Leading Davis Polk Employee Benefits Lawyer Joins Paul Weiss (1)

Davis Polk & Wardwell partner Jean McLoughlin has jumped over to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner in its New York executive compensation and employee benefits practice.

McLoughlin first joined Davis Polk in 1994 and over the years has built a practice that focuses on compensation and benefits aspects of public company M&A and private equity transactions, as well as corporate governance matters.

Over the years McLoughlin has handled the benefits and compensation issues connected to high profile global deals.

She led Davis Polk’s executive compensation team in its work on Cigna Corp.’s $3.8 billion acquisition in 2011 of Healthspring, Inc.as well as ConAgra Foods’ $6.8 billion acquisition of Ralcorp Holdings in 2012 and its $2.7 billion sale of Ralcorp’s private brands business to Treehouse Foods three years later.

She also represented Roche in numerous multibillion-dollar acquisitions, including its $46.8 billion Genentech buy in 2009.

Most recently she led the employee benefits team in Lockheed Martin’s $9 billion acquisition of Sikorsky from United Technologies Corp. and helped represent Italy’s Ferrero Group in its acquisition of Nestlé’s U.S. confectionery unit for $2.8 billion in 2018.

At Paul Weiss, McLoughlin said she expects that she will be more heavily involved in M&A transactions which will become a more robust part of her practice.

“Our increasing volume of public company M&A and private equity transactions demands sophisticated compensation and benefits advice that Jean is uniquely positioned to provide to our clients,” said Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp in a statement.

So far in 2019, Paul Weiss has advised on 62 deals accounting for more than $63 billion, according to Bloomberg data. The firm represented IBM Corp. in its recently completed $34 billion all-cash acquisition of Red Hat, Inc, reportedly the largest ever purchase of a business software company.

“Jean is a talented lawyer who provides thoughtful, trusted advice on the executive compensation aspects of complex public M&A deals,” said global head of the firm’s M&A practice Scott Barshay in a statement. Barshay, who helped lead work on the Red Hat deal, joined Paul Weiss in 2016 from Cravath, Swaine & Moore. “With her commitment to client service and her reputation for excellence, she will be a fantastic addition to our firm.”

McLoughlin’s addition to Paul Weiss comes nearly a week after the firm announced the addition of private equity specialist Sarah Stasny from Kirkland & Ellis, who joined the firm’s corporate department in New York.

Paul Weiss also added former U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch as a partner in its litigation department in the Big Apple and Washington and picked up former special counsel prosecutor Jeannie Rhee as a partner in its white-collar litigation practice in the nation’s capital.