Paul Weiss Adds M&A Private Equity Partner from Kirkland

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is bringing on Kirkland & Ellis’ Megan Ward Spelman as a partner in New York as the Wall Street firm continues to expand its corporate practice.

Spelman’s practice primarily focuses on middle-market private equity clients and their portfolio companies.

She recently advised American Securities on several transactions, including its acquisition of United PF Holdings and Prince International, and middle-market private equity firm The Jordan Company on several transactions, including its acquisition of Potters Industries.

“It’s a really exciting time to be at Paul Weiss, which has really become a destination for top talent and market-leading clients, particularly in the corporate space,” said Spelman, who joined Kirkland in 2017 from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

So far in 2022, Paul Weiss has advised on 37 deals worth $37.1 billion, including Apollo Global Management’s $6.1 billion acquisition of Tenneco Inc.

In 2021, the firm advised on 253 deals worth $314.9 billion, including Discovery Inc.’s acquisition of Magallanes Inc. from AT&T Inc. worth $43 billion, General Electric Co.’s $29.3 billion sale of GE Aviation Services Inc. to AerCap Holdings, and Nuance Communications Inc. in its sale to Microsoft Corp. for $19.7 billion.

“Over the last year we have continued to bolster our leading transactional practice to meet the growing needs of our clients,” Scott Barshay, chair of Paul Weiss’ corporate department, said in a statement.

“New leaders like Megan, with her wide-ranging expertise in the middle market private equity world, will continue to add great value to our firm and our corporate department,” he said.

Spelman’s addition comes at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dealmakers coping with uncertainty that threatens to put the brakes on global M&A activity which last year reached $5 trillion. Private equity is a different story.

“One of the interesting things about private equity is, even if there might be some global uncertainty, there’s still a lot of opportunities that sophisticated private equity clients are able to tap into and focus on, so there’s usually a decent amount of demand,” Spelman said, whether that involves shifts to portfolio management, restructurings, or other smaller transactions.

But there is still a lot of activity in private equity markets, Spelman said, whether that’s with new platform acquisitions, exploring potential sales, or managing the portfolio companies, particularly for clients that had a very acquisitive last few years.

Spelman is the latest addition to Paul Weiss’ corporate practice. Last year, the firm added Akin Gump partners Gerald Brant and Jeffrey Lazar Kochian, who co-led Akin’s corporate practice, as well as Sullivan & Cromwell’s Krishna Veeraraghavan in New York. The firm also added Austin Pollet from Kirkland in its new San Francisco office.