Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has long been known as an elite New York-based firm. It has a handful of offices elsewhere, both in the U.S. and overseas, but it has been perceived as a distinctly American law firm—until now. In a little over six months, it has become the most-talked-about law firm in London. The attention has been prompted by the firm’s massive hiring spree that is filled with big-name partners and demonstrates its intent to become a top-tier transatlantic player. In the past few weeks, Paul Weiss has also taken its international ambitions a step further, launching an office in Brussels, where it has continued to add experienced partners. And last week it launched a Latin America practice, bringing on an M&A partner who is well-known and respected in the region. The speed of these moves has taken the industry by surprise, and the caliber of the hires couldn’t be higher. What is Paul Weiss up to? In London, the change has disrupted and potentially reordered the U.K. legal market. It started in mid-August when the firm poached heavyweight private equity partner Neel Sachdev from Kirkland & Ellis. Sachdev, a rainmaker with a roster of who’s who clients, brought along three other partners: Kanesh Balasubramaniam, Matthew Merkle and Deirdre Jones. Soon, a string of other London partners joined Sachdev in London. Among them are high-profile buyouts partner Roger Johnson, who jumped from Kirkland; debt finance partner Stefan Arnold-Soulby, who also made the move from Kirkland; Nicole Kar, who was Linklaters’ global head of antitrust; private equity partner Will Aitken-Davies, also from Linklaters; Annie Herdman, who was Ropes & Gray’s London head of antitrust and foreign direct investment and previously with Kirkland; and Clifford Chance’s leveraged finance partner Taner Hassan and private equity partner Oliver Marcuse. This month, Silvia Menendez, another finance partner, also joined from Clifford Chance. And the firm recently announced that Linklaters’ M&A partner Matthew Hearn would soon be joining in London. Today, Paul Weiss has built up a U.K. operation of about 20 well-known partners and 80 additional lawyers. But the firm is not just making waves in London. Shortly after it hired Sachdev in the U.K.—a move that demonstrated its commitment to international expansion—it was able to bring on more Kirkland partners in the U.S., including Eric J. Wedel, Ben Steadman, Matthew N. Leist and Caroline B. Epstein. For anyone wondering just how disruptive all this is for the overall market, note that according to Law.com Compass data, more Kirkland partners went to Paul Weiss than moved in-house in the second half of last year. The hiring spree doesn’t show any signs of ending. Just last week, Paul Weiss hired M&A heavy hitter Jim Langston from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York—a move that would not likely have happened prior to Paul Weiss’s international push. And at a time when complex cross-border M&A transactions are increasingly subject to antitrust scrutiny by the European Commission, Paul Weiss in April also launched an office in Brussels, bringing on Simpson Thacher & Bartlett antitrust partner Ross Ferguson and Macfarlanes partner Richard Pepper. Last week it added even more weight to that office, hiring competition expert Henrik Morch, who spent 33 years at the European Commission. Paul Weiss Chair Brad Karp said that having a strong presence in Brussels was “a strategic imperative,” given the growing importance of cross-border M&A in Europe. The firm’s increased focus on international markets also includes a new Latin America practice, based in New York. At a time when global investors are veering away from Asia and see M&A opportunities growing across Latin America, Paul Weiss this month brought on Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s well-known Latin America partner Leticia Ossa Daza to build and lead that practice—a task she performed for more than two decades at Willkie Farr. So why is Paul Weiss doing all this? And why now? | 