Paul Hastings has boosted its bench in Washington DC with the hire of antitrust partner Joshua Soven from Paul Weiss.
Soven has moved over after nearly four years at Paul Weiss, before which he was a partner at Wilson Sonsini and Gibson Dunn and practised at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
He focuses on antitrust litigation and M&A work, acting as antitrust counsel in high-profile deals including LinkedIn’s $26bn sale to Microsoft and Marriott’s $13bn acquisition of Starwood while in private practice.
During his time as a government enforcement lawyer, Soven served as chief of the Litigation I Section of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, where he led investigations and litigation disputes and directed merger reviews, including the inquiry into InBev’s $52bn acquisition of Anheuser-Busch.
Soven also served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division’s Networks and Technologies Section and as an attorney advisor to FTC chairman Deborah Platt Majoras on antitrust enforcement and policy matters.
“Josh’s antitrust experience in government enforcement at the DOJ and FTC and private practice is instrumental to the continued growth of the brand and scale of our antitrust practice,” said Paul Hastings chair, Frank Lopez. “Our antitrust practice is incredibly busy, and we believe Josh’s arrival will enhance our reputation as a destination antitrust platform and support our increased M&A deal volume for clients navigating a complex regulatory landscape.”
Paul Weiss has lost a number of partners since it struck a deal with the Trump administration in March, becoming the first of nine major law firms to collectively pledge $940m in pro bono legal services in order to avoid punitive executive actions.
In May, a quartet of litigators, including prominent Democratic lawyer Karen Dunn, left to form their own firm, which has since added seven more Paul Weiss partners and earlier this month hired partner Meryl Governski from Willkie Farr, another firm that cut a deal with Trump.
At the end of last month, Sarah Stasny also left Paul Weiss to join Proskauer in New York as US head of private equity transactions.
Meanwhile, Paul Hastings is on a hiring streak across practice areas including private equity, M&A and restructuring as well as litigation.
In March, the firm added star dealmaker Eric Schiele in New York from Kirkland & Ellis as it honed in on large-cap public M&A, and earlier in the year added highly rated technology and IP lawyer Sarah Gagan in Boston from Latham & Watkins as co-chair of its newly formed global technology transactions practice.
Lopez told Bloomberg Law that Paul Hastings was on track to grow revenue 12% to more than $2.5bn this year.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
