Seven Big Law firms are paving the way for new leaders in 2026 as the legal industry’s top players face a slew of competitive pressures.
The incoming leaders will manage balance sheets and growth ambitions in an era of consolidation that has pushed many firms to consider mergers and opened the door to private equity investment. They also will have to navigate a tense political environment that saw President Donald Trump target some firms this year.
Some new leaders will have the additional challenge of replacing predecessors who have steered their firms for a decade or more. Several will have company at the top, as their firms tap multiple lawyers to fill the top roles.
Baker McKenzie
London-based Sunny Mann became Baker McKenzie’s new chair in October, succeeding Hong Kong-based Milton Cheng, who had led the firm since 2019.
Mann served as the global chair of the firm’s international trade practice group and led the geopolitical risks task force that directed Baker McKenzie’s response after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The massive firm employs more than 4,500 lawyers, and brought in nearly $3.4 billion in gross revenue last year, according to the American Lawyer.
Baker McKenzie continues to fight litigation challenging its Swiss verien model, and is pursuing defamation claims against a former associate who accuses its Washington office leader of sexual assault.
Cleary Gottlieb
Manhattan capital markets lawyer Jeff Karpf will take over the top role at Cleary Gottlieb on Jan. 1.
Karpf replaces Michael Gerstenzang, who led the firm for nearly a decade. He plans to continue Gerstenzang’s quest to get Cleary back among the top 20 US law firms by gross revenue. The firm saw its position slip, even amid revenue gains, in a stretch of massive growth for the legal industry’s leading players.
Karpf wants to grow Cleary’s New York presence, focusing on hotly competitive practices like mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and private funds. Gerstenzang, who will stay on in a new senior partner position, plans to focus on boosting the firm’s private capital business and steering its technology investment.
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Jami McKeon is stepping down as the head of Morgan Lewis when her current term expires in September, ending more than a decade at the helm.
An advisory board will consider possible candidates beginning in January, with Morgan Lewis partners set to elect McKeon’s successor next spring. McKeon said she turned down a chance to extend her term and instead plans to retire and leave the firm by the end of next year.
The new chair will inherit a $3 billion law firm with more than 2,000 lawyers across 33 offices worldwide. The firm’s “strong chair” model gives its leader significant power to steer the ship.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Silicon Valley litigator Caz Hashemi and New York capital markets lawyer Megan Baier will take over as co-managing partners of Wilson Sonsini in August. The pair will succeed Douglas Clark, who has led the firm since 2012.
Hashemi heads Wilson Sonsini’s litigation department and is a member of its board of directors. Baier has worked on several high-profile capital markets transactions for clients such as KnowBe4, Aurora Innovation, Babylon Health, Livongo Health, and GoDaddy.
Clark will remain in a senior advisory role through the end of next fiscal year. The firm said that during his leadership tenure annual revenue grew to $1.4 billion from $549 million.
Munger Tolles & Olson
Hailyn Chen and Malcolm Heinicke last month stepped down from their roles co-heads of Munger Tolles & Olson after six years in the positions. The litigation-focused firm’s partners tapped former prosecutors E. Martin Estrada and Daniel Levin as co-managing partners.
Estrada is a longtime Munger partner who was US attorney for the Central District of California during the Biden administration and returned to the firm in February. As the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, he successfully pursued cases against celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi, a doctor and others implicated in the death of actor Matthew Perry, and the interpreter for pro baseball player Shohei Ohtani.
Levin has spent 14 years at the firm since joining from the US attorney’s office. He focuses on high-stakes disputes and complex litigation.
Los Angeles-founded Munger Tolles has stepped into the center of several high-profile court challenges to the Trump administration since the president returned to office. Munger partner Donald Verrilli, who served as solicitor general in the Obama administration, is representing Susman Godfrey in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order targeting the firm.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
Willkie is set to swap out one of the lawyers in the firm’s two chairman roles when Thomas Cerabino steps down at the end of next year.
Jeffrey Poss will replace Cerabino, who has held the position since 2010. Matthew Feldman will continue in the other chair position.
Poss, a Willkie partner since 2000, leads the firm’s private equity practice. He is an adviser for Willkie clients such as Aquiline Capital Partners, Genstar Capital, and Warburg Pincus.
Willkie was one of nine of law firms that signed deals with Trump, pledging to provide $100 million in free legal services. The firm saw a group of partners decamp for Cooley LLP in the wake of the deal.
Weil Gotshal Manges
Weil is expected to name a successor to Executive Partner Barry Wolf, who has led the firm since 2009, within the first three months of the year. The leader-in-waiting will have a two-year transition period before fully taking the reins from Wolf when he retires at the end of 2027.
Mike Aiello, who runs Weil’s 600-lawyer corporate department, will steer the leadership committee created to select Wolf’s successor. Wolf will depart when he reaches 68, the firm’s mandatory retirement age.
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