7 November – New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is installing two new co-chairs, shaking up its top leadership after more than 15 years with current chairs Edward Herlihy and Daniel Neff at the helm.
Wachtell, one of the most profitable US law firms, named corporate partner Andrew Nussbaum and litigation partner William Savitt as co-chairs of its executive committee, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.
Herlihy and Neff will remain members of the committee, the firm said.
Wachtell was among the law firms that worked on AT&T’s $43 billion deal last year to spin off its WarnerMedia unit and merge it with reality TV company Discovery. The firm’s team, co-led by Nussbaum, advised an independent transaction committee of Discovery’s board of directors.
Savitt, who co-heads Wachtell’s litigation department, was among the lawyers hired by Twitter after Elon Musk balked at buying the social media platform, now known as X, for $44 billion in 2022. Musk has since sued Wachtell to recover $90 million in fees paid to the firm when the deal closed last year. Wachtell has defended its work.
During their tenure as co-chairmen, Herlihy and Neff maintained the firm’s strong profitability and elite reputation during a period of fierce competition from other US firms, such as Kirkland & Ellis, which have expanded their hold on big-ticket M&A and corporate litigation work.
Wachtell’s profits per equity partner averaged about $7.29 million in 2022, according to The American Lawyer. That puts the firm behind only Kirkland’s $7.52 million per equity partner.