Akin Gump Snags Cravath M&A Lawyer Brittain Rogers in New York

Akin Gump is bringing aboard private equity M&A dealmaker Brittain A. Rogers as a partner in the law firm’s corporate practice in New York.

Rogers jumps from Cravath Swaine & Moore, where he had been a senior attorney since late 2018. He previously worked as a managing director and general counsel at New Fortress Energy, a publicly traded energy infrastructure company. Rogers was lead internal counsel for more than $15 billion in completed M&A financing transactions while working as a managing director at Fortress Investment Group earlier in his career.

“Britt’s ability to lead complex M&A and financing transactions as well as his deep ties to the investment management industry are a perfect complement to our leading corporate practice,” said Kim Koopersmith, Akin Gump chairperson, in a statement. “His past credit-side work will also resonate loudly with our special situations and financial restructuring clients, and I am delighted to welcome him to Akin Gump.”

This is the second departure of a Cravath attorney for another firm in recent months. In early March, partner Johnny Skumpija left the firm to become a partner in Sidley Austin’s capital markets practice group.

Rogers was an associate at Cravath from 2003 to 2011 before becoming counsel at King & Spalding. He later joined the Fortress Investment Group and then New Fortress Energy before returning to Cravath in 2018.

“Akin Gump enjoys a strong reputation for traditional M&A work and for its leading private equity practice as well as for its deep roots across the investment funds world,” Rogers said, in a statement. “I was drawn to the firm because of the opportunities I saw to contribute to the growth of its corporate team by working with its investor client base. “

Jeffrey Kochian, co-head of Akin Gump’s firmwide corporate practice, noted that Rogers’ in-house experience would benefit the firm amid “a growing focus on infrastructure and energy investments.”