Sidley recruits M&A partners in New York from Jones Day, Simpson Thacher

David Grubman joins from Jones Day to co-lead Sidley’s global M&A practice as Adam Cromie moves over from Simpson Thacher

Sidley Austin has hired a senior partner from Jones Day in New York to be a global co-leader of its M&A practice, at the same time recruiting an M&A partner in the city from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. 

David Grubman has joined Sidley after nearly 13 years at Jones Day, where he was most recently M&A chair for the Americas. 

Also joining is Adam Cromie, who worked with Grubman at Jones Day for seven years before moving to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett last October, when he made partner. 

Grubman is recognised as a top-tier M&A lawyer in the US. His practice focuses on public company mergers and tender offers, private company acquisitions and divestitures, cross-border transactions, capital raising and corporate governance issues.

Meantime Cromie advises public and private companies and boards of directors across transactional matters including M&A, divestitures, joint ventures and majority and minority investments.

Yvette Ostolaza, chair of Sidley’s management committee, said the duo were “very familiar to our partners in New York and other offices, so we expect an easy integration of their clients”.

She added: “Sidley has been active in identifying new talent who represent existing clients across all of our practices. We will continue to grow in 2025 by attracting other legal industry leaders and offering them the tools for success.” 

At Jones Day the duo acted for equipment provider Evoqua Water Technologies for its $7.5bn merger with Xylem in 2023. They also advised US Steel on the 2021 sale of Transtar to Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors for $640m.  

“Dave and Adam have previously worked together on many matters and achieved great results for their clients,” said Brian Fahrney, chair-elect of Sidley’s executive committee and global co-leader of its M&A and private equity practice group. “We think they will be great additions to our already strong bench of public company lawyers.”

The duo’s arrival follows a 10% uptick in the value of global M&A in 2024, when it hit $3.2trn. Sidley ranked 22nd among M&A legal advisors last year by deal value, advising on just over $99bn worth of deals, according to the London Stock Exchange Group. The firm placed 21st in 2023. 

Meantime Simpson Thacher rose two places to 10th after advising on deals worth $238bn, while Jones Day was not among the top 25 firms included in the rankings. 

Sidley Austin also boosted its 500-lawyer M&A and PE practice in New York at the start of last year with the hire of partners David D’Urso and Elazar Guttman from Akin, where D’Urso had led the US PE M&A practice. In late 2023 the firm hit Paul Weiss in New York for M&A and private equity partners Jeffrey Kochian, Gerald Brant and Brittany Harrison. 

Jones Day declined to comment on Grubman's move. Simpson Thacher did not respond to a request for comment. 

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