In a move that may come as a surprise to detractors of the Magic Circle firm’s US ambitions, Linklaters today (8 January) announced it has expanded its New York M&A offering with the hire of a six-lawyer team from Shearman & Sterling.
The team is led by George Casey, a global managing partner at Shearman since 2018 and a Legal 500 Hall of Famer for $1bn-plus M&A deals. He joins Linklaters as global co-chair of corporate. His career has seen him advise on mega-mergers in chemicals and pharmaceuticals, including Celanese’s $11bn all-cash acquisition of the majority of DuPont’s mobility and materials business in 2022, and DuPont and Dow Chemical’s $130bn merger in 2015.
Casey moved alongside partner Heiko Schiwek, who comes to Linklaters as one of the firm’s chemicals sector global leaders. Meanwhile, Greg Gewirtz was counsel at Shearman and joins Linklaters as a partner, while the team is rounded out by counsel Yiting Du, senior associate Wendy Suh, and associate Michael Lomtevas.
‘Growing our M&A capacity in the US is a strategic priority for us and George and his team joining is a transformational step’, said Linklaters managing partner Aedamar Comiskey in a statement. ‘Adding a market-leading M&A practice in New York to our preeminent global M&A offering means we can support our clients in all core markets.’
A Shearman spokesperson said in a statement: ‘Our market-leading M&A team had a stellar year in 2023, with rankings in the top 15 globally for both deal value and deal volume, as reported by The American Lawyer earlier this week, driven by exceptional partners across the platform. Upon the imminent completion of our transformative merger with Allen & Overy, A&O Shearman is expected to have more than 180 M&A partners who, together, will provide unparalleled capability to global businesses. We thank George and Heiko for their contributions and wish them well.’
Linklaters has argued that its approach to the US is one defined by caution. It has made some notable US hires in regulation, litigation, and energy, but has nonetheless been seen as a slower mover than comparable firms. It has lagged behind its Magic Circle peers on both revenue and headcount. As of August 2023, it had just 39 partners in the US, compared to 77 at Freshfields, 87 at Allen & Overy, and 100 at Clifford Chance. Its Americas revenue for 2022 was £101.2m (6% of its firm-wide turnover), compared to £252.4m (13%) for A&O. CC and Freshfields, meanwhile, each made 13% of their revenue in the US in 2022: £224.5m for Freshfields and £259m for CC.
UK firms have long struggled to break into New York M&A – often viewed as the jewel in the crown of the super-profitable US market. Freshfields sought to win work with a clutch of key strategic hires – and paid top dollar to do so.
A&O, for its part, placed its bets on a merger with Shearman, with the two firms set to combine as A&O Shearman from May of this year. Shearman faced a slew of departures both before and after the merger was announced in May, and has been bedevilled by declines in revenue and profitability (as Legal Business noted in this year’s Global 100 report, it has the dubious distinction of being the only firm to post a decrease in revenue for the period 2018-23).
The New York firm’s reputation suffered, but few would dispute that it remained strong in New York M&A, with the access it would provide to that work often viewed as a core part of the rationale for the merger on A&O’s side. These departures to Linklaters mark the first from the firm’s key practice since the merger was announced: former real estate investment trusts group co-head Malcolm Montgomery was the only partner to leave the firm in New York since last May, while its bigger losses occurred overseas. It is far from depleted – its website still shows 12 partners in M&A in New York. But the moves nonetheless leave a dent in the firm’s armour in a core practice – and will be seen as a clear statement of intent from Linklaters.