Latham strikes again at Wachtell as Big Law's elite talent war intensifies

In another power play at the top of the US market, Latham & Watkins has hired two partners from Wachtell in New York.

The move continues a pattern for Latham after it poached two senior Wachtell partners in headline-grabbing raids last year.

Finance specialist Emily Johnson joins Latham’s banking, private credit and capital markets practices, while corporate lawyer Mark Stagliano joins its M&A and private equity team. Both are Wachtell lifers - Johnson made partner in 2019 and Stagliano in 2020 - making the departures notable at a firm where lateral exits have historically been rare.

The hires will add further weight to Latham’s New York strategy and follow the arrival last summer of Zack Podolsky from Wachtell, one of the US’s leading M&A dealmakers. Earlier last year, restructuring partner John Sobolewski also left Wachtell for Latham.

For Latham, the additions strengthen an already formidable corporate and finance platform. The LA-headquartered firm has long been one of the busiest deal shops in the market, but in prestige terms has often been seen as marginally trailing New York natives such as Wachtell and Cravath.

Spotlight on Wachtell

Widely regarded as the most prestigious M&A firm in the US, Wachtell operates from a single New York office with a tightly held partnership and a traditional lockstep compensation system that rewards seniority rather than business brought in - the same model Slaughter and May deploys in London.

That model has long been admired for fostering cohesion and loyalty. But it can create pressure points for younger partners generating significant fees who are not yet at the top of the seniority ladder - particularly as firms like Latham lean into more performance-based systems allowing top performers to earn north of $20 million.

The recent departures suggest an unusual cluster for Wachtell. In addition to those to Latham, in January M&A partner Alison Preiss left for Simpson Thacher, while litigator Noah Yavitz joined Ropes & Gray.