So who is running Weil next year? Nobody seems to know. Per Bloomberg Law, it\u2019s unclear whether Barry Wolf will still retire at the end of the year as planned, or who would replace him if he does.<\/p>\n
This is a huge blow. When corporate chair Michael Aiello decamped for Cravath, which Weil dismissed as \u201ca smaller platform,\u201d<\/a> the story out of Weil was that losing him would finally clear the way for Nee to grow the private equity practice. Nee herself said the firm was \u201cmoving decisively\u201d to strengthen itself, and Bloomberg Law reported that Weil\u2019s whole rebuilding effort depended on partners sticking with her. The \u201clet Weil be Weil\u201d<\/a> pitch was, in many ways, a pitch about Ramona Nee.<\/p>\n And she might not be leaving alone. One source told Semafor that a \u201csizable\u201d portion of Weil\u2019s Boston partnership would likely follow her out the door. Simpson Thacher, meanwhile, has already made itself quite at home in Weil\u2019s private equity bench: it took Murray Cox, followed by private funds partners Simon Saitowitz, Stephanie Epstein Srulowitz, Brian Parness, and Andrew Nichol, as we noted last month<\/a>, and London finance head Tom Richards is headed there too. At this point, Simpson Thacher should consider opening a Weil wing.<\/p>\n All of this lands right after a rough week for Weil: its merger talks with Willkie Farr collapsed<\/a>, and another wave of exits included two members of the management committee.<\/p>\n Now the finger-pointing has started, and it\u2019s aimed at the top. Wolf has led Weil since shortly after the financial crisis, and during the back half of his tenure, the firm\u2019s financial performance lagged behind its peers<\/a>, according to Bloomberg Law. Those peers include Simpson Thacher, Paul Weiss, and Davis Polk, which are the same firms now picking off Weil\u2019s partners. Semafor reports that current and former Weil lawyers blame Wolf for failing to convince senior partners that Weil has a vision for a world where AI and eye-popping pay packages are reshaping Biglaw, and that was also at least partially behind Aiello\u2019s exit, too. Back in September, Weil insiders lined up to tell reporters the problem was Aiello. Now it\u2019s the guy who called Aiello his \u201cclosest friend\u201d at the firm.<\/p>\n Weil promised to accelerate its growth strategy after Aiello left, but the only thing that\u2019s sped up since is the exodus.<\/p>\n Earlier:<\/strong> Weil\u2019s Merger With Willkie Is Dead, But Its Partner Exodus Is Very Much Alive<\/a> Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Weil\u2019s Incoming Leader Won\u2019t Take The Job, And Might Take One At Simpson Thacher Instead<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Weil Gotshal & Manges was supposed to rebuild its new leadership team around Ramona Nee. Now she may be doing her building somewhere else.<\/p>\n Semafor reports that Nee, Weil\u2019s incoming executive partner, has held talks to join Simpson Thacher & Bartlett<\/a>. Weil declined to comment, Nee didn\u2019t respond, and sources caution that the talks could still fall apart. But whether or not she ends up at Simpson Thacher, she won\u2019t be running Weil: Bloomberg Law reports that Nee has told the firm\u2019s leadership committee she will not take the position<\/a>, also reported by<\/a> the Financial Times.<\/p>\n So who is running Weil next year? Nobody seems to know. Per Bloomberg Law, it\u2019s unclear whether Barry Wolf will still retire at the end of the year as planned, or who would replace him if he does.<\/p>\n This is a huge blow. When corporate chair Michael Aiello decamped for Cravath, which Weil dismissed as \u201ca smaller platform,\u201d<\/a> the story out of Weil was that losing him would finally clear the way for Nee to grow the private equity practice. Nee herself said the firm was \u201cmoving decisively\u201d to strengthen itself, and Bloomberg Law reported that Weil\u2019s whole rebuilding effort depended on partners sticking with her. The \u201clet Weil be Weil\u201d<\/a> pitch was, in many ways, a pitch about Ramona Nee.<\/p>\n And she might not be leaving alone. One source told Semafor that a \u201csizable\u201d portion of Weil\u2019s Boston partnership would likely follow her out the door. Simpson Thacher, meanwhile, has already made itself quite at home in Weil\u2019s private equity bench: it took Murray Cox, followed by private funds partners Simon Saitowitz, Stephanie Epstein Srulowitz, Brian Parness, and Andrew Nichol, as we noted last month<\/a>, and London finance head Tom Richards is headed there too. At this point, Simpson Thacher should consider opening a Weil wing.<\/p>\n All of this lands right after a rough week for Weil: its merger talks with Willkie Farr collapsed<\/a>, and another wave of exits included two members of the management committee.<\/p>\n Now the finger-pointing has started, and it\u2019s aimed at the top. Wolf has led Weil since shortly after the financial crisis, and during the back half of his tenure, the firm\u2019s financial performance lagged behind its peers<\/a>, according to Bloomberg Law. Those peers include Simpson Thacher, Paul Weiss, and Davis Polk, which are the same firms now picking off Weil\u2019s partners. Semafor reports that current and former Weil lawyers blame Wolf for failing to convince senior partners that Weil has a vision for a world where AI and eye-popping pay packages are reshaping Biglaw, and that was also at least partially behind Aiello\u2019s exit, too. Back in September, Weil insiders lined up to tell reporters the problem was Aiello. Now it\u2019s the guy who called Aiello his \u201cclosest friend\u201d at the firm.<\/p>\n Weil promised to accelerate its growth strategy after Aiello left, but the only thing that\u2019s sped up since is the exodus.<\/p>\n Earlier:<\/strong> Weil\u2019s Merger With Willkie Is Dead, But Its Partner Exodus Is Very Much Alive<\/a> Weil Gotshal & Manges was supposed to rebuild its new leadership team around Ramona Nee. Now she may be doing her building somewhere else. Semafor reports that Nee, Weil\u2019s incoming executive partner, has held talks to join Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Weil declined to comment, Nee didn\u2019t respond, and sources caution that the talks could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":166059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166083","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=166083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Weil Gotshal Is Reportedly Negotiating A Merger, About A Month After Saying It Wasn\u2019t In Merger Talks<\/a>
Weil\u2019s Revolving Door Now Spins In Both Directions<\/a>
Weil Seeks To Strengthen Its \u2018Platform\u2019 As Merger Rumors Swirl<\/a>
The Cravath Shade Wasn\u2019t A One-Off: Weil Insiders Line Up To Say Good Riddance<\/a>
Weil\u2019s Corporate Chair Decamps For Cravath, Which Weil Would Like You To Know Is \u2018A Smaller Platform\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/04\/question-4612919_1280-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n
Weil Gotshal Is Reportedly Negotiating A Merger, About A Month After Saying It Wasn\u2019t In Merger Talks<\/a>
Weil\u2019s Revolving Door Now Spins In Both Directions<\/a>
Weil Seeks To Strengthen Its \u2018Platform\u2019 As Merger Rumors Swirl<\/a>
The Cravath Shade Wasn\u2019t A One-Off: Weil Insiders Line Up To Say Good Riddance<\/a>
Weil\u2019s Corporate Chair Decamps For Cravath, Which Weil Would Like You To Know Is \u2018A Smaller Platform\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"