The Paul Weiss
Mega-Million Talent Raid
Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing writer
Of all the big-money, Big Law talent raids in recent times, it has been Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison – aka Paul Weiss – who have been paying millions to recruit legal talent in an intense talent war for top dealmaking lawyers.
We have reported here at LawFuel about the major moves in the London legal market, particularly the spectacular price paid for London M&A star Neel Sachdev in his multi-million dollar lateral hire deal last year.
The hiring blitz kicked off last August after Kirkland lured away Paul Weiss’ top London partner, followed by the luring of Sachdev to Paul Weiss in a tit-for-tat lateral hiring battle.
But that raid was only the beginning for Paul Weiss.
In London, under Sachdev’s guidance, the Paul Weiss has continued to expand rapidly over the past five years expanding its headcount and breaking through the $2 billion global revenue mark, with a 10.8 percent increase in revenue over the previous year.
Paul Weiss’s Lateral Hire Growth
In the past year, Paul Weiss has poached over 20 mergers and acquisitions and private equity partners in the past year, in both London and New York.
As Bloomberg Law has reported, (and LawFuel) top partners like Sachdev who are in high demand can now command compensation of $20 million or more annually.
The major hiring binge demonstrates the intense recruiting war among the big law firms to secure top dealmakers as they muscle one another in the M&A and private equity space in particular.
The Times reporting that more than 500 commercial law partners moved between firms in London alone during 2023 with a growth in deal-making behind the intense competition for legal talent.
Recruiters described the lateral hire mania as an “internecine talent war”, predominantly between American law firms in London, largely led by the Kirkland Ellis / Paul Weiss but with other firms also entering the lateral hiring fray with abandon.
But the aggressive hiring practices come at a price for the firms.
To fund pricey lateral hires, Paul Weiss has overhauled its partner compensation system and adopted a “black box” model where individual pay is no longer transparent – something we wrote about here.
New Pay Structure
The firm has also added a new non-equity partner tier to improve profits.
Many competitors have followed suit by widening compensation spreads and revamping pay structures not traditionally used for lateral hiring. The moves are necessary to attract and retain elite rainmakers amid intensifying competition from fast-growing firms like Kirkland.
Firms like Simpson Thacher have announced major pay gains for star partners in this space also.
“We must provide our clients the absolute best legal talent to handle their most critical, complex matters,” said Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp. “There is no substitute for top-tier expertise.”
Other major Kirkland recruits included debt finance partner Stefan Arnold-Soulby and IP transactions partner John Patten.
While trailing Kirkland and other elite firms on major M&A deal rankings last year, Paul Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is living up to its long name by ensuring it also develops a long list of both talented lawyers and dealmarkers and a decent share of the private equity and M&A pie.
The likelihood of some slowing in major lateral hiring practices from firms like Paul Weiss seems unlikely, according to recruitment sources and reports from around the big law traps.
