Weil’s Merger With Willkie Is Dead, But Its Partner Exodus Is Very Much Alive

Weil Gotshal & Manges and Willkie Farr & Gallagher have ended their merger discussions, according to Bloomberg Law. The talks were called off Thursday night, after the two firms had gotten far enough along to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Spokespeople for both firms are keeping quiet on what killed the deal.

It’s a quick end to a romance that only went public this week. On Monday, word got out that Weil was negotiating a merger with an unnamed firm, working out a memorandum of understanding, with an announcement possible as soon as this week. Then Law360 did some internet sleuthing and found that two domain names combining the names of Weil and Willkie had recently been registered, (nothing says “we’re getting serious” like buying the joint URL), giving the mystery suitor a name: Willkie Farr. But by Thursday night, the engagement was off before anyone got to see the ring.

Which means Weil’s statement from September, back when merger rumors first started swirling, that the firm “is not engaged in merger discussions with any firm” is once again technically accurate.

Congrats to the comms team, I guess.

The problem is that nothing that sent Weil looking for a partner has gone away, and the exits didn’t slow down while leadership went out shopping. On Thursday evening, just hours before the Willkie talks fell apart, The Wall Street Journal reported that Weil is bleeding even more top lawyers, including two members of its management committee. Appellate lawyer Drew Tulumelo is expected to land at Davis Polk along with litigation partner Chantale Fiebig, securities litigation partner Caroline Zalka is headed to Paul Weiss, and Lyuba Goltser, co-managing partner of Weil’s corporate department, is off to Sidley Austin. In London, finance head Tom Richards plans to go to Simpson Thacher. That’s all on top of corporate chair Michael Aiello taking five M&A partners to Cravath, a move Weil described as a jump to “a smaller platform,” and London dealmaker David Avery-Gee and former corporate department co-managing partner Michael Hickey decamping for Sullivan & Cromwell. The Journal says rival firms have recently been flooded with résumés from Weil lawyers, and Bloomberg says still more departures are expected to be formally announced.

Weil has been hiring to plug the holes, but a merger was always going to be the faster fix, and the stakes are big. According to the Journal, the talks that leadership disclosed to partners this week were with another U.S. firm, and the combination would likely have vaulted Weil, a firm with some $2.1 billion in revenue that currently ranks in the top 30, into the top 10. This isn’t the first courtship to fizzle, either. Over the past year, Weil has quietly reached out to other firms, including reportedly Vinson & Elkins, and those talks went nowhere.

And Willkie was a perfectly logical candidate. According to the Journal, similarly sized firms, Willkie among them, have shown interest in finding merger partners in recent years, so Weil wasn’t the only one in the market. Just last month, Weil rehired Debra Sinclair a decade after she left for Willkie, so apparently boomeranging one Willkie partner wasn’t enough and the firm was ready to take the whole set. (Willkie, lest we forget, would have also brought along a little baggage: it’s one of the firms that surrendered to Trump with $100 million in pro bono payola.)

So the search for a merger partner to strengthen that platform continues. And it feels like Weil is still going to end up merging with somebody, given the steady stream of exits, it just won’t be Willkie.

Earlier: Weil Gotshal Is Reportedly Negotiating A Merger, About A Month After Saying It Wasn’t In Merger Talks
Weil’s Revolving Door Now Spins In Both Directions
Weil Seeks To Strengthen Its ‘Platform’ As Merger Rumors Swirl
Weil Get You And… Then Maybe You’ll Go To Cravath
The Cravath Shade Wasn’t A One-Off: Weil Insiders Line Up To Say Good Riddance
Weil’s Corporate Chair Decamps For Cravath, Which Weil Would Like You To Know Is ‘A Smaller Platform’
Willkie Farr Surrenders To Trump