Good morning,

This week, 45 firms added 61 new partners in a lateral cycle that tilted heavily toward healthcare and real estate. Epstein Becker Green absorbed five healthcare litigation partners from Manatt across Los Angeles and Chicago, signaling a targeted raid on one of the market's deepest health law benches. Bradley Arant Boult Cummings matched that count by pulling five partners from Watkins & Eager consolidating its real estate and banking footprint in the Southeast. Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis planted its flag in Tokyo with two partner hires from Morrison Foerster and White & Case, opening a new front in the cross-border M&A and finance market. 

On the executive side, CFO appointments at Mastercard and Texas Instruments headline a week of leadership transitions at major public companies. The CTO pipeline continues to churn, with seven new technology chiefs across healthcare, retail, and SaaS. British Land named a new CEO, Carlyle installed a new general counsel with intelligence community roots, and Bank of America reshuffled its EMEA healthcare investment banking leadership with hires from Goldman Sachs and PJT.

Now, on to what matters for your practice today.

BigLaw Moves Sentiment

Healthcare litigation and regulatory work continue to generate significant lateral activity, driven by ongoing federal enforcement and compliance demands. The Epstein Becker Green raid on Manatt's health law bench is the week's clearest signal that firms are building dedicated healthcare platforms to capture advisory revenue from hospital systems, payers, and life sciences companies.

Kirkland's Tokyo launch underscores sustained cross-border M&A demand, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Real estate and infrastructure hiring at Cooley and Vinson & Elkins reflects growing capital deployment in energy transition and commercial real estate. Private equity-focused hiring at Willkie and Dechert tracks the continued build-out of fund formation and leveraged finance practices.

BigLaw Moves

A few observations from this week’s moves: Healthcare litigation, real estate, and corporate M&A were the practices with most lateral activity. This week saw 45 firms welcoming 61 new partners with Epstein Becker Green and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings welcoming the most partners this week (5 each), while Manatt and Watkins & Eager each saw the most net departures (5 each). McDermott Will & Emery lost four partners across tax, antitrust, employment, and health law. K&L Gates lost three partners to three different firms.

Firms Welcoming Multiple Joiners

-Epstein Becker Green — Added five healthcare litigation partners from Manatt: Charles Weir, Andrew Beshai, and Colin McGrath in Los Angeles; Megan Thibert-Id and Rebecca Finkel in Chicago.

-Bradley Arant Boult Cummings — Added five partners from Watkins & Eager in Jackson, Mississippi: Clark Luke (tax and trusts and estates), M. Binford Williams, Roger Williams, Molly Jeffcoat Moody, and R. Benson Ford (real estate and banking).

-Willkie Farr & Gallagher — Katy Kim joined as a private funds partner from Fried Frank. Stephen Lee (Los Angeles) and Brian Raynor (San Francisco) joined as private equity partners from Goodwin Procter.

-Cooley — Kevin Donahue and Jacob Clark joined as infrastructure, energy and real estate partners from Kirkland & Ellis.

-Dechert — Andy Sagor joined as a leveraged finance and private equity partner from Akin Gump. Josh Strathman returned as a finance partner from Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles.

-Dentons — Christine Paul joined as a commercial litigation partner from K&L Gates in Miami. Paul is joined by commercial litigator Charles Wolf. Natasha MacParland joined Dentons as national co-leader of the restructuring group in Toronto from Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg.

-Katten Muchin Rosenman — Jennifer Kafcas joined as head of a new structured products and derivatives practice, and Alvino van Schalkwyk joined as partner, both from Crowell & Moring in London.

-Kirkland & Ellis — Naoya Shiota (M&A, from Morrison Foerster) and Clara Shirota (debt finance, from White & Case) joined to launch the firm's new Tokyo office.

-Paul Weiss — Michael Darby joined as an M&A partner from Dechert. Trent Bridges joined as an M&A partner from Akin Gump in Houston.

-Watstein Terepka — Matthew Venezia and George Laiolo joined as litigation and compliance partners from Ellis George in Los Angeles.

Firms Adding Single Joiners

-Arnold & Porter: Lindsay Germano joined as a corporate and finance partner in Denver from Skillsoft, where she was deputy general counsel.

-Bracewell: Allison Perry returned as partner in Houston after serving as U.S. lead employment tax counsel for Shell.

-Burr & Forman: Alyson Harter joined as a corporate and tax partner in Atlanta from Williams Mullen.

-Cozen O'Connor: Raphael Rosenzweig joined as a corporate partner in Miami from Seyfarth Shaw.

-DLA Piper: Travis Mullaney joined as a government contracts partner from ArentFox Schiff.

-Eversheds Sutherland: Rick Martinez joined as a partner leading the trade finance practice for the Americas from Hogan Lovells.

-Fox Rothschild: Stephen Katz joined as a corporate partner in Morristown, New Jersey, from Connell Foley.

-Freshfields: Damien Zoubek was appointed U.S. managing partner. He previously worked at Cravath.

-Greenberg Traurig: Cyrus Abbassi joined as a corporate partner in Miami from Sheppard Mullin.

-Hausfeld: Daniel Walker joined as an antitrust partner from Berger Montague.

-Hinshaw & Culbertson: Robert Powell joined as a transactions partner in Miami from Hector & Davis.

-Hogan Lovells: Elai Katz joined as an antitrust partner from McDermott Will & Emery.

-Holland & Knight: Allison Borgatti joined as a white-collar defense partner in Philadelphia from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

-King & Spalding: Jarel Rosser joined as a restructuring partner from K&L Gates.

-Kleinberg Kaplan: Norris Nissim joined as partner from Luxor Capital Group, where he was general counsel.

-Latham & Watkins: Casey Berger joined as a securities and M&A litigation partner in Houston from Winston & Strawn.

-Littler Mendelson: Johnny Wang joined as partner in St. Louis from Enterprise, where he was in-house counsel.

-McCarter & English: Amy Haberman returned as an immigration partner from Foley Hoag.

-Morgan Lewis: Paul Feldberg joined as a litigation partner in London from Brown Rudnick, where he led UK white-collar defense.

-Morrison Foerster: Marjorie Soto Garcia joined as an employment partner in Los Angeles from McDermott Will & Emery.

-Norton Rose Fulbright: Ginger Faulk joined as a sanctions and investigations partner from Eversheds Sutherland.

-O'Melveny & Myers: Jeffrey Wolf returned as an M&A partner in San Francisco from Paul Hastings.

-Perkins Coie: Jamie Evans joined as a corporate partner in Seattle from Orrick.

-Proskauer Rose: Bryon Mulligan joined as a finance partner in Charlotte from Hunton Andrews Kurth.

-Pryor Cashman: Ilan Weiser joined as an employment partner from Ellenoff Grossman & Schole.

-Quarles & Brady: Karen Gibbs joined as a health and life sciences partner in Chicago from McDermott Will & Emery.

-Sheppard Mullin: Brian Sieben joined as a private client partner from Davis Polk & Wardwell.

-Snell & Wilmer: Kristen Caverly joined as a trusts and estates partner in San Diego from Henderson Caverly & Pum.

-Troutman Pepper Locke: Ben Cheatham joined as a tax and benefits partner from McDermott Will & Emery.

-Vedder Price: Melissa Gilmore joined as a life sciences partner from FDA Regulatory Counsel.

-Venable: Christopher Abbott joined as an antitrust partner from Jenner & Block.

-Vinson & Elkins: Peter Bergan joined as a real estate partner from Orrick.

-Weil Gotshal: Iliana Karaoglan returned as an M&A partner from Simpson Thacher.

-Winston Taylor: Steven Hill joined as an international trade partner from K&L Gates.

-Womble Bond Dickinson: Christopher Lightner joined as a patent prosecution and litigation partner in Atlanta from Alston & Bird.

Corporate Moves Sentiment

The CFO rotations at Mastercard and Texas Instruments, both involving long-tenured internal successors, point to boards prioritizing institutional continuity during a period of macroeconomic uncertainty. The wave of CTO appointments across healthcare and retail reflects companies investing in AI infrastructure and digital operations, which is likely to drive demand for technology transactions, data privacy counsel, and regulatory advisory work at law firms.

Carlyle's appointment of a general counsel with government and intelligence experience signals the private equity firm's focus on navigating the regulatory and geopolitical complexities of global dealmaking. Bank of America's healthcare IB leadership reshuffle positions the bank to compete for larger life sciences and healthcare M&A mandates.

Corporate Moves

Investment Banking Leadership

-Bank of America named Hakim Cherrouk (from Goldman Sachs) and James Critchley (from PJT) as co-heads of EMEA healthcare investment banking. Alban de La Sablière will join as vice-chair from Owkin.

-BMO: David Descoteaux joined as head of a U.S. M&A team for capital markets and commercial banking from UBS, where he co-led Americas M&A.

-Houlihan Lokey added Bodo Krug von Nidda as MD of capital solutions from PJT Park Hill.

Private Capital and Asset Management

-Carlyle named Kate Heinzelman as general counsel. She previously worked for the CIA, the Department of Justice, and Sidley Austin.

-Permira hired Mike Hoffmann as a partner on its technology team from Thoma Bravo.

-Canyon Partners named Thomas Hansen as partner and CFO from Oak Hill Advisors.

-Bridgepoint brought on Marcus Wallinder as partner and head of IR from EQT.

-Aberdeen Investments appointed Shelley Morrison as Head of Private Credit and Fund Finance.

Corporates

-Texas Instruments appointed Julie Knecht as CFO, effective August 1. Knecht has been with the company since 1999 and currently serves as Chief Accounting Officer. She succeeds Rafael Lizardi, who is retiring after 25 years. 

-British Land named Joanne McNamara as chief executive. She joins from Oxford Properties, a division of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

-CMS Energy appointed Sri Maddipati as CFO. Maddipati has been with the company for over a decade. He succeeds Rejji Hayes, who is retiring.

-Yum Brands announced that Tracy Skeans, COO and Chief People and Culture Officer, is retiring after more than 25 years. She will stay in an advisory capacity through early 2028.

-EG Group named Michael Verdesca as global CIO from Murphy USA.

-Stellar Health appointed Falko Buttler as CTO from Lantern.

-Rokt promoted Sam Dozor to CTO.

-Simpro Group appointed Salman Bhatti as CTO from Vertex.

-Stinker Stores promoted Cory Mooney to CTO.

-LifeMD named Umesh Sripad as CTO from PetMeds.

-Reborn Coffee appointed Thomas Tran as COO and CTO from ZAP Technologies.

-Teradata combined its CIO responsibilities under Josh Fecteau, its chief data and AI officer.

Heard on the Street

Above the Law reported that roughly a third of lateral partner hires leave their new firms within five years, citing research from Decipher Investigative Intelligence and a new report from Passle. The report, which surveyed managing partners at the top 200 U.S. firms and top 100 UK firms, found that 58 percent list rate increases as their primary revenue strategy, but 54 percent also list rate hikes as the main reason they lose clients. The firms most satisfied with their lateral investments cited internal networking as the top indicator of successful integration, not revenue brought in. (Above the Law, May 6, 2026)

NALP reported that the U.S. law firm lateral market expanded for the second consecutive year in 2025, with overall hiring up 16 percent. Partner lateral moves reached a five-year high at 3,009, a 10 percent increase from the prior year. Growth was nearly evenly split between partner and associate laterals, suggesting firms are using strategic partner hires to expand market share and add practice area expertise, not just add capacity. (NALP, May 2026)

Altrata data showed executive turnover on leadership teams continued to accelerate into Q1 2026. Among S&P 500 companies, the share of new leadership appointments rose from 14 percent in 2023 to 22.7 percent in 2025, totaling more than 1,400 new roles. From Unilever to Coca-Cola, enterprises are reshuffling their technology leadership with modernization and AI adoption in mind. CIOs are expected to retain their elevated status within boards of directors as technology chiefs become essential for enterprise strategy. (Altrata; CIO Dive, Q1 2026).

That’s the rundown. See you next where law meets the markets.

-The BigLaw Markets Team

*DISCLAIMER: BigLaw Markets analyzes publicly available information, filings, press releases, and news stories published by reputable media sources to deliver newsletters that highlight the drivers of demand for legal services.