Gibson Dunn has secured six litigation partners from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in one of the most significant lateral moves seen in BigLaw this year.
Leading the group is William Savitt, executive committee co-chair and litigation co-chair at Wachtell, who will now co-chair Gibson Dunn’s litigation practice following the move.
The deal was reportedly set in motion by a coffee meeting between Savitt and Gibson Dunn trials co-chair Orin Snyder, a relatively informal start to what became a landmark partnership departure.
Savitt brings five colleagues with him: Sarah Eddy, Randall Jackson, Ryan McLeod, Anitha Reddy, and Bradley Wilson, all litigation partners at Wachtell.
The departure is particularly striking given Wachtell’s well-established reputation for retaining its partners at a rate virtually unmatched across the legal industry.
Per partner profits at Wachtell run north of $12 million, a figure that has historically made lateral departures from the firm extraordinarily rare and difficult to engineer.
The fact that Gibson Dunn was apparently willing to meet the financial expectations of partners accustomed to that level of compensation speaks to the firm’s ambition in building out its litigation capabilities.
Adding a further layer of intrigue to the story, the Financial Times reported that the deal was originally intended to include seven partners rather than the six who ultimately made the move.
The identity of the seventh partner who did not cross over has drawn considerable attention, with the story circulating widely among legal industry observers following its initial publication.
David Lat’s legal industry roundup helped surface the detail about the planned seventh partner, bringing wider attention to what was already a closely watched lateral move.
Gibson Dunn now inherits not only a group of highly regarded litigators but also one of the most recognisable names in corporate litigation in the form of Savitt, strengthening its bench considerably.
For Wachtell, losing six partners simultaneously, including two co-chairs, represents an unusual and notable disruption to a firm that has long prided itself on its stability and cohesion at the partnership level.