Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Friday, April 4. In today's briefing, top-grossing U.S. law firm Kirkland & Ellis is negotiating with the White House to avoid being hit by a potential executive order targeting major legal players. And asbestos defendants, including Johnson & Johnson and Dow, are pushing to prevent the deletion of historical compensation records by multibillion-dollar trusts, arguing the move obstructs future legal scrutiny of potentially inflated claims.

Kirkland & Ellis, the largest U.S. law firm by revenue, is in talks with the White House to avoid an executive order similar to those levied against several of its rivals, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The firm, which has some 4,000 lawyers and brought in about $9 billion last year, is one of the White House’s next targets for sanctions, some of the people said. If the president moves forward with an executive order, it would mark an escalation of the administration’s battle against giants in the legal industry.  

Kirkland—a powerhouse in the worlds of private equity, and mergers and acquisitions—has been eager to avoid a conflict with the White House and has hired a lobbyist as part of its efforts, the people said. It isn’t clear what objections Trump and his inner circle have to the firm’s activities.

Corporate defendants in asbestos lawsuits are seeking to stop records of past compensation payments from being deleted after bankruptcy courts authorized broad probes in recent years into potentially inflated asbestos claims filed by personal-injury lawyers.

Lawyers representing asbestos defendants—including Johnson & Johnson, Dow, Rohm and Haas, and Georgia-Pacific—sent private letters earlier this week to the administrators of multibillion-dollar compensation trusts created from bankrupt asbestos manufacturers, demanding that records and data be preserved.

The document destruction appears to be “designed to avoid the production of data and documents responsive to future subpoenas” by those companies and other defendants in asbestos litigation, they said in the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Is “recession” now spelled T-A-R-I-F-F?

Markets were gripped by the recession trade after President Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday threatened a global trade war. Treasury yields, stock futures and the dollar all plunged. But this might just be the beginning: If the tariffs, which are in effect the biggest U.S. tax rise since at least the 1950s, cause the economy to shrink, stocks and yields still have a long way to go down.

The lowest-rated junk bonds, most likely to default in tough times, have also been hit hard. Their extra yield above Treasurys has risen by more than 2 percentage points. They last had such a big jump over a similarly short period when economists were sure recession was imminent in 2022 (in the end there was no recession).

Commercial chapter 11 bankruptcy filings rose 20% in March, rising to 733 from 611 in the previous year, reflecting ongoing economic pressures, according to Epiq AACER data. Broader economic concerns including rising interest rates, consumer debt burdens and increased mortgage delinquencies are contributing to financial strain across sectors.

• Private-equity employees may face layoffs unless the industry’s asset sales and fundraising picks up in 2025.
• All emerging technology needs to deliver on its promise, sooner or later. For AI agents, that time is now.
• A number of companies are being sued in Europe for not doing enough to tackle climate change, even as firms in the U.S. face lawsuits for focusing too much on green issues.
• True Religion, a one-time god of denim, is embracing the fans who stayed faithful through two bankruptcies, with $400 price tags a thing of the past.

become a common sight at sports events around the world. It also produces social-media content, documentaries, podcasts and newsletters about female athletes and their fans.

Deep-sea miner Loke Marine Minerals has filed for bankruptcy, according to the company. Oslo-based Loke had looked to mine the seabed in both Norwegian waters and the Pacific Ocean, with the aim of exploiting minerals such as cobalt and copper that are considered vital for the energy transition and defense technologies. In 2023, Loke purchased two large licenses for deep-sea mining exploration in the Pacific Ocean from U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin. Loke didn't provide further information on the future of the licenses. Deep-sea mining has been targeted by environmental groups who argue that the practice would cause irreparable damage to a largely untouched habitat. Its proponents say minerals such as copper and cobalt are vital for energy transition including technologies like batteries.

—Yusuf Khan

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