Top Biglaw Firm Poaches 11 Partners From Competitor In Latest Group Lateral Move (2024)

Group lateral moves are still all the rage in Biglaw, and Paul Hastings ought to know — the Top 50 Am Law firm just gobbled up a group of lateral partners from King & Spalding, including the co-head of the firm’s finance and restructuring practice.

This is the firm’s second major group hire in 2024, following an eight-partner, 25-lawyer finance team from Vinson & Elkins in Dallas and Houston, which is reportedly the largest ever single practice group move in Texas history.

As noted by the American Lawyer, earlier today, Paul Hastings announced that an 11-partner team from King & Spalding would be joining the firm, growing its finance and restructuring practice in several of its offices across the country. Here are some additional details:

Included in that group is Jennifer Daly, who was the co-head of King & Spalding’s finance and restructuring practice at the time of her departure and the head of the firm’s private credit and special situations group before that. Daly is based in New York.

The balance of the group includes Roger Schwartz, Matthew Warren, Christopher Boies, Zachary Cochran, Peter Montoni, Geoffrey King, Lindsey Henrikson and Robert Nussbaum. Daly, Schwartz, Boies, Montoni and Nussbaum will be based in New York; Warren will split time between Chicago, where he will be joined by King and Henrikson, and Houston; and Cochran will work out of the Washington, D.C., and New York offices.

Frank Lopez, chair of Paul Hastings, said this group “may be the most transformative team to join us,” as he believes the firm has “moved from a leading platform in finance and restructuring to the leading platform.”

As noted by Am Law, the firm’s work in finance is up 30% this year compared to 2021, the strongest market in history. As further noted by Reuters, the firm’s finance and restructuring drove a 20% revenue increase in the first quarter of 2024.

“[Paul Hastings has] a powerhouse banking and finance team, and what we think is truly a best-in-class restructuring practice,” Daly told Am Law in an interview. “When you look at the synergies in representing private credit and funds through the full lifecycle, one plus one equals four.”

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Congratulations to Paul Hastings on yet another successful group lateral hire, and best of luck to everyone who will soon be integrated into the firm’s finance and restructuring team.

Paul Hastings Lands 11-Partner Private Credit Group From King & Spalding [American Lawyer]
Law firm Paul Hastings hits rival King & Spalding for latest mass hire [Reuters]

Staci Zaretskyis a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.