Neel Sachdev is the best-paid finance lawyer in London, the most-discussed lateral hire of the decade, and possibly the only Big Law partner who has consulted an astrologer before hiring associates. He’s also been continuing to attract a lot of publicity lately.
Most partners at elite law firms prefer to be invisible outside a small circle of clients and headhunters. Neel Sachdev has taken a different approach. The Paul Weiss London co-head is the subject of a new Financial Times profile, and it may be the most entertaining piece of legal journalism this year.
The FT’s legal correspondent, Suzi Ring, met the 51-year-old lawyer in Portugal, where he has invested in a luxury property development on the site of a former orange grove in the Algarve. He did not arrive quietly, but rather in a red open-top 1977 Mercedes 450 SL, wearing a matching outfit, sunglasses and his trademark beaded bracelets.
The car had only arrived from the Netherlands that week. Before the meeting, he had already sent her five photos of the car, including one showing a Gucci tennis racket holder in the back. He said the car’s inspiration came from childhood memories of glamorous American TV shows including Dallas. J.R. Ewing would approve, and so, clearly, would the partner comp committee.
From SJ Berwin to “Godfather”
His origins were more conventional. Sachdev is a Nottingham law grad. In a 2014 interview he said he had training offers from a couple of Magic Circle firms but chose SJ Berwin because at that time it was at the forefront of private equity. After qualifying he moved into finance, citing the strong technical training at a firm like Freshfields.
He then moved to Kirkland as a fourth year to develop business, feeling there would be more freedom to develop client-winning skills as well as doing deals. He also described his career as “I’ve enjoyed a lot of luck”, a modest line that has aged in interesting ways.
He spent about two decades at Kirkland and became the dominant figure in European sponsor-side leveraged finance.
His current firm bio says he has been described by Chambers as the “godfather of sponsor leveraged finance in Europe” and has been ranked Band 1 in Leveraged Finance: Big Ticket from 2007 to 2026. That is twenty straight years at the top of the table, a longer run than most of his associates have been alive.
The Sunday resignation that reset London pay
In September 2023 he and Kirkland colleague Roger Johnson walked out, taking a team with them. Paul, Weiss announced that 12 prominent private equity transactional partners were joining the firm, led by Neel V. Sachdev and Roger Johnson in London and Eric J. Wedel in New York and Los Angeles.
Sachdev would co-lead the London office and co-chair the firm’s global finance and capital markets practice, helping create the Paul Weiss London success story that we have reported previously.
The money he was to earn with the move became part of the legend. Reports at the time suggested his package was worth around £15 million a year.
Since then, top rainmakers, reportedly including Sachdev, now earn upwards of $20 million a year, putting a small group of elite lawyers into uncharted territory. Neither figure has been confirmed by the firm. Either one explains why every Magic Circle managing partner spent 2024 revising their retention budgets.
The London office grew very quickly. The office expanded from around 15 lawyers to approximately 275, according to one report, although Non-Billable gives a figure of more than 230 lawyers. Either way, it is a big number. Headcount aside, the firm fitted out its Air Street premises with its own restaurant, plus a sushi chef Sachdev presented as a competitive advantage. Talking to the Sunday Times in 2024, he summed up the ambition with a line that works well on a boardroom wall: “We don’t want to be the biggest. We want to be the greatest.” ‘California of Europe’ planned for the Algarve – The Portugal News +3
Surviving the Paul Weiss storms
Sachdev joined a firm that soon had a very rough period. In 2025, Karp signed a deal with Trump in which Paul Weiss agreed to drop DEI practices and dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services to administration initiatives.
Then in February 2026, Brad Karp (pictured) resigned as chair after the Epstein email disclosures, and Scott Barshay, the well-known M&A dealmaker and chair of the firm’s corporate practice, took over.
Sachdev came out of the upheaval with more power.
Barshay’s new leadership structure included a streamlined executive committee and a group of vice chairs serving as his close leadership team, and Sachdev was among those elevated, signaling a continued strategic shift toward transactional work and highlighting the firm’s growing investment in its London office.
He is now Vice Chair of the Firm, Global Co-Chair of Finance & Capital Markets, Co-Head of the London office and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. THE CHEETAH BRIEF – 54TH EDITION — Momentum Search Group +2
Oranges, Asrologers and Ainsley
The Algarve project is not a small hobby. The project began in 2022, when Sachdev’s neighbour and long-time business partner found a former orange grove in the Algarve with potential for development.
The site is named Laranjeiras, Portuguese for “orange trees”. It will have 11 homes that, according to Sachdev, have been valued at more than €3 million each, while his own four-storey pad includes a 25-metre pool, basement gym and Dolce & Gabbana kitchen appliances. The development is expected to be finished by 2028 with a development he thinks it could become the “California of Europe”.
The astrologer is the detail readers remember. Sachdev says he consulted an astrologer in India before investing in the Portuguese development, claiming the same astrologer is also used by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and says he sought his advice before leaving Kirkland, and still turns to him for guidance when considering potential additions to the Paul Weiss team.
Although unnamed the astrologer is believed to be ‘Guruji’ Madhava Pothuval, (above) an alleged astrologer to India’s political and legal elite.
On the tennis court, his regular doubles partner in London is TV chef Ainsley Harriott, who the newspaper notes is not a client.
He describes his client work in Godfather terms, as a “consigliere” model that, can extend to helping them find divorce lawyers or draft wills. He also sees “There’s definitely more of a star culture,” among top lawyers, and he appears happy to be one of the stars. His family has noticed. His children tease him for an optimism so constant that they consider it a condition. nonbillablenonbillable
What Next?
Asked about life after law, he gave the FT its best closing line: “I’ve always wanted to run for London mayor.” Legal Cheek
Not everyone was charmed. Readers of Legal Cheek were split between admiration and embarrassment on behalf of the profession, and one commenter asked what Paul W’s HR department think of this clown turning to his astrologer.
But maybe that criticism misses what the profile shows. Sachdev’s persona only works because his practice is so strong. Twenty years at Band 1, a City office built from scratch, and a pay packet that changed a market all give a partner room to drive a red Mercedes in a matching outfit.
Most lawyers who tried it would simply look ridiculous. Sachdev comes across as a brand, and that says a lot about how elite law operates in 2026 – even if there is a large element of ego mixed in with the heavy duty London law brand.
