Cravath, Swaine & Moore is adding prominent New York dealmaker Michael Aiello and five other mergers and acquisitions partners from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, significantly expanding its transactional practice with one of Weil’s most senior corporate teams, according to Reuters.
Aiello will join Cravath alongside Matthew Gilroy, Eoghan Keenan, Amanda Fenster, Michelle Sargent and Megan Pendleton.
The six-partner move gives Cravath an established M&A team with experience advising major corporations and financial institutions on complex transactions.
Aiello served as chairman of Weil’s approximately 600-lawyer corporate department and has represented clients including Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical and Sanofi.
Gilroy was a co-leader of Weil’s M&A practice.
Their arrival represents a significant lateral expansion for Cravath, a firm historically known for developing lawyers internally rather than building its partnership primarily through lateral hiring.
The addition of six M&A partners at once gives the firm greater senior-level capacity at a time when competition among major law firms for high-profile corporate dealmakers remains intense.
Cravath Presiding Partner Faiza Saeed described Aiello and the incoming team as highly accomplished M&A advisors whose experience fits the firm’s culture.
The hires could also strengthen Cravath’s ability to compete for large strategic M&A mandates involving public companies, financial sponsors and multinational corporations.
Aiello’s practice has placed him at the center of major corporate transactions during his tenure at Weil, while the broader team brings additional depth across mergers, acquisitions and related corporate work.
For Weil, the departures represent another major change within its senior ranks.
The firm has lost several prominent partners to competing law firms in recent weeks.
Chris Machera, co-head of Weil’s private equity group, joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Stephanie Srulowitz, who co-led Weil’s U.S. private funds group, moved to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Daniel Stein, global co-head of Weil’s white-collar defense practice, joined Freshfields.
The departures come during a broader leadership transition at Weil.
Longtime Executive Partner Barry Wolf is expected to retire as a partner at the end of 2027.
Private equity partner Ramona Nee is scheduled to assume the firm’s top leadership position beginning in January 2027.
Aiello had also been appointed chairman of Weil’s new global strategy committee when the leadership transition was announced in March.
Despite the departures, Weil said it remains focused on its growth strategy and plans to accelerate execution of that strategy.
The movement of major dealmakers between elite law firms reflects increasingly aggressive competition for lawyers with established client relationships and experience handling large transactions.
M&A partners are particularly valuable because their relationships can generate work across multiple law firm practices, including financing, tax, antitrust, executive compensation and litigation.
Adding an established group rather than individual lawyers can also allow a law firm to integrate a functioning team with existing working relationships and complementary practices.
For Cravath, the six-partner addition provides that opportunity while strengthening a corporate practice already known for advising on significant mergers and acquisitions.
The move also underscores how even firms traditionally associated with organic partner development are becoming more willing to pursue strategic lateral hires when opportunities arise to add prominent lawyers and established teams.
