Linklaters has hired a team of four litigation partners in New York, as leading UK firms continue to push for growth in the US market. 

Partners Adeel Mangi, Muhammad Faridi, Diana Conner and George LoBiondo have joined the firm from New York litigation boutique Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. The group brings extensive cross-sector trial and litigation experience and has acted for clients including Johnson & Johnson and Appian in major cases. 

Aedamar Comiskey, Linklaters’ senior partner and chair, said growing in the US is a “key strategic priority” for the firm. 

“We’re focusing on top-of-the market lawyers and Adeel, Muhammad, Diana and George are certainly that,” Comiskey said. “Their trial and commercial litigation expertise will be a terrific addition to our global litigation team. Our growth in the US over the last year is transforming the support and advice we can offer clients in their core markets.”

The group’s arrival follows Linklaters boosting its New York bench last year with a top flight finance team from A&O Shearman and a six-lawyer M&A group from legacy Shearman & Sterling led by rainmaker George Casey in New York. The firm has added a total of 10 partners in the last year across its US offices in New York and Washington DC, with the incoming team set to bring the firm’s US partner count to 53. 

The UK’s international Magic Circle firms, which have long struggled to gain a significant presence in the US, have been aggressively adding to their ranks there in recent years. While Linklaters, Freshfields and Clifford Chance (CC) have sought to grow through lateral hires, legacy Allen & Overy’s merger last year with legacy New York stalwart Shearman & Sterling saw it pull away in terms of lawyer headcount, with 650 lawyers in the US compared to around 400 for Freshfields and CC and just north of 200 for Linklaters. 

Linklaters’ hiring efforts have been helped by the extended lockstep the firm introduced in late 2021 to better enable it to recruit and retain high flyers in the face of stiff competition from US rivals, which benefit from being anchored in the world’s biggest market.  

Those efforts appear to be paying off, with the firm winning top-tier US mandates like advising Volkswagen on its $5.8bn joint venture and investment transactions with Rivian last year, and advising Rio Tinto on its $6.7bn acquisition of Arcadium Lithium. 

Adam Lurie, head of Linklaters’ US litigation, arbitration and investigations team, said the firm was seeing an uptick in client demand for trial-ready counsel in the US as more cases go to trial and jury trials become increasingly unpredictable while the rise of litigation funding has created less incentive to settle. 

“Adeel, Muhammad, Diana and George will bring more strength to our team,” he added. 

The incoming group brings the firm’s US litigation partner bench to 12, including Joe Profaizer, who joined from Paul Hastings last October in Washington DC and serves as global co-head of international arbitration.  

For his part, Mangi has spent the past 25 years at Patterson Belknap, which he joined at the start of his legal career. Recognised as a leading trial lawyer in the US, he has tried high-stakes commercial cases in state and federal courts across the country.

In 2023 he was nominated to a federal appeals court judgeship by former president Joe Biden and would have become the first Muslim American to hold such a position, had the appointment not been controverisally blocked due to a lack of support from both Republicans and Democrats. 

Meantime Faridi brings trial experience with a focus on complex commercial matters involving claims relating to breaches of contract and commercial torts. He made partner at Patterson Belknap in 2016 and currently serves as the president of the New York City Bar Association – the youngest person and first Muslim-American to serve in that role.

Conner joined Patterson Belknap a decade ago from Jones Day and focuses on complex commercial litigation, including disputes involving healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and media companies, while LoBiondo, who made partner at the firm in 2023, brings experience across contract-based disputes, as well as in matters involving antitrust, consumer protection and various business torts.

Patterson Belknap’s co-chair and managing partner, Dahlia Doumar, said of the team’s move: “Our departing colleagues have been valued partners. We thank them for their contributions to our firm and wish them well in the next chapter of their careers.”