SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Star Laterals of the Year
Star Laterals of the Year
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| WHO MOVED | LEAVING | ARRIVING | WHY IT MATTERS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Aiello, 38 (January 2007) | The New York office of Dewey Ballantine (now Dewey & LeBoeuf) | The New York office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges | Aiello was the golden child of Dewey's corporate M&A practice and the protégé of firm chair Morton Pierce. His departure reportedly contributed to the breakdown of merger talks between Dewey and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Some of his key clients include The Walt Disney Company, Sony Corporation of America , and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. |
| Martin Bienenstock, 55 (December 2007) | The New York office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges | The New York office of Dewey & LeBoeuf | Weil's acclaimed restructuring practice took a hit with the loss of cochair Bienenstock [see "Evolution and its Discontent," page 16]. Among major recent matters, Bienenstock handled the reorganization of Enron Corp. and represented General Motors Corporation in the Delphi Corporation bankruptcy. He will become head of Dewey's business solutions group. |
| Michael Elkin, 50 (January 2007) | The New York office of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner | The New York office of Winston & Strawn | Elkin was a vocal opponent of Thelen Reid & Priest's 2006 merger with Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner, and he left soon afterward. A specialist in copyright, new media, and entertainment, Elkin took 11 lawyers and a nearly $10 million book of business with him to Winston & Strawn. |
| Tim Emmerson, 53 (January 2007) | The London office of Milbank, Tweed , Hadley & McCloy | The London office of Sullivan & Cromwell | In hiring Emmerson, known as one of London 's top M&A dealmakers, Sullivan landed its first heavyweight English corporate partner. In addition to working with big-name European clients such as Lloyd's of London, Emmerson has close ties to The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and UBS AG, already key U.S. clients of Sullivan. |
| Peter Goldsmith, 58 (September 2007) | The office of attorney general of the United Kingdom | The London office of Debevoise & Plimpton | Queen's counsel Goldsmith was an important ally of former British prime minister Tony Blair, serving as his top legal adviser from 2001 to 2007. (It was Goldsmith who gave legal authorization for the 2003 invasion of Iraq .) He is known as one of Britain 's leading barristers in corporate and international litigation, and will be Debevoise's European chair of litigation. |
| Michele Hirshman, 49 (April 2007) | The office of first deputy attorney general of New York State | The New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | Hirshman was Eliot Spitzer's number two in the attorney general's office and oversaw many high-profile Wall Street investigations. She sits on the other side of the table now, handling white-collar defense and internal investigations as a litigation partner at Paul Weiss. Hirshman is currently representing a Hong Kong couple whom the SEC accuses of pocketing millions of dollars in an insider trading scheme involving News Corporation's purchase of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. |
| Randall Lee, 46 (October 2007) | The office of regional director of the Pacific division of the Securities and Exchange Commission | The Los Angeles office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr | Lee achieved notable victories during his six-year tenure with the SEC, including the first-ever jury verdict against a mutual fund executive in a market timing case. More than 35 firms expressed interest in Lee, but Wilmer convinced him to launch the firm's L.A. office. Lee says he hopes to build the office to 25 lawyers in the next two years. |
| Richard Levin, 57 (July 2007) | The New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom | The New York office of Cravath, Swaine & Moore | While it's rare to see a help wanted sign on Cravath's door, the firm needed an expert to jump-start its new bankruptcy and restructuring practice. Levin helped write the book on bankruptcy as congressional counsel in the 1970s and has represented such major clients as Refco Inc. in Chapter 11 proceedings. |
| Abbe Lowell , 55 (April 2007) | The Washington , D.C. , office of Chadbourne & Parke | The Washington , D.C. , office of McDermott Will & Emery | A white-collar defense lawyer and Washington insider, Lowell moved to McDermott after just four years with Chadbourne. While he typically represents Democrats, Lowell can work both sides: He served as chief investigative counsel to House Democrats during the Clinton impeachment proceedings, but also recently represented former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. |
| Kathryn Ruemmler, 36 (February 2007) | The office of deputy director of the U.S. Department of Justice Enron Task Force | The Washington , D.C. , office of Latham & Watkins | Latham continued its run on Enron prosecutors, hiring Ruemmler three months after nabbing her former boss, Sean Berkowitz. Ruemmler, who delivered closing arguments in the trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, previously served as associate counsel to President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky and Whitewater scandals. |
| Michael Segal, 50 (April 2007) | The New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Segal is only the third lateral ever to join Wachtell. He was hired to help rebuild the firm's executive compensation and benefits practice after several partner losses. Formerly the cohead of the practice at Paul, Weiss, Segal primarily counsels clients on compensation issues connected to corporate mergers and joint ventures. |
| David Sorkin, 48 (December 2007) | The New York office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | KKR & Co. L.P. | After advising the private equity giant for more than two decades, Sorkin was chosen to be KKR's first general counsel as part of the firm's move toward an initial public offering. Sorkin, who helped drive Simpson to dominance during the deal boom, is expected to maintain the close ties between KKR and his old firm. |
| Andrew Wilkinson, 46 (July 2007) | The London office of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft | The London office of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. | Goldman Sachs convinced bankruptcy maven Wilkinson to leave his role as managing partner of Cadwalader's London office (and a reported £2.11 million a year) to become cohead of the investment bank's nascent European restructuring practice. Most recently, Wilkinson led work for MBIA Inc., Eurotunnel's main creditor. His move has fueled speculation that Goldman expects more corporations to run into trouble in the coming year. |
| Ralph Wollburg, 51 (November 2007) | The Düsseldorf office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | The Düsseldorf office of Linklaters | Linklaters shook up its German presence, electing to shutter the Cologne office and instead open in Düsseldorf under the leadership of corporate M&A star Wollburg. He and another M&A partner from Freshfields are exempt from the Linklaters lockstep and will be the only Germans earning as much as their British counterparts. |
(The American Lawyer, February 2008) | |||
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