As the legal industry’s apex predator, Kirkland & Ellis isn’t used to being bullied.

But, once news broke on Monday that Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison was hiring Kirkland partner Neel Sachdev, one of London’s most influential corporate lawyers, and other partners, along with fellow debt finance partner Eric J. Wedel in the U.S. and likely several others, it upended all notions of Kirkland being a firm that always gets its way.