In the latest skirmish in the fight for legal talent, the law firm Gibson Dunn said it had hired one of the co-chairs of rival Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, as well as five other partners in its litigation department.
Gibson Dunn’s hiring of William Savitt, who has served as Wachtell’s co-chair since 2023, highlights the fierce competition for top lawyers at a time when deals, the lifeblood of the big law industry, are booming and business becomes more legally complex. That competition is putting pressure on long-held loyalties, though it is unusual for a high-profile firm’s co-chair to leave for another firm.
This week, the law firms Simpson Thacher, Kirkland & Ellis and Paul Weiss announced a flurry of hires they had made from rival firms, as they look to bulk up in capital markets and restructuring. The Financial Times earlier reported the news of Mr. Savitt’s move.
For decades, Wachtell has stood out on Wall Street for its simple model: a tightknit, single-office boutique in New York with intellectual firepower and expertise in mergers and acquisitions and corporate litigation in Delaware Chancery Court, considered the foremost destination for adjudicating corporate disagreements.
Mr. Savitt, who joined Wachtell in 2000, led many of those more recent litigation battles, including successfully defending Twitter in its lawsuit that forced Elon Musk to close his $44 billion acquisition of the company.
This spring, he served as lead counsel for OpenAI during a high-profile trial in which the company successfully defended itself against Mr. Musk’s accusations of a breach of contract. Mr. Savitt gained attention for his at times combative cross-examination of Mr. Musk on the witness stand.
Wachtell continues its work on other high-profile matters, including representing Jefferies in litigation surrounding the bankruptcy of the auto parts maker First Brands.
“Wachtell Lipton is performing at its highest level across every metric,” a spokeswoman for the firm said in a statement.
The prospect of hiring Mr. Savitt was “a dream hatched” when Barbara Becker became chair of Gibson Dunn five years ago, she said in an interview on Tuesday. Mr. Savitt was “No. 1 on that list,” Ms. Becker said, “never thinking in a million years that it would come to pass.”
Since taking over as chair in 2021, Ms. Becker has made a number of other big hires to broaden the firm’s reach. This year, the firm hired a group of appellate lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell, including Jeff Wall, a former acting U.S. solicitor general, and in 2024 it brought on a group led by Barry Berke, a prominent white-collar defense lawyer.
Gibson Dunn’s focus on hiring high-powered litigators is also notable because other firms, like Paul Weiss, have seen a fracturing of their corporate and litigation departments.
“You can’t do an M&A deal of any scale without understanding fundamentally the litigation playing field,” said Orin Snyder, co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s trials practice group, who has known Mr. Savitt for years.
Joining Mr. Savitt at Gibson Dunn’s New York office are five other lawyers from Wachtell: Sarah Eddy, Randall Jackson, Ryan McLeod, Anitha Reddy and Brad Wilson.
