- U.S. & Americas
- Lateral moves
- Regulatory, M&A
Weil, Gotshal & Manges has recruited antitrust partner Yuni Yan Sobel from Paul Weiss to expand its antitrust practice, according to The American Lawyer. Sobel advises on antitrust issues in domestic and cross-border M&A, including HSR Act reportability, global merger-control notification and clearance strategy, gun-jumping and antitrust risk allocation for private equity sponsors, venture capital funds and hedge funds, The American Lawyer reports.
Sobel joins a Washington antitrust bench Weil built in 2025
The hire follows a series of antitrust additions Weil made last year, most of them in Washington. The firm brought in former DOJ Antitrust Division litigator Meagan Bellshaw, after hiring former FTC Mergers IV head Mark Seidman and former FTC and Amazon lawyer Jasmine Rosner (Weil). Weil's antitrust group was named the National Law Journal's 2025 D.C. Litigation Department of the Year for antitrust (Weil).
Sobel's transactional-antitrust practice sits between that enforcement-focused Washington group and Weil's M&A practice. Her merger-clearance advice supports deal work rather than agency litigation.
Weil hired 39 partners in 2025 as revenue growth lagged peers
The Sobel hire is part of a lateral push Weil has pursued while trailing New York rivals. The firm hired 39 partners in 2025, a record, and 16 more in the first four months of 2026. Billings rose 27% and revenue rose 19% year-over-year (Bloomberg Law). The expansion crosses borders. Weil launched a German antitrust platform with Legal 500 Hall-of-Famer Ingo Brinker from White & Case and Niklas Brueggemann from Latham, among eight German partner hires over six months (Legal Business).
The hiring comes as Weil's financial growth slows. Revenue rose by less than 3% in 2025, compared with more than 13% for the 50 largest firms. A consultant said Weil's standing would continue to slip without a deliberate effort to catch up (Bloomberg Law).
Vacated HSR form and 49% M&A rise shape merger-clearance work
Demand for the clearance work Sobel handles has strengthened as deal activity returns. US M&A activity rose 49% in the first half of 2026, driven by megadeals and AI-infrastructure buildout. Worldwide deals approached $4.6tn in 2025 under lighter regulatory scrutiny (Mondaq).
The rules remain unsettled. A Texas federal court vacated the Biden-era expanded HSR premerger form on 12 February 2026. The Fifth Circuit declined to pause the ruling, allowing filers to use the lighter legacy form again (McDermott Will & Emery). The FTC and DOJ are seeking comment on the 2025 form and signaling rulemaking on acquihires and litigate-the-fix strategies (Congressional Research Service). Chambers' 2026 US merger-control guide points to continued complexity in cross-border review, the area Sobel advises on (Chambers and Partners).
Simpson Thacher has hired six Weil partners in 2026
The hire comes as Weil loses partners in other practices. Simpson Thacher has hired six Weil partners across New York and London in 2026, including private funds, secondaries and energy and infrastructure M&A partners. The moves come amid nearly 30 Weil partner departures globally this year (Legal Business). Simpson Thacher has hired at least 33 partners serving private equity clients this year (Bloomberg Law). Weil's London finance head Tom Richards is in talks to join the firm (Law.com International).
The movement between Weil and Paul Weiss runs both ways. Weil's Jeffrey Osterman left to chair Paul Weiss's life sciences licensing practice in early 2025, while litigation co-head Jonathan Polkes left Weil for White & Case (Bloomberg Law). Paul Weiss has had departures of its own, including Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson, Jeannie Rhee and Jessica Phillips, who left in 2025 to launch the litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee. The move drew roughly a dozen Paul Weiss lawyers (Bloomberg Law).
Merger-control and antitrust have remained among the most active hiring areas into 2026. Firms are adding former DOJ and FTC lawyers as deal flow recovers and enforcement remains unpredictable (VitalLaw). WilmerHale added antitrust and competition partner Susan Musser in October 2025 (WilmerHale). Weil is adding a transactional-antitrust partner to a group it expanded in 2025. The clearance work she handles is growing with M&A volume, and firms across the market are competing for the same specialists.
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