Gibson Dunn expands Weil funds raid to US in 120-lawyer swoop

Gibson Dunn is understood to have hired Weil's US private funds team alongside its previously reported London hires, taking the combined group to roughly 120 lawyers, including more than 20 partners.

Around a dozen partners are expected to join in the US. The transatlantic team includes Weil’s private funds co-heads Andrew Chizzik in New York and James Bromley and James Sargent in London.

The move significantly expands the scope of Gibson Dunn’s raid on Weil’s funds practice.

‍As previously reported, the London group includes Bromley and Sargent, alongside partners Phil Baynes, Fiona Cumming, Aron Joy, Hannah Laurie, Nick Roxburgh, Marc Schubert, Sophie Smith and Jacquelyn Volpe.

Gibson's funds push

The hires represent a major acceleration of a funds push that has included the February 2025 hire of DLA Piper's investment fund co-head James O’Donnell in London and a seven-lawyer, four-partner investment funds team from Clifford Chance in Paris.

Gibson Dunn has also hired funds partners from Simpson Thacher, DLA Piper, Mayer Brown, Fried Frank and Alston & Bird in the US over the last two years.

The move is the latest in a series of high-profile captures by Gibson Dunn that incudes the hire of Wachtell co-chair Bill Savitt and a team of six litigation partners from Wachtell earlier this year. A move trial practice co-chair Orin Snyder described as a "dream scenario."