Good morning on this meaningful memorial day,
This week's lateral traffic tells a clear story: restructuring and private equity remain the gravitational centers of BigLaw hiring. Simpson Thacher pulled restructuring talent from Kirkland & Ellis, Akin raided Sidley Austin for four private equity partners across New York and London, and Latham & Watkins added white collar firepower in Chicago. Meanwhile, Morgan Lewis made a statement in European M&A by hiring its new London head from Covington. The theme is convergence: firms are building practices that sit at the intersection of capital deployment, distress, and regulatory risk.
On the executive side, JPMorgan restructured its entire investment banking leadership, naming three global co-heads and a new M&A chief. Citigroup continued its UK build-out, and Golub Capital formalized a leadership succession that signals its next phase of growth. In the Fortune 500, General Mills and Post Holdings both made COO-to-CEO pipeline appointments, while a wave of CTO hires across fintech and services companies reflects the current premium on technology leadership.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
BigLaw Moves Sentiment
The continued Wachtell-to-Latham pipeline signals a structural shift in how early-tenured partners at traditional firms evaluate their long-term platform options.
Restructuring and distressed debt advisory remain among the most contested talent markets in BigLaw, with firms racing to capture mandates tied to credit stress and out-of-court workouts.
International trade and sanctions hiring reflects sustained demand driven by geopolitical complexity and expanding enforcement regimes.
Tax, real estate, and data privacy practices are all seeing targeted investment, suggesting firms are positioning for deal-adjacent advisory revenue across multiple fronts.
BigLaw Moves
A few quick patterns worth noting: This week saw 32 firms welcoming 49 new partners. Holland & Knight welcomed the most partners this week (6) while Winston & Strawn saw the most net departures (7).
Firms Welcoming Multiple Joiners
Holland & Knight
Shiva Goel — chair, TMT, from Wiley Rein
Sarah Burke — exec comp, from Debevoise & Plimpton
Kyle Wingfield — tax, Richmond
Sam Megally, Will LeDoux, Cindy Ohlenforst — SALT team, Dallas, from K&L Gates
Kirkland & Ellis
Robbert Snelders, Thomas Graf, Conor Opdebeeck-Wilson (Brussels), Henry Mostyn (London) — antitrust team, from Cleary Gottlieb
Steptoe
Cari Stinebower, Christopher Man, Mariana Pendás Fernández, Dainia Jabaji — international trade/sanctions team, D.C., from Winston & Strawn
Blank Rome
Justin Leonelli — business litigation/energy, Pittsburgh, from K&L Gates
Patrick Harder (Norton Rose Fulbright), Brandon Davis (Nossaman) — real estate, Los Angeles
Buchalter
Leslie Goff Sanders, Daniel Crowell, Kendra Samson — labor and employment, Nashville, from Barton
Latham & Watkins
Erica Aho — exec comp/employment/benefits, from Wachtell Lipton (5th Wachtell partner since Feb 2025)
Carson Young — complex commercial litigation, Houston, from Kirkland & Ellis
Kieran Kieckhefer — IP trial, Bay Area, from Gibson Dunn
Orrick
Alain Decombe, Vianney Toulouse — life sciences M&A, Paris, from Dechert
Clayton Holland — public finance, Houston, from Hunton Andrews Kurth
Gibson Dunn
Chris Slack — PE real estate, London, from Jones Day
Matthew Roose — restructuring, from Ropes & Gray
Goodwin
Larissa Cespedes-Yaffar — private equity, Boston
Cheryl O'Connor — complex litigation, Orange County
Loeb & Loeb
Agnieszka Kawecki, Soffia Kuehner Gray — private client, Chicago, from McDermott
Pillsbury
Douglas Curran, Jonathan Kortmansky — financial disputes/digital asset litigation, New York, from Anderson Kill
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
Gregory Gartland, April Doxey — finance, Chicago, from Winston & Strawn
Firms Adding Single Joiners
Adler & Stachenfeld — Luisa Gutierrez, co-chair condominium/cooperative practice
Alston & Bird — Derek Steingarten, investment funds, from Morrison Foerster
Baker Donelson — G. Gray Wilson, trial, Winston-Salem, from Nelson Mullins
Bracewell — Stuart Glick, real estate special situations, New York, from Holland & Knight
Cleary Gottlieb — Greg Larkin, regulatory/funds, from Goodwin Procter
Cooley — Meredith Halama, data privacy, D.C., from Perkins Coie
Dechert — Elaine Kao, corporate/securities, Dallas, from McDermott Will & Emery
DLA Piper — Amanda Gill, corporate, New York, from Goodwin
Epstein Becker Green — Kim Harvey Looney, healthcare, Nashville
Faegre Drinker — Matthew McCullough, IP, from Winston & Strawn
Fox Rothschild — Anthony Scali, litigation, New York
Greenberg Traurig — Shawn LaTourette, former NJ DEP commissioner, New Jersey
Haynes Boone — Will Davis, capital markets, Houston, from Dentons
Nixon Peabody — Dusko Stojkov, renewable energy tax
Paul Hastings — Roberto Gonzalez, chair of sanctions and AML, from Paul Weiss
Perkins Coie — Caitlin Heard, international IP disputes, from CMS
Proskauer — Josh Sturm, restructuring, New York, from Davis Polk
Seyfarth Shaw — Mhare Mouradian, commercial litigation, Los Angeles, from Husch Blackwell
Simpson Thacher — Marten Olsson, banking/credit, from Kirkland
Skadden — Tim Elliott, derivatives, Chicago, from National Futures Association (former GC)
Corporate Moves Sentiment
Alternative asset managers are recalibrating leadership across geographies and asset classes. KKR's Japan build-out and Carlyle's European credit leadership change point to firms positioning for institutional fundraising cycles in Asia and structured credit in Europe.
Fortune 500 CEO and COO succession planning is accelerating in consumer and healthcare sectors, creating advisory mandates for governance, compensation, and M&A counsel.
The wave of investment banking talent movement between bulge-bracket and independent advisory firms suggests a reallocation of coverage relationships that BigLaw client teams should track closely.
Corporate Moves
Private Equity and Funds
Carlyle Group hired James Dunn from Onex as head of European liquid credit, effective June 15. He will lead the European CLO team and business, working with portfolio manager Andrew Strong and head of research Martin Glavin. Stuart MacKenzie, who held the role for 22 years, will step down.
KKR hired Masahiro Shuto from Morgan Stanley Investment Management as a managing director and head of Japan capital markets. Shuto will lead institutional fundraising and help expand KKR's Japan insurance business.
Golub Capital named David Golub co-CEO alongside Lawrence Golub, and appointed Spyro Alexopoulos, Laurence Stein (from Goldman Sachs), and Gerry Keefe (from HSBC) as co-presidents.
Taylor Benson joined StepStone Group as head of U.S. defined contribution from BlackRock. Peter Levine returned to a16z as a full-time general partner focused on AI and infrastructure investing. Ryan McCarthy, former U.S. Secretary of the Army, joined Capitol Meridian Partners as an operating partner.
H.I.G. Capital added Brian Dutzar (from Monroe Capital) as a managing director in private wealth management in Denver, along with principals Adam Whitman (from Sculptor Capital) and Steven Stack (from Neuberger Berman).
Corporates
Rio Tinto appointed Trudi Charles as chief legal officer, effective August 1. Charles joins from BP, where she served as deputy general counsel, replacing Isabelle Deschamps, who held the role for nearly five years.
General Mills appointed Dana McNabb as COO, effective June 1. McNabb has been with the company for more than 25 years. The company has not had a COO since Jeff Harmening was promoted to CEO in 2017.
Post Holdings appointed Nicolas Catoggio as President and CEO, effective October 1. Catoggio, currently EVP and COO, will succeed Robert Vitale, who transitions to Executive Chairman.
Becton Dickinson appointed Vitor Roque as CFO. Roque, a 25-year company veteran, served as interim CFO since December 2025, when Christopher DelOrefice departed to become CFO of Ulta Beauty.
Nexstar reappointed Elizabeth Ryder as general counsel, returning to a role she held until 2022. She replaces Rachel Morgan. Separately, Callie Coker, legal adviser to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, left to become VP and general counsel at NCTA.
Anthropic hired AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI and the former director of AI at Tesla. Matt Wood is returning to Amazon Web Services as chief AI and technology officer.
Gavin Christensen, founder of Kickstart, was named chair of the National Venture Capital Association. Christian Horner, former head of Red Bull Formula One, is advising Oakley Capital on sports investments.
Investment Banking
Rothschild & Co hired Matt Hall as head of UK investor advisory from UBS, and Lucy Baldwin as global head of equities from Citi.
Citigroup hired Chuka Umunna as a managing director in UK investment banking from JPMorgan Chase. Moelis hired Matt Knott as a managing director in chemicals for EMEA from Lazard. Jefferies added Gideon Volschenk from Standard Chartered in industrials IB and Ed Whele from Citi as global head of tech services IB.
Heard on the Street
The lateral partner market in New York hit a three-year high last quarter, with 186 partners moving among Am Law 100 and top UK firms in Q1 2026, according to figures released by legal recruiting agency Macrae. Above the Law reported this month that roughly a third of lateral partner hires leave within five years, raising questions about whether firms are investing enough in integration and retention.
According to JD Journal, the BigLaw hiring market is bifurcating: firms are still willing to spend aggressively, but only when a lateral candidate brings a well-defined practice story. Tax, M&A, private equity-adjacent work, capital markets, antitrust, regulatory, and investigations remain the easiest laterals to underwrite, while generalized profiles are seeing less traction.
On the executive side, LHH published research showing that executive turnover has declined from 43% of organizations experiencing high turnover in 2025 to 19% in 2026. Retaining top talent has risen to the number one board priority, while AI has become the top leadership skill gap, rising seven places to become the number one perceived development gap for C-suite candidates.
BCG Attorney Search projects partner lateral volumes will remain at 2,800 to 3,100 moves for 2026, below the record pace of 2025 but still at historically high levels as firms compete for market share in what remains a modest demand-growth environment.
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.
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