Kirkland & Ellis lands M&A 'rising star' partner

Kirkland & Ellis lands M&A 'rising star' partner

Cravath dealmaker Allison Wein is the second to leave the firm in the last eight months

As part of its corporate practice group, Kirkland & Ellis has added Cravath Swaine & Moore lawyer Allison Wein from its M&A group in New York.

Among Wein's notable achievements are her work on Disney's $85 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox and British American Tobacco's $97 billion merger with Reynolds American. With extensive experience in cross-border and contested transactions, as well as activism defense, her practice focuses on a variety of M&A matters.

In September last year, partner Damian Zoubek also quit Cravath to join Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, marking Cravath's second high-profile M&A lawyer departure during this time period. Even though Cravath has overhauled its pay structure and removed its pure lockstep-based compensation model that rewards partners based on seniority rather than merit, it will still lose top dealmakers.

According to Jon Ballis, Kirkland's executive committee chairman, Allison is an exceptional lawyer and a rising star in the industry who has advised on some of the largest and most complex M&A transactions in the industry. Kirkland continues to invest in its strategic M&A business by bringing in talent like Allie who, along with her colleagues, makes sure we remain market leaders and provide clients with the advice they expect."

In September 2011, Wein joined Cravath as an associate and became a partner at the beginning of the year 2019.

"Allie is one of the most promising M&A lawyers in the legal world and is known for her astute advice on big deals," said Eric Schiele, a member of the firm's executive committee. Our incredibly strong platform in New York and across the firm will be strengthened by her experience in counseling clients on high-stakes, transformative mergers and acquisitions."

M&A at Kirkland continues to be one of the best performing practices globally. By deal value, Refinitiv ranked the firm third in last year's global M&A legal advisor ratings, where it worked on 977 transactions worth $572 billion, just behind Latham & Watkins and Sullivan & Cromwell, which ranked first. With 207 deals worth $119 billion during the first quarter of this year, the Chicago-based firm held third place by deal value.