Paul Weiss to debut in Silicon Valley with Sullivan & Cromwell dealmakers

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison is set to open an office in Silicon Valley and has hired a pair of leading tech dealmakers from Sullivan & Cromwell. 

Rainmaker Nader Mousavi, who was co-head of the AI practice and the IP and technology group at his former firm, has joined Paul Weiss' corporate practice as a partner alongside Mark Schenkel. They have advised OpenAI and Broadcom on a series of landmark deals, including a $50bn investment in the former ​by Amazon ​earlier this ⁠year and Broadcom in its $63bn deal with major banks to finance the purchase of chips for AI giant Anthropic.

Their hire and Paul Weiss' Silicon Valley debut was first reported by Bloomberg Law. Paul Weiss and Sullivan & Cromwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  

Paul Weiss now ​lists Mousavi and Schenkel on its website as its sole partners in Silicon Valley along with ‌information ⁠about the new office. 

Mousavi joined Sullivan & Cromwell as a partner in 2010 from WilmerHale and has advised on AI compute transactions valued at more than $1trn according to his bio on Paul Weiss' website. He has also advised on major tech and life sciences deals for clients including AT&T, Intel, Amgen and Pharmaset, as well as consumer clients like AB InBev. 

For his part Schenkel, who made partner at Sullivan & Cromwell in 2024, also worked with Mousavi advising Broadcom on the establishment of its AI XPV Platform worth $35bn with Apollo and Blackstone as initial anchor investors. 

Paul Weiss chair, Scott Barshay, said the pair "powerfully boosts our presence in AI and digital infrastructure, at a time when this market is reshaping the global economy", in a memorandum sent on Tuesday to firm staff cited by Bloomberg Law. 

Silicon Valley will be the firm's third office in California after its luanch in San Francisco in 2021 and Los Angeles in 2023 after picking up a clutch of partners from Latham & Watkins. 

Last year the firm also hired the former head of Sullivan & Cromwell’s executive compensation and M&A transactions group, Matt Friestedt, in New York, and more recently hired several senior dealmakers from Weil, among them private equity co-head Chris Machera.