Weil spent September denying merger talks. In October it is negotiating one, while its partners keep walking out the door.
In September, Weil, Gotshal & Manges said it was “not engaged in merger discussions with any firm.” As LawFuel noted at the time, the denial was carefully written in the present tense.
Bloomberg Law reported this week that Weil’s leadership has told certain practice group chiefs the firm is negotiating a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed firm.
An announcement could come as soon as this week, though sources cautioned the talks could still collapse. Weil then called its partners into a virtual meeting on 20 October. According to sources, the message amounted to little more than “keep calm and carry on.”
The Willkie Irony
Legal Business named Willkie Farr & Gallagher as the apparent frontrunner, with Vinson & Elkins also linked. Skadden, Linklaters and Cleary have all denied talking to Weil. Law.com’s sources narrow the field further sayingthe eventual partner is said to have a large national or international footprint, Texas offices and an appetite for New York.
If it is Willkie, the courtship has an awkward backstory. Weil has spent the year hiring from its rumoured suitor, including restructuring partner Debra Sinclair (pictured) who returned from Willkie a decade after leaving, and private equity partner David Janssen in Frankfurt.
The Exit Problem
The Weil departures are still the real story. Corporate chair Michael Aiello took five M&A partners to Cravath, a move Weil described as leaving for “a smaller platform.”
Sullivan & Cromwell has repeatedly raided the London office. Simpson Thacher and Paul Weiss have taken private equity, funds and finance partners. Former corporate co-managing partner Michael Hickey is expected at S&C next. Law.com counts about 28 partner exits in 2026, against 23 lateral arrivals.
This is not Dewey. Weil turned over roughly $2bn last year and says it expects record results in 2026. But merger talks are a dangerous time to be leaking partners to rival law firms. Every exit during negotiations weakens Weil’s bargaining position, and every partner who learns the deal terms from the trade press is a partner a recruiter can call.
Why It Matters
A merger can buy scale, a Texas platform or a bigger New York footprint. It cannot buy loyalty.
The fact that so many of those leaving Weil have joined biglaw rivals like Simpson Thacher or Cravath and taking their teams with them is a problem that transcends mere individual departures.
As Legal Business noted talking to an unnamed recruiter, ‘When you have one partner and their team that are mobile enough to leave and take a book of business that is a significant portion of the firm’s total revenue, that can be a risk.
‘People are scratching their heads about how this could happen.’
Scratching their heads all they like won’t alter what the reality is with Weil and the scale and importance of those leaving the firm.
Whoever the suitor is, the partners who matter will ask the same two questions: where do I sit in the combined firm, and what am I paid there?
