Kirkland & Ellis has lured the head of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz’s finance and restructuring practices in New York.
Joshua Feltman has joined the firm as a debt finance partner, reportedly for a guaranteed pay package of $80m over three years, according to the Financial Times.
The hire comes just a few months after restructuring heavyweight David Nemecek exited Kirkland to head up Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s new capital structure solutions practice. Several Kirkland colleagues have since followed him to the practice, including partners Brian Schartz and John Luze.
Feltman, a Wachtell lifer who joined the firm in 2002 and made partner in 2010, has handled major restructuring and refinancing transactions, including for Lumen Technologies and AMC Theaters.
His hire comes at a time of intense competition for lawyers skilled in liability management – out-of-court, often aggressive, restructuring strategies increasingly used by companies to manage debt without filing for bankruptcy. Like Nemecek, he is recognised as a leader in the field, having designed some of the largest and most novel transactions in the space.
Kirkland’s chairman, Jon Ballis, described Feltman as a “unique talent”, adding: “His arrival will significantly enhance our already market-leading finance, restructuring and liability management practices.”
The firm has been busily recruiting partners across restructuring, private equity and litigation in New York, where it has grown into a 1,000-lawyer behemoth capable of poaching talent from Wall Street rivals once considered impenetrable.
Last year, key laterals in the city included private equity partner Carolyn Vardi from Ropes & Gray and mass tort litigation heavyweight Kristen Fournier, who joined at the helm of a 13-partner litigation team from King & Spalding.
Wachtell, which is one of the few Big Law firms to remain wedded to a traditional seniority-based lockstep compensation system, used to be considered virtually immune to poaching from rivals thanks to its very high profitability and elite reputation. That status has come under pressure recently, however, as firms like Kirkland with more flexible pay structures have picked off top talent.
Latham & Watkins has lured away several partners, including top dealmaker Zach Podolsky last year, while so far this year, Wachtell has also seen M&A partner Alison Preiss leave for Simpson Thacher and litigator Noah Yavitz defect to Ropes & Gray.
News of Feltman’s hire coincides with reports this week that Kirkland has obtained a licence to operate in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. According to Law Middle East the move is intended to facilitate the firm’s work in Abu Dhabi rather than pave the way for an office launch.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
