- United States
- Lateral moves
Cravath has hired Weil Gotshal corporate chair Michael Aiello and five other mergers and acquisitions partners into its M&A practice, a large group for a firm that has long promoted partners from within. Sources speaking anonymously told Law.com the hires aren't a change in lateral strategy. They're a bigger version of what Cravath has always sought: selective partner hires who fit its mold.
The six-partner group is Aiello, M&A co-head Matthew Gilroy, Eoghan Keenan, Amanda Fenster, Michelle Sargent and Megan Pendleton, all moving from Weil (Pulse 2.0). Aiello led Weil's roughly 600-lawyer corporate department and was described as its most powerful partner. His work has included Fox Corp.'s $22bn acquisition of Roku and MarketAxess' $6bn sale to Intercontinental Exchange, with clients including Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical and Sanofi (Bloomberg Law). Presiding partner Faiza Saeed called the group cultural fits who "share our belief in the power of collaboration centered on client service."
Cravath's recent laterals: London finance in 2023 and Paul Weiss antitrust in 2025
Cravath historically treated lateral hiring as a rarity (Above the Law). That began to change in March 2023, when it entered London by hiring leveraged-finance partners Korey Fevzi and Philip Stopford from Shearman & Sterling, later adding Linklaters finance partners Chris Medley and Rohan Saha (LawFuel). In January 2025 it hired Paul Weiss antitrust co-chair Andrew Finch, a former deputy at the DOJ antitrust division (The American Lawyer). The Aiello group extends that pattern into high-value corporate work.
Cravath also added a salaried non-equity partner tier in 2023, a break from pure lockstep that now numbers roughly five to ten partners and underpins its lateral recruiting (HHF Legal Search).
Weil has lost about 30 partners in 2026 across several rivals
Weil has lost roughly 30 partners globally since the start of 2026, with exits including David Avery-Gee and Sarah Flaherty to Sullivan & Cromwell, Murray Cox and Stephanie Srulowitz to Simpson Thacher, Neil Devaney to Akin and Chris Machera to Paul Weiss (LawFuel). Within five days of Aiello's departure, Weil named Kyle Krpata and Michael Lubowitz co-chairs of its corporate department.
According to LawFuel, the firm said it has "long believed an ambitious growth strategy is in the firm's best interest" and intends to "accelerate execution of that strategy going forward," and Weil is reportedly weighing options that could include a possible combination while publicly denying formal merger talks. Aiello's exit leaves Weil "reeling and relieved," with incoming executive chair Ramona Nee, who takes over on 1 January 2027, gaining room to build private equity and recruit (Bloomberg Law).
M&A hiring intensifies as 2025 deal volumes carry into 2026
The hire centers on board-level M&A for public companies and financial sponsors, Cravath's traditional stronghold, where it reports roughly $3.8M revenue per lawyer (PYMNTS) and has advised on more than 800 M&A transactions worth over $4 trillion in the past decade (Cravath). Law firms posted one of their strongest M&A years on record in 2025 and expect 2026 to be as active or more.
That demand has drawn competing moves across the US legal market. Latham, Simpson Thacher, Willkie and O'Melveny added M&A and private equity partners in January 2026, poaching from firms including Weil, Kirkland and Cravath (PYMNTS). Cravath has itself been a target: Davis Polk hired a Cravath civil litigator, and Latham and Paul Weiss each took former Cravath partners in 2023 (Bloomberg Law). Commentators called the exchange the two firms "just trading partners at this point" (Above the Law).
A firm that built its partnership by promotion from within has made a six-partner lateral hire from one rival's corporate department, added a non-equity tier, and opened in London through lateral recruiting. The targets have been practice areas where deal volume is rising: corporate M&A, antitrust and leveraged finance.
