Top Weil dealmaker to depart with M&A team for rival law firm Cravath

Goldman Sachs group

11/09/2026 16:45

By Sara Merken
NEW YORK, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Prominent New York dealmaker Michael Aiello is set to depart his longtime law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges alongside five other M&A partners for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, extending a recent string of senior Weil exits.
Cravath said on Friday that Aiello will join the firm with Weil partners Matthew Gilroy, Eoghan Keenan, Amanda Fenster, Michelle Sargent and Megan Pendleton.
Aiello was chairman of Weil’s 600-lawyer corporate department and has represented clients including Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs and Sanofi. Gilroy co-leads Weil’s M&A practice. 
Aiello and his team “are extraordinarily talented M&A advisors and a unique fit within our culture,” Faiza Saeed, presiding partner at Cravath, said in a statement.
A Weil spokesperson thanked the team for their contributions. “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,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
New York-founded Weil has lost a series of top partners to other firms in recent weeks, including the co-head of its private equity group, Chris Machera, who joined Paul Weiss; U.S. private funds group co-head Stephanie Srulowitz, who joined Simpson Thacher; and global white-collar defense co-head Daniel Stein, who joined Freshfields this week.
Weil’s longtime executive partner Barry Wolf is set to retire as partner at the firm at the end of next year and hand over the top leadership role to private equity partner Ramona Nee starting in January. Aiello was named chair of a new global strategy committee when the leadership transition was announced in March.

(Reporting by Sara Merken in New York)