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Paul Weiss - Happy Birthday to BigLaw's Apex Predator

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9th September 2024

Written by Scott Gibson and Sloane Poulton

This August marked the first anniversary of New York firm Paul Weiss’ fiery rebirth of its London office with an English law offering. Since then, the relentless London regeneration project has witnessed an astonishing 26 lawyers join its City partnership. Of these, 22 were laterals, 2 were vertical hires and 2 were from in-house – they have come from a narrow selection of just five firms and a couple of private equity houses.

“The first firm to suffer from Paul Weiss’ predations was Kirkland & Ellis which, since last summer, has continued to gently haemorrhage London partners to its rival losing a total of 13 – an average of over one per month.”

The first firm to suffer from Paul Weiss’ predations was Kirkland & Ellis which, since last summer, has continued to gently haemorrhage London partners to its rival losing a total of 13 – an average of over one per month. The Big Law raptor has bitten far smaller chunks out of Linklaters (4 laterals and one vertical), and Clifford Chance (3 laterals and one vertical); happily for them, it has barely scratched Akin and Ropes & Gray – which have lost just one partner apiece. Its most recent hires, both from in-house, and both former Kirkland & Ellis or Linklaters partners, come from Blantyre Capital and client TDR Capital respectively - the latter at least appearing to be a far more gentle affair, with the apex predator seeming to ask permission to court its General Counsel before snapping him up.

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