Feltman joined Wachtell as an associate back in 2002, made partner in 2010, and rose to chair the firm\u2019s elite Restructuring and Finance group. <\/a>Over that time, he helped lead some of the most consequential restructurings of the last two decades, including Toys \u201cR\u201d Us, AMC, Expedia, and Express. He\u2019s not just a rainmaker; he\u2019s the kind of lawyer whose name is synonymous with an entire practice area. He\u2019s a recognized leader in the burgeoning field of \u201cliability management,\u201d having advised on some of the largest and most novel transactions in the area, from Envision Healthcare to AMC Theatres.<\/p>\n So why would someone at that perch leave? Well, let me count the reasons\u2026 and they basically all come in the shape of dollar signs.<\/p>\n The timing of this hire is no coincidence. David Nemecek, who rose to legal industry prominence advising distressed companies on using liability management exercises to avoid restructuring and bankruptcy, left Kirkland & Ellis in February to join Simpson Thacher<\/a> (along with fellow partners Christine Bae and Jacob Ruby). Nemecek is considered the architect of modern liability management exercises, creative out-of-court restructurings that have become an important revenue stream for elite firms and redefined how private equity sponsors manage stressed portfolio companies. The move positions Simpson Thacher to directly challenge Kirkland\u2019s long-held dominance in that space.<\/p>\n Bloomberg Law reports<\/a> that at least nine partners with leadership roles in restructuring or liability management have moved law firms since late 2024, shuffling practices at firms including Fried Frank, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, Ropes & Gray, and Debevoise. It\u2019s being describes as a \u201csuper cycle\u201d of lateral moves across restructuring practices.<\/p>\n With an economy teetering on the edge (tariff chaos, market volatility, corporate debt maturities piling up), a top-flight restructuring practice its essential countercyclical planning. Feltman noted earlier this year<\/a> that an uptick in Chapter 11 activity seems inevitable, both to address unsuccessful liability management transactions and in the face of upcoming maturities for substantial debts incurred between late 2020 and 2022. So, the work is coming, but who is going to get to bill for it remains unanswered. Kirkland, stung by the Nemecek defection, clearly decided it needed to swing big for a replacement.<\/p>\n When a firm that already pays its average equity partner $11 million offers an individual attorney a guaranteed<\/em> $80 million over three years \u2014 roughly $26.7 million annually \u2014 it says everything about how valuable top restructuring talent is right now and how much Kirkland wanted to plug the gap left by Nemecek\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n Wachtell is undeniably a remarkable institution, and has long been regarded as the crown jewel of Biglaw profitability. It operates with fewer than 90 equity partners, zero offices outside Manhattan, the highest profit margin in the Am Law 100, and revenue per lawyer reported at over $5 million, the highest in the industry.<\/a> But as we keep seeing, there is something that even the most elite partnership culture cannot fully inoculate against: enough guaranteed money, deployed by a firm with $10.56 billion in annual revenue that genuinely has room to spend it.<\/p>\n The post Kirkland Lures Wachtell\u2019s Top Restructuring Lawyer With An $80M Incentive To Jump Ship<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Money talks. And apparently, when Kirkland & Ellis is doing the talking, even the fortress of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz can\u2019t hold.<\/p>\n The Financial Times is reporting<\/a> that Kirkland & Ellis has landed themselves quite the lateral bounty: Joshua Feltman, the Chair of Wachtell\u2019s Restructuring and Finance Department, dangling a guaranteed pay package of $80 million over three years to lure him away from his longtime home. Let that number sink in for a moment. Eighty. Million. Dollars. Guaranteed.<\/p>\n Feltman joined Wachtell as an associate back in 2002, made partner in 2010, and rose to chair the firm\u2019s elite Restructuring and Finance group. Over that time, he helped lead some of the most consequential restructurings of the last two decades, including Toys \u201cR\u201d Us, AMC, Expedia, and Express. He\u2019s not just a rainmaker; he\u2019s the kind of lawyer whose name is synonymous with an entire practice area. He\u2019s a recognized leader in the burgeoning field of \u201cliability management,\u201d having advised on some of the largest and most novel transactions in the area, from Envision Healthcare to AMC Theatres.<\/p>\n So why would someone at that perch leave? Well, let me count the reasons\u2026 and they basically all come in the shape of dollar signs.<\/p>\n The timing of this hire is no coincidence. David Nemecek, who rose to legal industry prominence advising distressed companies on using liability management exercises to avoid restructuring and bankruptcy, left Kirkland & Ellis in February to join Simpson Thacher<\/a> (along with fellow partners Christine Bae and Jacob Ruby). Nemecek is considered the architect of modern liability management exercises, creative out-of-court restructurings that have become an important revenue stream for elite firms and redefined how private equity sponsors manage stressed portfolio companies. The move positions Simpson Thacher to directly challenge Kirkland\u2019s long-held dominance in that space.<\/p>\n Bloomberg Law reports<\/a> that at least nine partners with leadership roles in restructuring or liability management have moved law firms since late 2024, shuffling practices at firms including Fried Frank, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, Ropes & Gray, and Debevoise. It\u2019s being describes as a \u201csuper cycle\u201d of lateral moves across restructuring practices.<\/p>\n With an economy teetering on the edge (tariff chaos, market volatility, corporate debt maturities piling up), a top-flight restructuring practice its essential countercyclical planning. Feltman noted earlier this year<\/a> that an uptick in Chapter 11 activity seems inevitable, both to address unsuccessful liability management transactions and in the face of upcoming maturities for substantial debts incurred between late 2020 and 2022. So, the work is coming, but who is going to get to bill for it remains unanswered. Kirkland, stung by the Nemecek defection, clearly decided it needed to swing big for a replacement.<\/p>\n When a firm that already pays its average equity partner $11 million offers an individual attorney a guaranteed<\/em> $80 million over three years \u2014 roughly $26.7 million annually \u2014 it says everything about how valuable top restructuring talent is right now and how much Kirkland wanted to plug the gap left by Nemecek\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n Wachtell is undeniably a remarkable institution, and has long been regarded as the crown jewel of Biglaw profitability. It operates with fewer than 90 equity partners, zero offices outside Manhattan, the highest profit margin in the Am Law 100, and revenue per lawyer reported at over $5 million, the highest in the industry.<\/a> But as we keep seeing, there is something that even the most elite partnership culture cannot fully inoculate against: enough guaranteed money, deployed by a firm with $10.56 billion in annual revenue that genuinely has room to spend it.<\/p>\n Money talks. And apparently, when Kirkland & Ellis is doing the talking, even the fortress of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz can\u2019t hold. The Financial Times is reporting that Kirkland & Ellis has landed themselves quite the lateral bounty: Joshua Feltman, the Chair of Wachtell\u2019s Restructuring and Finance Department, dangling a guaranteed pay package of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-3W7iKE.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/GettyImages-878260056-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"