Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Elite pure-lockstep M&A law firm advising on the largest corporate deals in the US.
The call
Wachtell still commands the top boardroom calls, but its lockstep model is losing partners to guarantee-pay rivals faster than any point in its history.
Wachtell is one of the most powerful law firms in America, famous for advising big companies on their biggest deals like mergers and takeovers. What made it hard to compete with was simple: for decades, the biggest companies trusted Wachtell's partners most, and that trust was almost impossible for rivals to copy or for AI to replace. But now Kirkland and Latham are offering partner payouts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to poach Wachtell's top lawyers, and it is working. Wachtell lost more than 8 percent of its partnership in 2025, dropped from first place to fourth place in deal rankings even though deal business is booming, and at least nine senior partners left, mostly to Latham. The one thing that could change everything is whether those departing partners bring their client relationships with them. If AT&T, Pfizer, and JPMorgan Chase follow their trusted advisors to other firms, Wachtell's reputation advantage vanishes overnight and becomes a competitive crisis.
Why
01
AI pressure: Harvey AI and similar legal-AI diligence tools. AI is absorbing junior associate document work but has not touched the partner-level trust that wins M&A mandates. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. Nine-figure guarantees pulled 9+ senior partners out since Jan 2025 and dropped Wachtell from #1 to #4 in deal value by H1 2026. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Decades of board-level trust, Delaware takeover expertise, and prestige that still makes CEOs call Wachtell first in a crisis.
What would change this call
Wachtell's global deal-value rank in H2 2026 or 2027 league tables (currently 4th). Falling further shows Kirkland, Skadden, S&C are converting poached talent into won mandates.
Whether any of the 9+ partners who left since Jan 2025 take marquee clients like AT&T, Pfizer, or JPMorgan with them. Client defection would show attrition is eroding institutional relationships, not just headcount.
Whether Wachtell's partnership size or PEP figure in the 2027 Am Law report shows double-digit annual departures. Would indicate the lockstep model is breaking under the lateral-pay attack.
Whether any of the 9+ partners who left since Jan 2025 take marquee clients like AT&T, Pfizer, or JPMorgan with them. Client defection would show attrition is eroding institutional relationships, not just headcount.
Whether Wachtell's partnership size or PEP figure in the 2027 Am Law report shows double-digit annual departures. Would indicate the lockstep model is breaking under the lateral-pay attack.
Key numbers
- Profits per equity partner hit $12.152M, up 34.48% YoY
- Revenue per lawyer $5.085M, roughly double Kirkland's
- Deal-value rank fell from #1 to #4 globally, $367.7B
Named risks
- Lateral partner exodus to Kirkland and Latham with nine-figure guarantees.
- Pure-lockstep compensation model unable to match rival pay offers.
- M&A market cyclicality could cut into mega-deal-dependent revenue.
- Reputational exposure from 2026 insider-trading indictment naming ex-associate.
- Musk's planned appeal of Musk v. Altman ruling could reopen litigation exposure.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Kirkland & Ellis | gaining on | First firm to exceed $10B revenue in 2025; poached Feltman for >$20M/year, April 2026 |
| Latham & Watkins | gaining on | Recruited five Wachtell partners since Feb 2025 per law.com, May 2026 |
| Skadden | gaining on | Overtook Wachtell in global M&A deal value ranking, H1 2026 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | gaining on | Ranked ahead of Wachtell in global M&A deal value, H1 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is Wachtell Lipton profitable?
- Extremely. Wachtell's profits per equity partner hit $12.152 million in 2025, up 34.48% year over year, making it the first Am Law 100 firm ever to break $12 million PEP, per a May 2026 Am Law 100 report.
- Is Wachtell Lipton losing partners to rivals?
- Yes. At least 9 senior partners left between January 2025 and May 2026, five to Latham & Watkins, plus others to Kirkland, Simpson Thacher, Ropes & Gray and DLA Piper. The partnership shrank over 8% in 2025, the largest contraction of any elite New York firm.
- Could AI replace Wachtell Lipton's lawyers?
- Unlikely for its core work. Wachtell's moat is bet-the-company judgment, board-level trust, Delaware expertise and liability cover, none replicable by AI. AI mainly threatens the associate-leverage document review layer Wachtell never relied on, per firm structure analysis.
- Who is Wachtell Lipton's biggest competitor?
- Kirkland & Ellis, the first law firm ever to exceed $10 billion gross revenue in 2025, which has been actively poaching Wachtell partners, including restructuring chair Joshua Feltman in April 2026 for a reported package exceeding $20 million per year.
- Is Wachtell Lipton still the top M&A law firm by deal value?
- No longer clearly. Wachtell led North American M&A by value in Q1-Q3 2025 at $369.4 billion, but by H1 2026 it had fallen to 4th globally at $367.7 billion, behind Kirkland, Skadden and Sullivan & Cromwell, per GlobalData/LSEG data.
- Who owns Wachtell Lipton?
- Wachtell is a private general partnership with no external investors or public shares, funded entirely by partner capital and client fees. It has been co-led by chairs William Savitt and Andrew Nussbaum since November 2023.
Timeline
- 2026-07-08Wachtell reported 4th globally by M&A deal value in H1 2026 at $367.7bn
- 2026-06-12Advised OpenAI on $6.5bn Io Products/Jony Ive acquisition, its largest deal ever
- 2026-05-26Report details 9+ partner departures since Jan 2025, five to Latham & Watkins
- 2026-05-25Won Musk v. Altman trial for OpenAI/Sam Altman on statute-of-limitations grounds
- 2026-05-042026 Am Law 100 report: Wachtell PEP hits $12.152M, first firm ever above $12M
- 2026-04Kirkland & Ellis poached restructuring chair Joshua Feltman for over $20M/year
- 2026-02Wachtell advised on $230bn of M&A deals announced in a single week
- 2025-11-20X Corp's $90M fee-dispute lawsuit against Wachtell dismissed with prejudice
- 2025-10-17Wachtell rose from 6th to 1st in North American M&A deal value, $369.4bn, Q1-Q3 2025
- 2023-11William Savitt and Andrew Nussbaum appointed co-chairs of the firm
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (2026-07-23)
- 2026 Am Law 100: Kirkland Hits $10B, Wachtell Tops $12M Partner Pay (2026-05-04)
- The 2026 Am Law 100 Is Out (2026-04-15)
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Kirkland & Ellis top North American M&A legal adviser rankings for 2025 (2026-01-27)
- Wachtell, Kirkland emerge top North American M&A legal advisory during Q1-Q3 2025 (2025-10-17)
- Kirkland tops global M&A rankings after strongest first half for dealmaking since records began (2026-07-08)
- Wachtell Advises OpenAI Jony Ive Io Deal (2026-06-12)
- Judicial Notice (05.25.26): Day Of Reckoning (2026-05-25)
- Paul Weiss, Wachtell shepherd Chevron's $53bn Hess Corp mega merger
- Wachtell, Paul Weiss and Vinson & Elkins shepherd Diamondback's $26bn Endeavor acquisition
- Highest-Profit Elite Corporate Law Firm (2026-06-11)
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz