It’s May 1, and for the Biglaw community, that means that a new competitor just entered the marketplace. Today marks A&O Shearman’s very first day of existence, and the brand new megafirm — formed from the union of Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling — grosses $3.5 billion, with nearly 4,000 lawyers, including 800 partners. On Day One, the firm has already made some major moves, naming its board, executive committee members, and practice group leaders.
As noted by the American Lawyer, A&O Shearman’s leadership leans Allen & Overy, with eight of its 11 board members and nine of its 13 executive committee members hailing from the legacy firm. Two A&O partners will serve as the firm’s managing partners in the U.K., while two Shearman partners will serve as the firm’s managing partners in the U.S. As far as practice groups and geographies are concerned, they will be managed by partners in a co- or tri-lead fashion from the firm that had a “stronger hand” coming in to the merger. Going forward, A&O Shearman will have about 21 practice groups, set up in four departments: corporate, finance, disputes, and projects/energy/infrastructure.
Here are some additional details from the firm’s power players:
Law firm leadership, including senior partner Khalid Garousha and U.S. chair Adam Hakki, told Law.com on Tuesday that A&O Shearman aims to combine most of its offices “by the end of this year.” For his part, Hakki noted that the first 100 days were about “getting in front of the clients [and] getting people together across the firms working for clients.”
Hakki added that the goal of the merger was to create a one-of-a-kind firm that was equally adept in U.S. and English law, had global depth, and reach, “and we have achieved that.” The merger, he said, lifts “both firms to a level they could not have gotten to independently,” while it doesn’t follow “the pattern” of any other firm.
Without further ado, this is what A&O Shearman’s full leadership team looks like:
A&O Shearman Board:
- Khalid Garousha: Co-Chair
- Adam Hakki: Co-Chair
- Hervé Ekué
- Parya Badie
- Lisa Brill
- Tim Conduit
- Sally Dewar
- Roger Lui
- Peter Myners
- Lona Nallengara
- Ken Rivlin
A&O Shearman Executive Committee:
- Khalid Garousha: Co-Chair
- Adam Hakki: Co-Chair
- Hervé Ekué
- Diana Billik
- David Broadley
- Denise Gibson
- David Higbee
- Astrid Krueger
- David Lee
- Doreen Lilienfeld
- Vicki Liu
- Stephen Lloyd
- Fredric Sosnick
Leaders of Major Practice Areas:
- Mergers and Acquisitions: David Broadley, Dirk Meeus, Scott Petepiece.
- Litigation and Investigations: Calum Burnett, Richard Schwed, Antonio Vazquez-Guillén.
- Debt Finance: Gus Atiyah, Nicholas Clark, Jake Mincemoyer.
- Antitrust: David Higbee, Dominic Long
- International Arbitration: Alex Bevan, Marie Stoyanov
- Real Estate: Lisa Brill, Christopher Woolf
- Restructuring and Bankruptcy: Fredric Sosnick, Katrina Buckley
- Debt Finance: Gus Atiyah, Nicholas Clark, Jake Mincemoyer
- U.S. Capital Markets and Global ICM: Ilir Mujalovic, Adam Wells
A&O Shearman Regions:
- U.S., Canada and Brazil
- France
- Netherlands
- Australia
- U.K. (including London and Belfast)
- Germany
- Spain
- Greater China
- Belgium
- Italy
- META (Middle East, Turkey, Africa)
- Japan and South Korea
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Luxembourg
- ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
Congratulations to A&O Shearman on starting this merger off on the right foot! We can’t wait to see how the firm will shake up the Biglaw market and what next year’s Am Law 100 will look like with the firm’s large presence officially on the board.
A&O Shearman Goes Live, With New Firm Naming Board and Practice Leaders [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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