Weil Gotshal's Top Earner Jumps to Cravath in Big Law's Biggest Defection of 2026

Michael Aiello, Weil Gotshal & Manges' highest-paid partner and largest revenue generator — pulling in north of $20 million annually — is leaving the firm along with five allied partners to join Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The move stunned Big Law, given that Cravath has long prided itself on homegrown talent and resisted the lateral-hiring arms race that defines modern legal competition. The departure is being read as a referendum on diverging visions of what elite law firms should look like in a consolidating industry.

Aiello, 57, spent nearly two decades at Weil as one of the firm's most powerful — and polarizing — figures, overseeing a 600-plus-person team and shepherding landmark deals including Disney's defense against a Comcast hostile takeover and the $130 billion Dow-DuPont merger. But internal friction mounted over the years: colleagues felt he hoarded resources, blocked growth in other practice areas, and was increasingly distracted by his ownership stake in Italian soccer club Cesena FC. His outsized presence even reportedly scared off lateral recruits for Weil's Texas office, a key strategic initiative.

The deeper tension is strategic. Weil has been pursuing aggressive expansion — adding partners in private equity and restructuring — while Aiello quietly feared that growth would corrode the firm's culture. Despite helping install incoming managing partner Ramona Nee, who embraces that expansion vision, Aiello gravitated toward Cravath's boutique model. The tipping point came about a month ago over a scheduled lunch with Cravath's longtime leader Faiza Saeed, a decades-long friend, where the two aligned on a vision centered on high-stakes M&A and litigation — work like the $81 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal — rather than scale.

The move is a philosophical stretch for Cravath, founded in 1819 and famous for its "cradle to grave" training model. The firm long resisted modifying its lockstep compensation system — which pays partners on a rigid seniority scale — until 2021, when it carved out 15% of profits for top performers. That rigidity had already cost the firm star dealmaker Scott Barshay in 2016. Cravath plans to match Aiello's Weil compensation of roughly $20 million-plus, but not exceed it.

Aiello's departure is just the most dramatic episode in an accelerating wave of Big Law talent churn. Earlier this summer, six litigators left Wachtell in a near-unprecedented move. Linklaters poached three Paul Weiss partners to build out its U.S. presence. And at Weil itself, Chris Machera, former co-head of the private-equity group, has already landed at Paul Weiss. With Weil actively courting lateral groups and open to all growth options — though not in active merger talks — rivals are openly debating whether the firm can absorb the losses or is entering a period of fundamental restructuring.