- U.S. & Americas
- Lateral moves
- New York
Simpson Thacher adds 33 private equity partners, 17 in New York
Simpson Thacher has hired at least 33 partners this year who work with private equity clients or handle PE-related work, 17 of them based in New York, according to The American Lawyer.
Pay flexibility is a driver of the competition for private equity talent, which remains among law firms' top recruitment priorities, per The American Lawyer. The total follows a run of expansion. Simpson Thacher added 25 equity partners in 2025 to reach 229, a 12 percent rise against a prior-decade average under 1 percent a year, according to Bloomberg Law.
Chicago and Dallas launches draw partners from Kirkland and Akin
Much of the 2026 hiring ran through two new offices. On 6 August the firm opened in Chicago with five corporate partners from Kirkland & Ellis, led by Ryan Harris, co-leader of Kirkland's private investment and family office practice, who became Chicago managing partner. Cole Parker also joined from that group, according to Bloomberg Law. Bloomberg Law reported the entry was described in the market as one of the biggest legal-recruitment deals the city has seen (Bloomberg Law).
In July the firm opened in Dallas with a hybrid capital team from Akin, Ryan Cox, Payson Lyman and Joshua Morry, to build private credit and capital solutions tied to sponsor financings, per Simpson Thacher.
The New York additions included Weil Gotshal private funds partners Stephanie Srulowitz and Brian Parness, confirmed on 8 September alongside London energy and infrastructure M&A partner Murray Cox and secondaries partner Simon Saitowitz, according to Bloomberg Law. The firm also took a Wachtell dealmaker in M&A (Bloomberg Law), a capital markets partner from Dechert (Law360), Boston M&A partner Jessica Cooney from Ropes & Gray, who advised sponsors on buyouts and take-privates (Bloomberg Law), and London PE partner Nick Appleton from Kirkland, the second Kirkland partner to move after funds partner Joanne Mak (The Global Legal Post).
Kirkland and Weil partners move as sponsor demand grows
The hiring tracks a wider acceleration. The top 50 US firms hired 1,086 lateral partners through August, up from 901 a year earlier, per Bloomberg Law. US private equity M&A crossed $1.2 trillion across more than 9,000 deals in 2025, with buyout volume expected to improve in 2026 on lower rates, according to Reed Smith. That demand supports hiring for sponsor-facing lawyers.
Kirkland and Weil have felt the pull most directly. Kirkland doubled its equity-partner notice period from 60 to 120 days and imposed a 30-day notice on non-equity partners after losing as many as seven equity partners in a single week, according to The Global Legal Post. A six-partner Kirkland London team left to launch a PE practice at Sidley Austin, and high-yield partner James Hagan moved to Freshfields days later. Weil saw PE partners move to Paul Weiss, DLA Piper and McDermott Will & Emery, while hiring 51 lateral partners of its own since the start of 2025, including Jonathan Stott and Michael Hanna into its San Francisco private equity group, per Bloomberg Law. Kirkland continued hiring too, adding PE and M&A partner Adam Prince in April, according to Kirkland & Ellis.
Private funds, secondaries and private credit anchor the 2026 hires
The hires cluster in private funds, secondaries, PE M&A, leveraged buyouts, take-privates and, through Dallas, private credit and capital structure solutions, spread across New York, Boston, London, Chicago and Dallas, per Bloomberg Law. These practices are the ones tied most closely to sponsor clients. The same firms competing for sponsor work are hiring partners from one another.
The money behind the competition is large. Kirkland became the first firm to pass $10 billion in revenue in 2025, posting $10.6 billion with average profit per equity partner up 20 percent to $11.1 million, according to LawFuel. Simpson Thacher's revenue and profitability have risen more than 60 percent since 2022 under chair Alden Millard, who was given authority to decide on hires faster than his predecessors, per Bloomberg Law.
Across the year, sponsor-facing hiring has concentrated among a small set of firms with the revenue to fund it, drawn largely from one another, as deal volume recovers.
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