Paul Weiss has made a high-profile hire for its US restructuring practice, with Kirkland & Ellis veteran James Sprayregen joining as co-head of restructuring and debt capital solutions.
Sprayregen, who founded Kirkland’s restructuring group in the early 1990s, has led on some of the largest and most complex restructurings in history, and also led the restructuring group at Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2008.
He will co-head the restructuring and debt capital solutions practice at Paul Weiss alongside existing co-heads Brian Hermann and Andrew Rosenberg.
Paul Weiss chair Scott Barshay described Sprayregen as ‘a superstar lawyer’.
‘He has been a close business colleague and a good friend of mine for more than 25 years,’ said Barshay. ‘I am excited to work with him as a partner in our world-class restructuring practice’.
Paul Weiss has also made several other additions to its US offices, including M&A partner Austin Lee, who joins from Bracewell in Houston. Lee specialises in energy transactions, and is recognised in tier 2 of Legal 500’s Houston elite rankings for energy transactions.
Also joining the firm is tax partner Daniel Zygielbaum from Gibson Dunn in Washington DC. Zygielbaum begun his career at Gibson in 2010, making partner in 2019.
Paul Weiss has also hired New York executive compensation partner Linda Barrett from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where she was promoted to partner last January.
Elsewhere, Latham & Watkins has hired the former managing partner of A&O Shearman’s Houston and Texas office, Bill Nelson.
Nelson, whose practice focuses on capital markets, was a partner at legacy Shearman & Sterling before its merger with Allen & Overy. He has served as the Houston office and Texas lead since the merger went live in May 2024.
Also in Texas, Latham has recruited commercial litigation partner Shayne Henry for its Austin base. Henry joins from Kirkland, where he has been a partner since 2020.
In Washington DC, Latham has hired CFIUS counsel Cate Behles from the US Treasury department. Behles will join the firm’s CFIUS & US national security practice.
Also in the capital, Gibson Dunn has hired Kirkland litigation partner Matt Owen to its litigation and congressional investigations practice.
Owen has been at Kirkland since 2018, and has previously spent time serving on US Senate subcommittees, as well as clerking for the US Supreme Court.
King & Spalding has made a series of hires across its US offices, including a pair of fund finance partners from Proskauer in New York, led by co-head of the firm’s global finance and corporate and fund finance practice, Andrew Bettwy. Joining Bettwy is fund finance partner Jinyoung Joo, who has been at Proskauer since 2014, and was promoted to the partnership in 2019.
The firm has also hired restructuring partner Jarel Rosser from K&L Gates in New York. Rosser was promoted to partner this January, but joined the firm in 2023.
Also moving to King & Spalding’s New York office is Ryan Tansey, who joins as a partner in the firm’s business litigation practice after serving as the antitrust division criminal chief at the Department of Justice in Washington DC.
Going in the other direction, energy and infrastructure partner Kaleb Walker has been hired by Orrick in Houston. Walker has been a partner at King & Spalding since January 2025, after joining the firm in 2018.
Orrick has made a series of hires across its US offices, including banking and finance partner Victor Liang in New York, and associate Brittany Fox in Austin, both formerly of Morrison & Foerster. Fox will be joining Orrick as partner in its structured finance team.
The firm has also hired fund finance partner John Paul Igoe in Charlotte from Mayer Brown, as well as finance partner Polly O’Brien from McDermott Will & Schulte in London.
Akin has hired corporate partner Dilen Kumar from Katten in Dallas. Kumar, who specialises in PE M&A, also spent three years as a partner at Kirkland, before joining Katten in 2021.
Cahill has rehired corporate partner Marc Shepsman from Paul Weiss in New York. Shepsman joined Paul Weiss as counsel in 2023 from Cahill, and was promoted to partner January 2026.
McGuireWoods has hired energy and PE partner David Aaronson from O’Melveny & Myers in Houston. Aaronson has been at O’Melveny since 2024, and was at Orrick prior to this.
For its part, O’Melveny has hired a pair of financial services regulatory partners from Cleary in Washington DC – James Burns and Brant Brown. The duo have both worked at Cleary for over three years, as they both joined from Willkie in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has hired secondaries and fund transactions counsel Zhiyan Cao from Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. Cao joins as a partner after over a decade at Debevoise, where she became counsel in 2021.
Other recent hires for Simpson Thacher include energy and infrastructure finance lawyer Denny Lee from Latham. Lee joins Simpson Thacher’s Houston office as partner, after eight years at Latham, where he was promoted to counsel in January this year.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Clyde & Co has hired trial lawyer Stephen Hoffman. Hoffman joins from Lewis Brisbois, where he spent just under two years as a partner.
Broadfield has hired former White & Case associate Ty C Akkoyun in New York. Akkoyun will join as a partner in Broadfield’s M&A team and chair of its innovation committee.
Broadfield also this week expanded into Brazil via an association with IW Melcheds, a full-service firm with 80 lawyers, marking the firm’s first entry into Latin America.
