This year was a tale of two halves in Big Law’s lateral hiring market. Competition for top talent raged to start the year, before cooling off as many firms went into preservation mode.
The top 50 law firms hired more than 1,100 partners through mid-December, virtually the same as they brought in a year ago, according to data from Firm Prospects. But more than 60% of the additions came in the first six months of this year.
The list of lateral moves that defined Big Law are, not surprisingly, heavily weighted toward the first half of 2022. It shows that firms competed for top talent across the country—from New York to Houston to San Francisco—largely before demand slipped and major service lines like capital markets and M&A slowed.
January: Baker McKenzie Hires Cyrus Vance Jr.
Baker McKenzie turned heads in New York by hiring Vance, the former Manhattan District Attorney.
Vance, who led the prosecutor’s office for 12 years, bowed out of public service to lead Baker McKenzie’s 150-lawyer global cybersecurity practice. He later said he was working to build collaboration between government and private companies to ward off a “cyber pandemic.”
February: Davis Polk Hires Paul Scrivano
The former global head of Ropes & Gray’s M&A practice, Scrivano jumped to Davis Polk as the new head of its West Coast M&A group.
He’s advised on hundreds of public company M&A transactions over a nearly three-decade career, including Altimeter Growth Corp.’s $40 billion combination with Grab Holdings Inc. Since joining Davis Polk, Scrivano has worked on HP’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Poly and Natus Medical’s $1.2 billion acquisition of ArchiMed Group.
March: Debevoise Hires Jay Neukom
Debevoise made its first lateral hire in San Francisco since opening an office in the city a year earlier by adding Neukom, a former intellectual property litigation co-head at Skadden. The Wall Street firm also added Kristin Snyder from the Securities and Exchange Commission to its Northern California outpost.
The moves helped answer questions about whether Debevoise’s strict lockstep pay model would prevent it from attracting top talent in one of the world’s priciest legal markets.
April: DLA Piper Hires 25 Lawyers from Honigman
DLA Piper made a huge splash in the mid-market private equity space, hiring a team of more than two dozen lawyers from Honigman in Chicago.
The move highlights pressures smaller firms faced from larger, global competitors after two years of blowout financial performances. Honigman, in a statement, said departures are “the nature of the beast” in a highly competitive legal industry.
April and May: Willkie’s Houston Founders Find New Homes
Bruce Herzog, Michael Piazza, and Angela Olivarez departed Willkie for different landing spots over the span of 60 days. Latham & Watkins added Herzog; Gibson Dunn hired Piazza; and O’Melveny & Myers poached Olivarez.
The exits marked a significant blow for Willkie’s ambitions in an increasingly competitive Texas market. The firm remained committed to the city, eventually adding two partners from Baker Botts to revamp its presence in the energy M&A space.
May: Sidley Austin Hires Irwin Raij, Charles Baker
Sidley picked up two prominent sports lawyers, Raij and Baker from O’Melveny, marking a significant coup for an increasingly aggressive firm.
The duo represented hedge fund billionaire David Tepper in his $2.2 billion acquisition of the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers in 2018. They also played major roles in the acquisitions of baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and basketball’s Milwaukee Bucks.
May: Freshfields Hires Jenny Hochenberg
Freshfields reeled in its second partner from Cravath Swaine & Moore in less than a year, bringing aboard deals lawyer Hochenberg in New York.
She reunited with dealmaker Damien Zoubek, who moved from Cravath to Freshfields in 2021. The pair worked together on multi-billion-dollar deals at Cravath and will look to do the same at Freshfields as the firm continues to bolster its US M&A brand.
May: Cleary Gottlieb Hires Maureen Linch, Marcela Robledo
Cleary expanded its new Bay Area presence by hiring tax partner Linch from Morrison & Foerster and intellectual property partner Robledo from Baker McKenzie.
Tech practices were booming at the time, and almost every Big Law firm was scrambling to build a bigger presence in Silicon Valley. By the end of the year, some major firms were laying off lawyers amid a downturn for tech companies.
June: Davis Polk Adds Nicole Brookshire
Davis Polk notched a big win by adding Brookshire, the former co-chair of Cooley’s public companies practice group.
Brookshire has advised on several high-profile IPOs and direct listings, like those of ACV Auctions, Allbirds, Etsy, The Honest Company, Datadog and Rent the Runway. The move was another example of Davis Polk’s willingness to spend on lateral hires after relaxing its strict lockstep pay model in 2020.
June: Cravath Launches in D.C.
In another example of conservative Manhattan law firms competing in new ways, Cravath announced it was opening an office in the nation’s capital.
The Washington office is anchored by ex-Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Jelena McWilliams, as well as former SEC Commissioner and Acting Chair Elad Roisman and Jennifer Leete, an ex-associate director in the SEC’s enforcement division.
June: WilmerHale Lands Preet Bharara
WilmerHale added former Manhattan US Attorney Bharara as a partner in New York, bringing on board a highly visible name with deep experience policing Wall Street.
Bharara was linked as a possible leader for the Justice Department or the SEC after President Joe Biden’s election. He’s kept busy as a podcast host and co-founder of a podcast company, Cafe Studios.
July: Sidley Nabs Stephen Hessler
By hiring Hessler from Kirkland’s vaunted restructuring group, Sidley looks to have found a permanent leader for a bankruptcy practice that had seen a musical chairs of leaders in recent years.
Hessler has experience leading large debtor-side representations, which are the most lucrative target in the restructuring practice. He led Kirkland’s work for Frontier Communications, whose 2020 bankruptcy generated more than $30 million in fees for the firm.
Sidley said it was on the hunt for more restructuring pros.
September: Gibson Dunn Hires Gregg Costa
Costa joined Gibson Dunn about a month after leaving his seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He gave up the lifetime position after expressing concerns over increasing politicization of the courts.
Costa is now co-chair of the litigation powerhouse’s global trial practice.
October: Paul Weiss Adds John Carlin
A former top Justice Department national security official, Carlin took the reins as co-head of Paul Weiss’ cybersecurity and data protection group. The ex-Morrison & Foerster partner wrote a book in 2018 on America’s cyber battle with Russia and China.
November: Gibson Dunn Hires James Hays
Gibson Dunn again bolstered its Houston office with the addition of ex-Simpson Thacher investment funds partner James Hays. The hire boosted Gibson Dunn’s push into private equity transactions.
Hays, the former vice president of Blackstone’s real estate group, had worked in Simpson Thacher’s Houston office for more than five years. He has represented sponsors in the energy, infrastructure, buyout, real estate, debt, and secondaries space.
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