04-03-2025
Litigation, patent leaders leave law firm Weil in latest exits
March 3 (Reuters) - Rival law firms announced the hires of five partners from Weil, Gotshal & Manges on Monday, including two practice leaders, extending a string of departures from Weil since November.
The latest exits include the co-chair of Weil's global litigation department, Jonathan Polkes, who is joining White & Case with two other partners. Weil's patent litigation and life sciences practice leader, Edward Reines, is joining Jones Day with another partner.
The departures come after Latham & Watkins and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison separately added practice leaders from Weil in November. Restructuring co-chair Ray Schrock joined Latham, while global litigation and patent litigation leaders Elizabeth Stotland Weiswasser and Anish Desai joined Paul Weiss.
In a statement to Reuters, Weil executive partner Barry Wolf said the firm has hired 26 lateral partners in the past 12 months. That includes Sunny Singh, a restructuring group leader at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett who rejoined Weil in December, and Francis Dales, a Los Angeles-based private equity partner from Kirkland & Ellis whose hiring Weil announced Monday.
"The firm will continue to focus on strategic growth and attracting the top talent in an increasingly competitive lateral marketplace," Wolf said in a statement.
New York-founded, 1,100-lawyer Weil said in February it was reorganizing its governance structure to maximize its "continued, long-term success within a rapidly changing legal marketplace." In addition to an executive partner, the firm now also has two managing partners and a six-person global leadership and strategy committee.
