Good morning,
The BigLaw lateral market remains in high gear. Law360 Pulse reports that large U.S. firms hired steadily through Q3 2026, with associate and counsel hiring rising modestly even as partner-level movement ticked down. The pattern this week underscores a theme that has defined the year: firms are building around specific practice bets, not just adding headcount.
Mayer Brown pulled four partners from Sheppard Mullin in a single week across FDA, white collar defense, and investigations, a targeted raid on a direct competitor’s regulatory bench. Skadden, meanwhile, lifted an entire four-partner mass torts team from DLA Piper, while Ogletree Deakins absorbed six Fisher Phillips attorneys in Denver to deepen its labor and employment footprint.
On the C-suite side, succession planning is dominating Fortune 500 boardrooms. General Dynamics, Stryker, Chevron, and Boston Scientific all announced CEO or CFO transitions set for January 2027, a coordinated wave that suggests boards are locking in leadership ahead of an uncertain macro environment.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
BigLaw Moves Sentiment
The BigLaw lateral market remains in high gear. Law360 Pulse reports that large U.S. firms hired steadily through Q3 2026, with associate and counsel hiring rising modestly even as partner-level movement ticked down. The pattern this week underscores a theme that has defined the year: firms are building around specific practice bets, not just adding headcount.
Mayer Brown pulled four partners from Sheppard Mullin in a single week across FDA, white collar defense, and investigations, a targeted raid on a direct competitor’s regulatory bench. Skadden, meanwhile, lifted an entire four-partner mass torts team from DLA Piper, while Ogletree Deakins absorbed six Fisher Phillips attorneys in Denver to deepen its labor and employment footprint.
BigLaw Moves
Antitrust and Competition
George "Chip" Nierlich landed at Debevoise & Plimpton as a partner in the firm's antitrust group after serving at the DOJ Antitrust Division.
Bankruptcy and Restructuring
Linton Bloomberg moved to Haynes Boone as a restructuring partner in London, departing Reed Smith.
Capital Markets
Danielle Abada joined Mayer Brown as a derivatives, structured products, and fintech partner in New York. She previously served at the CFTC.
Shu Du departed Skadden for Weil as a capital markets partner in Hong Kong.
Christopher Thalhammer joined Hogan Lovells Cadwalader as a fund finance partner in New York from Macquarie.
Corporate M&A
Johnathan Foster left Reed Smith for Neal Gerber Eisenberg as a corporate and securities partner in Chicago.
Energy
Jarrett Doe moved from White & Case to Milbank as an energy partner in Chicago.
Emily Jolly joined Troutman Pepper Locke as an energy regulatory partner in Austin from the Lower Colorado River Authority.
Raphael Kuyler left Westinghouse Electric Company for Willkie as a nuclear energy partner in D.C.
Environment and Natural Resources
Julie Cress departed Baker Botts for Hogan Lovells Cadwalader as an environment and natural resources partner in San Francisco.
Health Care and Life Sciences
Andreas Ringstad joined Troutman Pepper Locke in Philadelphia from Campbell Conroy & O'Neil.
Schevon Salmon moved to Dentons as a healthcare partner in D.C. from K&L Gates.
Debra Schreck left Arnold & Porter for Troutman Pepper Locke as a health care and life sciences partner in New York.
Insurance
Robert Nobel joined Tyson & Mendes as an insurance partner in New York from London Fischer.
Intellectual Property
Robert Shaffer joined DLA Piper as head of its life sciences patent litigation practice in D.C., departing O'Melveny.
Brianna van Kan moved from Paul Weiss to Debevoise as an IP and technology transactions partner in New York.
International Trade
Ted Posner left Baker Botts for Wilson Sonsini as a national security and trade partner in D.C.
Jess Sanchez joined Sidley as a trade partner in D.C. from the Treasury Department. Sean Trainor departed O'Melveny for DLA Piper as co-head of the ITC practice in D.C.
Labor and Employment
Tami Essis Culkar, Micah Dawson, Janet Himmel, Kimberley Dempster, and Sarah Bennett all joined Ogletree Deakins as labor and employment partners in Denver from Fisher Phillips.
Lindsay Reimer also moved from Fisher Phillips to Ogletree Deakins in Houston.
Litigation
Barrie Beer and Allison Vann joined Tyson & Mendes in Austin from Chartwell Law.
Helen Gilbert, a former federal prosecutor, landed at Jenner & Block in San Francisco.
Mark Grundvig joined Spencer Fane as a litigation partner in Phoenix and D.C. from Foley & Lardner.
David Leimbach moved from the California Department of Justice to Jackson Lewis in San Francisco.
Tom Moring left Jaburg Wilk for Spencer Fane in Phoenix. Danielle Pascale departed Tyson & Mendes for Thompson Coburn as a trial partner in New York.
Ani Tolmoyan joined Clyde & Co as an automotive partner in Los Angeles from Lewis Brisbois.
Kruti Trivedi moved from JPMorganChase to Willkie as a litigation partner in Chicago.
Private Equity
Brandon Cuffy left Miles & Stockbridge for Foley Hoag as a private equity M&A partner in D.C.
Christopher Sheaffer was promoted to global chair of Reed Smith's private equity group.
Justin Solomon departed Kirkland for Sidley as a private equity funds partner in Los Angeles.
Product Liability
Lyn Pruitt, Adria Conklin, Mary Catherine Way, and David Koehler joined Skadden as mass torts and product liability partners in Chicago from DLA Piper.
Public Finance
Marissa Perlmutter moved from Ballard Spahr to Barnes & Thornburg as a public finance and infrastructure partner in D.C.
Real Estate
Justin Salkeld joined K&L Gates as a real estate partner in London from Baker McKenzie.
Regulatory (FDA)
Dominick DiSabatino and Scott Liebman both left Sheppard Mullin for Mayer Brown as FDA partners in D.C. and New York, respectively.
Tax
Daniel Badovinac moved from Berger Singerman to Nelson Mullins as an international tax and estate planning partner in Miami.
John Heber left Manatt for Jeffer Mangels & Mitchell as a tax partner in San Francisco.
Ricardo Perera joined Baker McKenzie as a tax controversy partner in Mexico City from KPMG.
Trusts and Estates
Devin Hallett Snyder departed Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky for Clark Hill as a trusts and estates partner in Pittsburgh.
White Collar Crime and Government Investigations
Andrew Baum joined Sher Tremonte as a white collar and congressional investigations partner in New York from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer.
Joseph Jay left Sheppard Mullin for Mayer Brown as co-chair of its global investigations and white collar defense practice in D.C. and New York.
Sarmad Khojasteh moved from the DOJ to Boies Schiller as an investigations, white collar defense, and litigation partner in New York and D.C.
Corporate Moves Sentiment
On the C-suite side, succession planning is dominating Fortune 500 boardrooms. General Dynamics, Stryker, Chevron, and Boston Scientific all announced CEO or CFO transitions set for January 2027, a coordinated wave that suggests boards are locking in leadership ahead of an uncertain macro environment.
Corporate Moves
Asset Managers
AE Industrial Partners promoted Chris Aguemon and Bill Strobel to Principal at the Boca Raton-based private equity firm.
Ancient Capital added Sonya Li as managing director from Blue Owl Capital and Imran Ahmed as chief investment officer from Silver Rock Capital Partners.
Cambium Capital hired Daniel Franke as a general partner from M Ventures.
Canyon Partners hired Chris Hansen as Partner and Chief Information Officer at the Dallas-based alternative asset manager.
Castlelake promoted Luke Jackson and Betsy Sylvester to partners.
Hamilton Lane executive co-chair Mario Giannini is retiring at the end of March 2027. He stepped back as CEO in 2023, succeeded by co-CEOs Erik Hirsch and Juan Delgado-Moreira.
I Squared Capital hired Go Suzuki as a principal at its new Tokyo office from BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners.
Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Bucky Moore is stepping down to launch his own VC firm. He joined Lightspeed early last year from Kleiner Perkins.
Pear VC promoted Arash Afrakhteh, Ajay Kamat, and Shravan Reddy to general partner at the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm.
Princeton Equity Group promoted Jack Nagle and Joseph Trahan to Partner at the Princeton, N.J., and Dallas-based private equity firm.
Searchlight Capital Partners hired Sebastian Inger as a London-based partner from Investcorp.
Sierra Ventures hired Nkechi Iregbulem as head of inception from MVP Ventures.
Stage 2 Capital promoted Erin Olsen to VP of marketing and Kevin Swain to principal.
Corporates
#Paid appointed Dave Hampton as CTO. He previously served as head of engineering at Captiv8 and director of engineering at SpotOn and Conversant.
AutoNation named Ravi Simhambhatla Chief Technology and AI Officer. He most recently served as EVP and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Avis Budget Group, and earlier held leadership roles at Google, Tesla, and United Airlines Holdings.
Boston Scientific appointed Joseph M. Fitzgerald EVP and COO, effective January 1, 2027. He currently serves as EVP and Group President, Cardiovascular. The company has not had a COO in over a decade.
Chevron named Jeff B. Gustavson CFO, effective January 1, 2027. A 27-year company veteran, he currently serves as President of New Energies. He will succeed Eimear Bonner, who becomes President, Oil, Products and Gas.
General Dynamics named Danny Deep CEO, effective January 1, 2027. A 25-year company veteran who currently serves as President, he will succeed Phebe Novakovic, CEO since 2013, who transitions to Executive Chairman.
GV partner Krishna Yeshwant is retiring as co-head of life sciences and will continue as managing partner emeritus.
Lithia Motors promoted Katie Macaddino to Chief People Officer. She previously served as SVP, People and Culture, and spent 15 years at Intel.
National Business Capital hired Eric Coonrod as managing director of institutional partnerships. He previously sold his investment banking firm to Expa portfolio company Iconic Business Services.
Red Lobster promoted Jon Tryzbiak to CIO. He joined in June as VP of IT and previously held leadership roles at Brinker International and Checkers & Rally's.
Smartly appointed Kelly Uphoff as CTO. She most recently served as CTO at fintech firm Tala and spent a decade at Netflix as VP of data science and engineering.
Southland Industries promoted Josh Getz to CIO. He joined the company in 2007 as a computer-aided design operator.
Spinnaker Support promoted Mark Fetches to global CTO. He previously served as CTO of EMEA and has held consulting and leadership roles at Accenture, Deloitte, and PwC.
Stryker named Spencer S. Stiles CEO, effective January 1, 2027. A 27-year company veteran who serves as President and COO, he will succeed Kevin A. Lobo, CEO since 2012, who transitions to Executive Chair.
The Hartford expanded CIO Shekar Pannala's role to include data and AI. He joined The Hartford in March 2023 and previously served as CIO at Chubb and CTO at S&P Global.
Heard on the Street
Mayer Brown's four-partner extraction from Sheppard Mullin — spanning FDA regulation, white collar defense, and global investigations — is the week's most aggressive platform play. The firm picked up DiSabatino, Liebman, Jay, and Abada (the CFTC veteran joining the fintech side), signaling a deliberate push into regulatory enforcement work as federal agencies recalibrate their priorities heading into 2027.
Ogletree Deakins' absorption of six Fisher Phillips attorneys in Denver and Houston is the largest single-office labor and employment raid in recent weeks, and it reflects an active market for workplace litigation talent as employers face a patchwork of state-level regulatory changes.
Skadden's lift of four DLA Piper mass torts partners in Chicago builds on what Law360 Pulse identified as steady Q3 lateral hiring, with associate and counsel numbers rising even as partner-level movement moderated. Litigation remains the largest category of lateral partner movement in 2026, according to Lateral Link, with demand spanning commercial disputes, securities, and white collar matters.
On the C-suite side, a striking cluster of Fortune 500 succession announcements: General Dynamics (Deep succeeding Novakovic after 13 years), Stryker (Stiles succeeding Lobo after 14 years), Chevron (Gustavson stepping into CFO), and Boston Scientific (restoring a COO role dormant for a decade), all set for January 1, 2027. LHH's 2026 C-Suite Research finds that high-turnover leadership teams dropped from 43% to 19% year-over-year, suggesting boards are favoring internal succession and tenure stability over external disruption.
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 content that highlights demand for legal services. Certain production processes may be supported by proprietary AI tools and are subject to human editorial judgement and review.
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