Paul Weiss London co-head Neel Sachdev has become one of Big Law’s most colourful personalities, from developing luxury villas in the Algarve to consulting an astrologer over career decisions.
It is the latest chapter in the rise of one of London's most high-profile lawyers, whose 2023 move from Kirkland helped trigger a new phase of the City's partner pay and poaching wars.
There aren't many Big Law partners who could generate headlines involving TV chef Ainsley Harriott, an Indian astrologer, a Gucci tennis racket holder and a red 1977 Mercedes.
Neel Sachdev, however, is not most Big Law partners. The Paul Weiss London co-head has become something of a viral sensation in legal circles, his latest profile in the Financial Times showing his life in Portugal, where the leveraged finance heavyweight is developing luxury villas on a former orange grove in the Algarve.
Sachdev arrived at the interview in a red open-top 1977 Mercedes 450 SL, wearing a matching outfit, sunglasses and his trademark beaded bracelets. The car had only arrived from the Netherlands that week.
A colourful life
Sachdev told the FT he consulted an astrologer in India before investing in the €1.5 million Portuguese plot. He also consulted the astrologer before leaving Kirkland and sometimes does the same when considering potential hires for Paul Weiss.
His regular London doubles tennis partner, meanwhile, is TV chef Ainsley Harriott.
“Everything is an opportunity, it's never a burden,” Sachdev told the newspaper, adding that his children describe him as “toxically positive”.
Behind the entertainment is an illustration of just how dramatically the economics and culture of elite London law have changed.
The star lawyer era
Sachdev, a leveraged finance specialist who represents private equity sponsors, spent two decades at Kirkland before leaving in 2023 to spearhead Paul Weiss's dramatic London relaunch alongside private equity partner Roger Johnson.
The move helped set off one of the most aggressive hiring battles the City had seen. Paul Weiss's London operation has since grown to more than 230 lawyers, with the firm recruiting heavily from elite rivals.
It also arrived as the price of London's most valuable partners was exploding. Top rainmakers, reportedly including Sachdev, now earn upwards of $20 million a year, putting a small group of elite lawyers into uncharted territory.
Sachdev himself has long embraced the idea that elite lawyers are becoming something closer to stars. “There's definitely more of a star culture,” he told the FT, describing his approach to clients as a “consigliere model” that can extend to helping them find divorce lawyers or draft wills.
He isn't the only Big Law lawyer to become a personality in his own right. Across the Atlantic, Quinn Emanuel's Alex Spiro has built a celebrity client list spanning Elon Musk, Jay-Z and Alec Baldwin.
The former prosecutor has become known for a combative courtroom style, frequent media appearances and an irreverent persona that once led an opposing lawyer to describe him as “a bit of a cowboy” according to a profile in The New Yorker.
The same competition for private capital work that transformed London law firm economics has also elevated individual rainmakers into brands in their own right. Few lawyers appear more willing to play the part than Sachdev.
‘Market-leading’ sushi
This isn't Sachdev's first brush with legal internet fame. Last year, he appeared in a Paul Weiss promotional video showing off the firm's ultra-luxury Air Street offices, including its own restaurant and what he described as a “market-leading sushi chef.” The restaurant was designed in part to encourage lawyers back into the office.
The sushi chef was no last-minute flourish. In a Sunday Times interview in 2024, Sachdev was already talking about plans to recruit one for Paul Weiss’s new London office, alongside a juice bar and barista area. The firm had also inherited a pizza oven from Twitter, whose former London headquarters it took over.
It also detailed the extraordinary speed of Paul Weiss's build-out, with Sachdev saying of the hiring spree: “I thought it would be harder.” He added: “We don’t want to be the biggest. We want to be the greatest.”
Two years later, he appears to have found new challenges.
Sachdev wants his corner of the Algarve to become the “California of Europe”, with the villas reportedly valued at more than €3 million each. And when the FT asked what might come after his career as a lawyer, he floated an even bigger project.
“I've always wanted to run for London mayor,” he said.
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