Seven of the eight promotions to partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges were made in New York and London this year, as the firm carried out a slimmed down promotions round.
The Global 100 firm made up four fewer partners than last year, and the trimmed round follows Weil reducing its partnership from 195 to 171 between 2012 and 2014.
With Weil focusing its investment on the world’s two largest legal hubs, the firm made up three partners in London. Two City lawyers, David Irvine and Oliver Walker were promoted in the firm’s tax group, which recently suffered the exit of London tax head Jonathan Kandel to Kirkland & Ellis. In the firm’s private equity group, James Harvey was made up.
Promoted two years in a row after being made counsel at the start of this year, tax lawyer and chartered accountant Irvine joins the Weil partnership after four years at the firm. Since joining in late 2011 from Clifford Chance, Irvine has built a strong practice advising on tax structures of private equity houses and issues around their fund raising and M&A activity.
He has advised on the tax aspects of the British steel trader Stemcor’s $2bn restructuring; financial advisory firm PJT Partners on its spin-out from Blackstone; and Graphite Capital, BlackRock, Glennmont Partners and Abraaj on structuring matters.
Tax colleague Walker, who recently represented Littlewoods in its landmark victory against HMRC in a ruling on compound interest on overpaid VAT, also made partner.
Harvey makes partner after nearly a decade at Weil and is the last remaining associate that moved from Lovells with Marco Compagnoni, now co-head of private equity at Weil, to be made up.
Harvey’s promotion comes amid a private equity-heavy round at Weil, with all eight lawyers playing some role in servicing the firm’s roster of clients in this area. Promotions were made across the firm’s private equity, M&A, capital markets, private funds and tax practices, but the firm opted against making up partners in its disputes group.
Four partners were made up in New York, including private equity M&A lawyer Garrett Charon and private funds lawyer Stephanie Srulowitz, who advises longstanding clients of the firm American Securities, Perella Weinberg Partners and Providence Equity Partners.
The only Weil lawyer made up outside of New York and London was Dallas-based corporate lawyer Monty Ward, who focuses on energy sector deals.
‘I am very excited to introduce this group of exceptional lawyers who make up our new partner and counsel class,’ said Weil executive partner Barry Wolf. ‘They will provide our clients with the legal excellence and top service that are a hallmark of Weil.’
All promotions become effective on 1 January 2016.
The Weil partnership promotions in full are:
Garrett Charon, Private Equity, New York
James Harvey, Private Equity, London
David Irvine, Tax, London
Sachin Kohli, Mergers & Acquisitions, New York
Faiza Rahman, Capital Markets, New York
Stephanie Srulowitz, Private Funds, New York
Monty Ward, Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions, Dallas
Oliver Walker, Tax, London
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
