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The talent raid that shook New York’s most prestigious law firm

Gibson Dunn’s move on a group of Wachtell litigation partners has expanded the law firms’ talent war beyond dealmakers

Bill Savitt speaks to the media in California after helping OpenAI defeat Elon Musk in court© David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Sujeet Indap, Kaye Wiggins and Oliver Barnes in New York

PublishedJuly 31 2026

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As he returned to New York this spring, fresh from helping OpenAI defeat Elon Musk in California federal court, US litigation royalty Bill Savitt received a call from a crosstown rival at the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Orin Snyder, himself regarded as one of the country’s best trial lawyers, invited Savitt for coffee at Nougatine, an upscale eatery next to Central Park.

Once there, Snyder floated an inconceivable idea: would Savitt leave his longtime home at New York’s most prestigious law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to join Gibson Dunn, now a global megafirm with 2,200 lawyers and annual revenue approaching $5bn.

It was audacious because for decades Wachtell, ranked as the US’s most profitable law firm per partner, had been a place where lawyers stayed from cradle to grave — and because Savitt struck many as the quintessential Wachtell company man. Just a few years ago, “the idea that a co-chair of Wachtell would leave for another law firm was unfathomable”, the head of another large law firm said.

But the long-shot sales pitch worked. Earlier this week, Gibson Dunn announced that Savitt would join the firm, bringing five Wachtell partners with him in a move that kneecaps Wachtell’s prized Delaware corporate litigation business.

Savitt’s move is notable even in an industry gripped by a transfer-market frenzy in recent years, where superstars are offered pay packages in excess of $20mn a year to jump ship.

Such moves have largely applied to top M&A and private equity lawyers, who produce a large and growing fee pool that is more predictable than litigation work. Savitt’s move is the clearest sign yet of how far-reaching the talent battle has become, spreading to litigators and law firm leaders.

“It’s a sign that it’s a complete free market at all levels in the legal profession right now,” the law firm head said. Savitt’s departure is also the first instance of a de facto managing partner leaving for a rival Wall Street firm.

Gibson Dunn is one of several firms now hunting top litigators from competitors. Quinn Emanuel, the litigation heavyweight, is also stepping up its efforts. “We have intensified our recruitment efforts for top lateral partners across the globe,” Quinn Emanuel’s co-managing partner Michael Carlinsky told the FT.

Savitt’s speciality lies in defending Fortune 500 boards and handling disputes that come out of M&A and shareholder activism — a role that is highly valuable at Wachtell because it supports the firm’s top-ranked deals practice.

He has won high status in the legal community in Delaware, where most US companies are incorporated. Savitt and Wachtell had even been advising the state’s governor Matt Meyer on how to prevent companies from moving their domiciles to Texas and other states, a shift that is upending the world of US business law.

Gibson Dunn has been on the other side of that battle, however: it helped ExxonMobil move its incorporation to the Lone Star State, in one of the most significant corporate governance developments of the year.

Gov. Matt Meyer speaks at a podium with the Delaware state seal during the State of the State address, flanked by two officials.Delaware governor Matt Meyer© Damian Giletto/USA Today Network via Reuters

At Wachtell, Savitt is well known for having defeated Musk in two different blockbuster lawsuits. But Gibson Dunn counts the billionaire entrepreneur as a prized client and some insiders have wondered whether hiring Savitt might complicate that relationship.

The firm insisted that there was more than enough work to keep both newcomers and veterans occupied, although the drivers might be different.

The Gibson Dunn deals franchise is smaller than the Wachtell advisory machine, a key engine of Savitt’s work. But Wachtell, with its roster of fewer than 300 lawyers and its disproportionate focus on M&A, often had to refer clients to rivals when it lacked the in-house capability. That is unlikely to be the issue at the sprawling Gibson Dunn.

Among the others from Wachtell who have joined Savitt are three close colleagues who specialise in Delaware law. Also joining are two Wachtell lateral partners whom Savitt had recruited, Sarah Eddy and Randall Jackson.

Another Wachtell partner, Nathaniel Cullerton, was set to join Gibson Dunn in the same transfer. However, after a viral social media video showed him kissing a young Wachtell associate in a New York City park, he was placed on leave pending a further investigation, and Cullerton was not named by Gibson Dunn as one of its new joiners.

Andy Nussbaum, who co-led Wachtell’s executive committee with Savitt, and Marty Lipton, its 95-year-old co-founder, addressed the firm’s lawyers on Tuesday and put on a brave face about its future prospects.

Bill Savitt has defeated Musk in two different blockbuster lawsuits© Kathleen Flynn

Wachtell is rare in having clung on to most of its longstanding management practices through a period of industry upheaval in recent years. Most notably, it held on to a lockstep pay system in which lawyers are paid based on seniority rather than success — a model many large law firms abandoned in order to free up large sums for star hires.

However, the firm has recently made moves to allocate some dollars away from litigators and towards dealmakers, a historic shift for a conservative institution and one that has upset some Wachtell litigators. The Savitt group felt Wachtell’s M&A lawyers failed to appreciate the contribution of the litigation side of the firm, according to people familiar with their thinking.

Wachtell is now down to fewer than 20 litigation partners and, while it retains some high-profile cases including a corruption investigation for the National Basketball Association, it is unclear how it will market its Delaware law expertise.

Savitt recruited the respected Delaware jurist Leo Strine in 2020 as a senior adviser to clients, and Strine did not join the group going to Gibson Dunn. He is expected to remain at Wachtell for the long term, a person familiar with the matter said.

But without Savitt and the other Gibson Dunn departees, the core of the firm’s Delaware practice is gone.

As a young lawyer, Savitt briefly absconded from Wachtell to join David Boies’ firm Boies Schiller & Flexner. He quickly returned, and completed a 25-year run. Neither side expects his move to be so shortlived this time around.

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