Sidley Austin has continued to build its funds and finance practices in recent weeks, with a number of hires including a pair of funds partners from Kirkland & Ellis.
Justin Solomon has joined the firm in Los Angeles to co-lead its private equity funds group alongside former Kirkland colleague John Muno, who joined in 2025.
Solomon was a lifer at Kirkland, joining the firm as an associate in 2006 and making partner in 2012. He brings a practice advising private equity sponsors on a range of fund formation matters, including spinouts and management company start-ups.
Ryan McNish has joined the firm in Chicago after nine years at Kirkland, where he made partner in 2022. He brings experience advising PE sponsors on fund formation, governance, organisational matters, and related structuring issues.
The hires follow Sidley’s hire of an 11-strong funds team from Hogan Lovells Cadwalader this summer, and of Clifford Chance funds trio Cliff Cone, Daniel Drabkin and Michael Sabin, who all joined the firm in New York this January.
Commenting on Solomon’s hire, Sidley executive committee chair Brian Fahrney said that building out in PE funds was ‘a key strategic priority for the firm.’
In addition, Sidley has also bolstered its finance practice with the hire of Glen Kunkes in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Kunkes, who spent nearly 13 years at Mayer Brown and made partner in 2022, advises asset managers and other financial institutions on CLOs, asset-based financings and other securitisation matters.
His hire marks the latest finance hire for the firm, which also brought over a five-partner team from Clifford Chance in July, as well as a number of laterals from Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, including Bonnie Neuman, who now co-leads the firm’s global real estate practice.
Sidley does not have an office in Charlotte, though management committee chair Yvette Ostolaza told Legal Business earlier this year that the firm is ‘watching the market closely.’
Milbank has continued to grow the Chicago office it opened this summer, hiring energy and infrastructure finance partner Jarrett Doe.
Doe joins from White & Case, reuniting with the firm’s former global project development and finance co-head Nadav Klugman, who joined Milbank this summer for its Chicago launch.
However, in New York, the firm saw the departure of finance partner Christopher Kwan, to A&O Shearman.
Kwan, who started as an associate at Milbank in 2013 and made partner in 2023, advises clients including lenders and underwriters on a broad spectrum of leveraged finance transactions and financings.
A&O Shearman also hired capital markets partner Dan O’Shea, who joins in New York after eight years as a partner at Sidley. Before this he spent just under two decades at Cravath, making partner in his 2014 move to O’Melveny.
He advises underwriters and companies on both public and private securities offerings, spanning high yield, equity, convertible securities, as well as liability management transactions and public company advisory matters.
Also in New York, Gibson Dunn has hired Latin America-focused finance partner Gianluca Bacchiocchi from Clifford Chance as co-chair of its structured finance practice.
Bacchiocchi rejoined Clifford Chance in 2025 from Latham, where he spent just over four years. He previously spent six years at CC, joining from DLA Piper in 2015.
He brings a practice advising clients on financings across the energy and infrastructure sectors, with particular experience in digital infrastructure, power and renewables, and data centres.
For its part, Clifford Chance has hired Mark Lasky as chief financial officer for the Americas. He joins from investment banking advisory firm Greenhill & Co, where he was CFO since 2023, and treasurer and group financial controller for ten years before that.
The firm has also brought former New York Jets GC Jill Kelley into its New York office as a partner.
She joins after just under 18 months at Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, and previously spent five and a half years as general counsel and vice president for legal affairs at the New York Jets.
She brings experience advising professional teams, leagues, operators, and investors on a range of matters, from complex commercial transactions to sponsorship and rights deals and tournament and league formation.
Sullivan & Cromwell has hired a pair of litigators in Washington DC to co-head its Supreme Court and appellate practice.
Jonathan Ellis joins from McGuireWoods, where he was co-chair of the appeals and issues practice, while Michael Huston joins from Ashurst Perkins Coie, where he chaired the US appeals, issues, and strategy practice.
The pair are joined by Ashurst Perkins Coie senior counsel Nicholas Crown, who joins S&C as a partner.
All three lawyers previously spent time at DOJ, with Ellis and Huston serving as assistants to the solicitor general from 2017 to 2021 and 2022 respectively, while Crown held the position from 2024 to 2025 after two years as an attorney in the Civil Division.
White & Case was one of a number of firms making hires from government in the US capital, bringing in former Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust head Gail Slater as a partner.
Slater headed DOJ’s Antitrust Division as assistant attorney general for antitrust for just over a year from March 2025 to February 2026, before moving to public policy think tank American Compass in March.
She began her career as an associate at Freshfields, before serving over a decade at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). During US President Donald Trump’s first term she spent over a year as a special assistant to the president, working on tech and telecommunications policy. She later served as a policy advisor to now-Vice President J.D. Vance on his 2024 campaign.
In the private sector, she has held senior roles at Fox Corporation and Roku.
‘Antitrust has become an increasingly important boardroom issue, shaped by rapidly evolving legal, economic, political and technological forces,’ said White & Case global antitrust co-head Rebecca Farrington. ‘Gail has been at the center of many of these developments, and her judgment and perspective will be invaluable to our clients both domestically and internationally.’
Also hiring from DOJ was Debevoise & Plimpton, which has brought in George ‘Chip’ Nierlich as an antitrust partner.
The move sees him return to private practice after just under six years at the DOJ, where he most recently served as acting director litigation in the Antitrust Division. He previously spent more than 18 years as an antitrust litigator at Gibson Dunn in San Francisco, making partner there in 2007.
Nierlich brings particular experience in merger and conduct matters in the technology sector.
O’Melveny has hired former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prosecutor David Leviss as a partner in its Washington DC healthcare practice.
Leviss rejoins O’Melveny, having spent 11 years as a white-collar defence and corporate investigations partner at the firm between 2011 and 2022. Most recently, he served as the SEC’s Associate General Counsel for Oversight and Investigations.
Sidley Austin has bolstered its international trade and arbitration practice in Washington DC with the hire of Treasury Department official Jess Sanchez.
Sanchez served at Treasury for just under seven years, latterly as acting principal deputy assistant general counsel, and previously held roles in the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
Her practice will focus on advising sponsors, investors and companies navigating regulatory, policy, and national security-related trade and investment issues in cross-border transactions.
Latham & Watkins has hired former International Trade Commission (ITC) trial counsel Lisa Kattan from Baker Botts. She joins as co-chair of its ITC litigation practice and as a partner in its intellectual property litigation practice.
Kattan spent five years at the ITC as a senior investigative attorney in the Office of Unfair Import Investigations, before moving to Baker Botts for ten years, becoming both ITC litigation chair and latterly regional IP chair.
Linklaters has tapped Paul Hastings for its new head of Latin America arbitration, bringing Alejandro Martinez de Hoz into its Washington DC office.
Martinez de Hoz previously spent just under nine years at White & Case as a counsel, before moving in 2024 to Paul Hastings, where he was an international counsel.
His experience spans investment treaty and international commercial arbitrations, alongside mediations and related negotiations for clients operating in Latin America.
For its part, Paul Hastings has hired a trio of complex litigation partners from Sheppard Mullin, led by executive committee member and co-head of the privacy and data security group Craig Cardon. He joins the firm’s Los Angeles office alongside Abby Meyer, while Jay Ramsey joins in Century City.
Cardon spent over two decades at the former firm, and brings a practice representing brands, retailers, advertising and tech platforms in class actions, mass arbitrations, and governmental investigations and enforcement matters.
Ramsey and Meyer both spent over a decade at Sheppard Mullin, and bring experience advising clients in consumer class actions, civil litigation and arbitration across telecommunications, consumer goods and manufacturing, retail and healthcare sectors.
Between all three, clients include Burberry, Lenovo, Sephora, TJ Maxx and Levi Strauss among others.
Also in Los Angeles, Davis Polk has hired Skadden media head Glen Mastroberte to its M&A practice.
Mastroberte joins as a media and entertainment partner, following seven years at his former firm, where he was head of the global media and entertainment practice and the LA corporate group. Prior to this he held junior roles at Latham & Watkins, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and K&E.
His practice focuses on media and entertainment transactions, advising investors, sponsors, funds and independent producers on M&A, partnerships, financings, joint ventures and licensing.
Akin has hired tech-focused corporate partner Neil DuChez from Goldman Sachs in New York. DuChez spent nine years at the bank, as vice president and senior legal director from 2022.
He advises clients on technology, IP and commercial transactions related to emerging technologies, AI, digital assets, cloud services, software and data.
Lastly, Clyde & Co has made a pair of hires into its global aviation practice, bringing in Dave Pflieger in Washington DC and Tannie Kwong in Hong Kong.
Pflieger brings extensive experience in the industry, having served as CEO of airlines including Silver Airways and Flybe. Kwong joins from Cathay Pacific, where he spent six years, including as senior legal counsel from 2020 to 2022, and subsequently as head of customer suport.
The firm has also hired insurance litigator Greg Worden from Lewis Brisbois in Seattle, where Clydes opened an office this February.
