The elevation of two Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz lifers marks a natural transition for an elite law firm that has maintained its unique brand despite competitive pressure.
Wachtell, unlike its New York rivals, operates out of just one office in midtown Manhattan with fewer than 300 lawyers. The firm’s tiny partnership divides profits on a purely “lockstep” basis, a seniority-based model that has largely disappeared industrywide in the last decade.
William Savitt and Andrew Nussbaum, both of whom have worked at the firm since the 1990s, became the newest chairs on Tuesday, marking the first leadership change since 2006. They are now tasked with maintaining a brand that has made Wachtell among the most profitable in the world.
Savitt and Nussbaum, leaders in the litigation and corporate groups, were widely expected to take the reins at Wachtell, according to a former attorney at the firm. They replace partners Daniel Neff and Edward Herlihy, who combined have more than 80 years of experience at the firm. They now lead a firm that still has namesake partners, Martin Lipton and Herbert Wachtell, coming to work.
“It’s still Wacthell,” said Alisa Levin, a New York legal recruiter. “It still has an outsized role in M&A. Everybody is worried after the first generation, ‘Is it going to survive?’ And it did with Ed and Dan.”
Herlihy, the PGA Tour policy’s board chairman, is a key business generator for the corporate transactions practice. The former leaders will remain on the firm’s executive committee.
The traditional law firm model that Neff and Herlihy grew up with has transformed. Rivals such as Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and Kirkland & Ellis have expanded their footprint dramatically, with locations across the world and practices designed to cover a business’s every need.
That has brought in a more competitive recruiting environment, with firms increasingly shelling out greater sums to lure and keep star lawyers. Wachtell’s brand, however, has remained largely unchanged, showing no sign of expanding beyond its core big transactions focus.
The firm “is in a position of great strength as we take on the responsibility of leadership,” Savitt and Nussbaum said in a joint statement. “We’re honored to have been asked to serve the partnership and will do our best to sustain its success.”
Wachtell did not make any partners available for interviews.
‘Natural Progression’
Since its founding in 1965, Wachtell has primarily focused on advising sell-side parties in major acquisitions, as well as defending companies in activist and bet-the-company litigation.
Lipton is credited with inventing the “poison pill” in the 1980s to thwart the hostile takeovers that began growing in frequency. The firm is no stranger to tiffs with billionaires such as Elon Musk and Carl Icahn.
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