Interesting article in the New York Times:  A Boom Year for Mergers and a Furious Pace for Law Firms, by Ellen Rosen:

Over the first weekend of November, lawyers at Ropes & Gray in Manhattan were busy working on a bid by the private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital for the radio station giant Clear Channel Communications. But one of the lawyers, Leo P. Arnaboldi, finally had to tell his partners that he needed to duck out for a few hours: he was running in his third consecutive New York City marathon. Despite the long hours he had put in on the deal, Mr. Arnaboldi, a tax lawyer, ran his personal best. And by 3 p.m., he was home and back on the job, checking his BlackBerry for updates on what ultimately became a winning bid….

The staggering number of mergers and acquisitions this year has kept many lawyers running long and hard. Those in mergers and acquisitions, private equity or ancillary specialties like tax or employee benefits are experiencing a pace unlike any since the 1980s.