Weil Gotshal's $20M Star Dealmaker Defects to Cravath in Big Law's Latest Earthquake

Michael Aiello, Weil Gotshal & Manges' highest-paid partner and top revenue generator — earning north of $20 million annually — is leaving the firm along with five allies to join Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The 57-year-old M&A heavyweight has been central to some of the most consequential corporate deals in recent history, including helping Disney repel a hostile takeover by Comcast and orchestrating Dow Chemical's $130 billion merger with DuPont and its subsequent breakup. His departure lands at a particularly destabilizing moment for Weil, which is simultaneously navigating a major leadership transition as Boston partner Ramona Nee prepares to succeed longtime leader Barry Wolf in January.

The move is paradoxical in several ways. Aiello reportedly supported Weil's ambitious expansion into private equity and restructuring but feared the growth strategy would erode the firm's tight-knit culture — yet Cravath, the firm he's joining, is itself a growth skeptic. Founded in 1819, Cravath built its reputation on a homegrown "cradle to grave" talent model, a deliberately small global footprint, and a rigid lockstep compensation system. Hiring a splashy lateral group of six is a significant departure from that ethos. Cravath plans to pay Aiello roughly what he was making at Weil — close to $20 million — without exceeding it.

The seeds of Aiello's exit were long in the making. Internal tensions had simmered for years, with some partners accusing him of hoarding resources and blocking growth in rival practice areas. More recently, colleagues complained he seemed distracted by his involvement with Cesena FC, the Italian soccer club he co-invested in, and recruiters noted that his outsized presence made it difficult to attract lateral hires to Weil's Texas office. Word quietly spread that he was open to moving, and while smaller firms considered making a run at him, most weren't willing to absorb his full entourage. The connection with Cravath solidified about a month ago over a lunch with Cravath's longtime leader Faiza Saeed, a decades-long friend, who pitched her vision of a boutique firm focused on elite M&A — including Paramount's planned $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — and high-stakes litigation.

Aiello's exit is part of a broader wave of unprecedented partner mobility shaking Big Law. Weil has already lost Christopher Machera, former co-head of its private-equity group, to Paul Weiss, and other partner groups have defected to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Six litigators left the typically insular Wachtell earlier this summer — a near-unheard-of event — and Linklaters poached three partners from Paul Weiss in a U.S. expansion push. The underlying pressure: the legal industry has barely grown over the past decade, concentrating lucrative work among fewer elite firms, while AI looms as a threat to the billable-hour model. Weil, for its part, issued a terse statement referencing its growth ambitions and describing the departures as a move to a "smaller platform." The firm is actively recruiting lateral groups and open to a merger, though no active discussions are underway.