former AI director at Tesla, coined the term “vibe-coding” in a post on X in February. Nine months later, it’s an official word in the dictionary.

“There’s a new kind of coding I call “vibe coding” where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists,” Karpathy wrote.

“It’s possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good,” he added.

Since then, vibe-coding has not only become a bona fide word in tech circles, but a legitimate skill that can command sizable salaries.

Collins Dictionary, a dictionary now published by Harper Collins with a more than 200-year history, named vibe-coding its 2025 word of the year this week.

Collins categorizes it as a noun, and a slang term, and defines it as “the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to assist with the writing of computer code.”

Over the past year, vibe-coding has become the standard for experienced and novice coders alike to approach their work, whether that’s building new apps or testing out concepts at companies.

Companies building vibe-coding platforms have also won sizable funding rounds from Silicon Valley’s top investors.

Lovable, founded in 2023, announced a $200 million Series A raise at a $1.8 billion valuation led by Accel in July. In September, Replit announced a $250 million funding round at $3 billion valuation led by Prysm Capital. That month, Vercel also announced a $300 million round at a $9.3 billion valuation, also led by Accel.