Names of the five partners set to leave Weil for Cravath alongside corporate head Michael Aiello have emerged, with the latest moves set to take the string of departures from Weil into double digits.
Aiello, who chairs Weil’s corporate department and global strategy committee, is expected to join Cravath alongside five other M&A partners: Matthew Gilroy, Amanda Fenster, Meghan Pendleton, Eoghan Keenon, and Michelle Sargent.
Faiza Saeed, presiding partner at Cravath, said: ‘I’ve known Mike Aiello for many years, and he and his team are extraordinarily talented M&A advisors and a unique fit within our culture.
‘They share our belief in the power of collaboration centered on client service for handling the most challenging, high-impact work, and embrace the values that have long defined Cravath. We are delighted to welcome Mike, Matt, Eoghan, Amanda, Michelle and Megan to Cravath.’
The departures follow a series of major exits from Weil over the last few weeks, including fellow management committee member and private equity co-head Christopher Machera, who left for Paul Weiss last month.
Aiello has spent nearly two decades at Weil, joining in 2007 from legacy Dewey Ballantine, which later merged into Dewey & LeBouef before it collapsed in 2012.
Gilroy who co-heads Weil’s M&A practice also joined from Dewey Ballantine in 2007. Fenster started her career at Cravath, leaving in 2011 to become associate general counsel at bioanalytics company IDEXX. She moved to Weil as an associate in 2017 and made partner in 2020.
Pendleton, Keenon, and Sargent are Weil lifers, with Pendleton starting at the firm in 2008, Keenon in 2007, and Sargent in 2014.
In February 2025, Aiello was appointed as chair of Weil’s new global leadership and strategy committee, as the firm revamped its governance structure ahead of the retirement of long-serving executive partner Barry Wolf at the end of 2027.
Aiello is now the second of the six committee members to leave the firm.
A longtime New York dealmaker, Aiello is recognised in the Legal 500 Hall of Fame for big-ticket M&A deals, as well as for telecoms and broadcast transactions.
Aiello’s notable mandates include advising Dow Chemical Company’s on its $130bn merger with E. I. du Pont de Nemours in 2015, as well as Willis Towers Watson on its $80bn combination with Aon, which was ultimately abandoned in 2021.
Gilroy and Fenster also acted on the Willis Tower Watson deal, while Pendleton and Sargent advised on the Dow Chemicals deal.
Aiello has also acted on multiple billion-dollar deals in the last year alone, co-leading the teams that advised MarketAxess on its $6bn acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange, CBIZ on its $5bn sale to Grant Thornton, and Yum! Brands in its $2.7bn sale of Pizza Hut to Long Range Capital.
Fenster was also on the team that advised on the Pizza Hut deal, while Gilroy also advised on the Market Axess deal.
Aiello is the seventh partner to leave the firm in the last month, and the fifth in New York, with other notable departures including US private funds co-head Stephanie Epstein-Srulowitz, who moved to Simpson Thacher last week.
Also joining Simpson from Weil is GP stakes and investment management partner Andrew Nichol in New York, while the firm’s London office has also hired M&A partner Murray Cox and secondaries partner Simon Saitowitz.
Just yesterday, Freshfields also hired white-collar litigator Daniel Stein from Weil in New York.
For its part, Weil has also made several recent hires, including banking and finance partner Damian Ridealgh, who rejoined the firm from Freshfields in New York.
The firm has also hired PE partners Michael Hanna from Kirkland & Ellis and Jonathan Stott from Dechert, who both joined the firm in San Francisco.
Commenting on the departures of Aiello and his team, a Weil spokesperson said: ‘Mike Aiello and his team have informed us that they are leaving the Firm for a smaller platform. Weil has long believed that an ambitious growth strategy is in the Firm’s best interest and intends to accelerate execution of that strategy going forward. We thank Mike and his team for their contributions.’
