The lawyers come to the firm from WilmerHale and work closely together representing public and private companies and private equity clients in a wide range of corporate and securities matters, including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisition and debt financings, capital markets transactions, SEC advisory and corporate governance matters.

“We are excited to add a team of four nationally recognized transactional partners to our corporate practice. Keith, Chalyse, Dave and Alex have worked on some of the most complex and consequential transactions for clients in the Rocky Mountain Region and beyond, including numerous headline-grabbing deals in the hospitality, retail, technology, aerospace and energy sectors. They will strengthen our corporate platform in Denver, New York, Washington D.C. and elsewhere,” said Vinson & Elkins Chair Keith Fullenweider.

Corporate Partner Keith Trammell counsels public companies, private equity funds, special committees, investors and privately held companies on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and capital markets matters. He led the Nordstrom family’s recent take-private of Nordstrom, Inc., represented Vail Resorts in its acquisitions of 22 ski resorts across the U.S.,  guided Regal Entertainment Group through its sale to a U.K.-based cinema conglomerate, and counts among his clients leading middle market private equity funds, hotel companies, and companies in the technology, energy, industrials and aerospace sectors.  A rare two-time “Lawyer of the Year” honoree by Law Week Colorado (2018, 2021), he is also ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA in Corporate/M&A (Colorado, 2018-2025). Trammell regularly represents acquirors, targets, buyout groups, boards of directors, special committees, founders, investors and shareholder groups in complex domestic and international negotiated and unsolicited M&A transactions.

Finance Partner Chalyse Robinson guides public and private companies,  private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies through all aspects of their debt financing and other capital markets transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, private credit and direct lending financings. She has a broad range of experience representing national and international companies and private equity funds active across a diverse range of industries, including energy and natural resources, oil and gas, mining, financial services, technology, entertainment, retail, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing and real estate. Robinson is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA in Banking & Finance (Colorado, 2021-25).

Tax Partner David Strong advises clients on the tax aspects of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and restructurings, partnerships and joint ventures, and private equity and venture capital investments. He also advises on the tax aspects of a wide range of capital markets transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, mezzanine and bridge loans, early-stage venture financings, and initial public equity offerings and convertible debt offerings (including tax-integrated hedges). He is ranked Band 1 in Tax by Chambers USA  (Colorado, 2020-25). Over the course of his career, he has worked with a wide variety of both public and private clients (including numerous Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies), partnerships and joint ventures, and private equity and venture capital funds. He has also worked with family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

Corporate Partner Alex Bahn’s clients include name brand public companies as well as large institutions and other investors  on a broad range of corporate governance, securities compliance and disclosure, and capital markets related matters, including SEC reporting and disclosure requirements, board and governance considerations, beneficial ownership and short-swing liability avoidance, insider trading considerations, securities registration exemptions, as well as financing transactions, including capital markets offerings and commercial paper programs. He is ranked among the world’s leading Corporate Governance lawyers (Legal 500, 2020-22, 2024-25).

Vinson & Elkins will relocate its Denver office on May 21 to a premier space at 200 Columbine in Cherry Creek.

This is our third annual guide to the lawyers throughout the world who have dedicated their careers to pursuing justice for individuals and businesses who have been injured by everything from antitrust violations to securities fraud; aviation accidents to mass torts; and human rights violations to social media abuse.

We're here to praise them. And praise them as we should.

Among the lawyers who’ve come a long long way together – in London, Birmingham, Ala., and Sydney, Australia – are three remarkable women who represent a new face of plaintiff advocacy in courtrooms and tribunals around the world. It’s thrilling to see – and to celebrate the emergence of such remarkable women in the elite ranks of the world’s claimant advocates.

Shazia Yamin is a disputes resolution partner at Mishcon de Reya in London. Among a growing number of dedicated claimant advocates worldwide, she specializes in large product liability and consumer group actions. She has made her mark fighting for transparency from the auto industry. She represented ClientEarth and Mums for Lungs in UK Dieselgate proceedings, winning a High Court order compelling auto manufacturers to disclose unredacted core documents on open justice grounds. She has served as lead lawyer for more than 120K Volkswagen owners in group litigations, including one in which she secured a £193M settlement for emissions test manipulations in diesel vehicles.

Diandra Fu Debrosse is managing partner for DiCello Levitt in Birmingham, Ala.; co-chair of the firm’s Mass Tort division; and co-chair of its Civil and Human Rights Litigation practice group. The powerhouse litigator has ascended to the ranks of U.S. plaintiff lawyers regularly chosen as lead counsel in massive class and multidistrict litigation actions. She is co-lead counsel in the products liability MDL against two of the world’s largest infant formula makers, Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson; the MDL against L’Oréal and other manufacturers of hair relaxer products marketed primarily to Black and Latina women which allegedly caused injury and disease. She also represents the City of Baltimore in lawsuits for the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse; and represents dozens of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Maryland and North Dakota counties and other jurisdictions in two separate prescription opiate MDLs.

Vavaa Mawuli is a principal in Maurice Blackburn’s Brisbane office, where she leads the Class Action practice. She amassed advocacy experience early in her career at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney, conducting cases including a joint class action with Maurice Blackburn against the State of New South Wales for the wrongful imprisonment of children by police. She has represented Aboriginal workers deprived of wages and entitlements by past State governments, and served as a criminal defense lawyer in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and for Aboriginal Legal Services in Sydney. She joined Maurice Blackburn in 2012 to eradicate barriers to justice for individuals who have suffered from corporate and government misconduct. She is a key lawyer leading one of Australia's largest class actions, on behalf of victims of flooding in South East Queensland in January 2011.

We selected the 500 lawyers honored here through our proprietary process honed over more than 50 years, weighing robust submissions, peer critique and journalistic research. We focused principally on work in the areas of antitrust and competition, investor and shareholder rights, mass torts, consumer fraud, aviation accidents, global asset recovery and civil and human rights. Those denoted with an asterisk are members of our esteemed Hall of Fame.

There’s a moment in Sulie Arias' origin story that feels almost too cinematic to be true. She’s a young new mother, back on campus finishing her undergraduate studies at Baruch College after a semester-long maternity leave. Climbing a staircase on her way to class, she hears hurried footsteps behind her. Her business law professor is running behind her, calling her name. Arias recalls thinking, "Oh my God, I’m in trouble. What happened?"

As the two women caught up with each other, Arias’ professor breathlessly told her, "I've been teaching this class for ten years and I've never had anyone get a perfect score on my final. I think you should consider exploring a career in law."

Arias hadn't been thinking about law school; in fact, she remembered the mandatory class as “just fine.” She had a newborn son, a marketing degree almost in hand, and would figure the rest out. But something happened on that staircase. Something clicked. Something opened a door she hadn’t imagined, and Sulie Arias walked through it.

Today, she is a partner in the real estate finance group at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, one of the most storied firms in American law. She represents institutional lenders in complex transactions spanning multi-family properties, industrial portfolios, hotels, CMBS originations and sophisticated leverage structures. She sits on the board of El Museo del Barrio. She is, by any measure, exactly where she is supposed to be.

And she’s been comfortable climbing since that staircase moment.

THE SCENIC ROUTE TO BIG LAW

Arias was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States at nine years old, settling in New York City. At Baruch, she was a marketing major with practical ambitions and no particular attachment to the law. Then came the professor, the perfect score, and the cascade of decisions that followed.

She took every law class Baruch offered. She aced all of them.

After graduation, when her classmates were heading out to the working world or to pursue higher degrees, Arias took some time off to spend time with her son. Arias recalls, "When he was around two, I started preparing for the LSATs. When he was three, I started law school."

She got into Brooklyn Law – her first choice – but geography and motherhood made the decision for her. Her son's grandmother lived in Queens and could babysit. St. John's it was.

She recalled being the only woman in her class juggling a child and a full-time job. The other students had come straight from undergrad. They were younger and unencumbered, still figuring out who they were. Arias had already done some defining.

FINDING THE REAL

She entered law school thinking she might pursue entertainment law. The arts had always called to her – she pictured herself representing musicians, maybe going in-house at a museum, attending the occasional red carpet event.

One class changed that. “I took Property Law my first semester, and I was immediately drawn in – there was something fascinating about how centuries-old laws, rooted in the feudal system, still shape modern law today. When I took Intellectual Property in my second semester, the material became increasingly abstract, and it made me realize it wasn’t the right fit for me. Real estate, by contrast, keeps you grounded in something tangible.”

There was something fascinating about how centuries-old laws, rooted in the feudal system, still shape modern law today.

What she discovered was not just a practice area but a philosophy. At its core, real estate law is real – land, buildings, the places people live, work and play. Abstraction has limits, where the answer to almost any question however complex can be found by looking at something real.

Arias embodies this focus completely. To this day, when a new deal lands on her desk at its core, her first move is to open a browser and search the property's address.

"You can describe a property to me as a multi-family asset in Los Angeles, but that only tells part of the story," she says. "I’ll usually Google the address to get a better sense of the collateral – what it actually looks like, what’s around it. Suddenly it becomes more real: Maybe it’s a charming courtyard building with a fountain, right across from a major retail center. Or it’s an industrial property in Ohio that turns out to be a large warehouse sitting in the middle of an open field. Seeing it adds context, gives each property its own personality, and ultimately provides a different perspective.”

It also gives the work a humanity that a purely transactional practice can sometimes lack. When Arias talks about what she finds most memorable in her career – which spans work on transactions involving a wide range of real estate assets (office, retail, hotel, warehouse, industrial, student housing, multifamily, and mixed-use) across properties of all sizes, both locally and nationwide, and spanning the full spectrum of the market – it’s less about the deal and all about the relationship.

"What's more memorable to me is when I start working with a new client," she says. "Getting to know their team, understanding their process, and building a relationship as they begin to trust you. Going through that first deal together, seeing their satisfaction, and then later having them come to me with questions about deals I'm not even involved in. That's more meaningful to me than any single transaction."

THE MENTOR WHO MADE HER

Much like her education, Arias didn't take the traditional route into Big Law. There was no summer associate program, no seamless on-ramp from law school graduation to a position with a track toward a corner office. She had to build her own bridges – often while still crossing the proverbial river.

Her St. John's property law professor gave her bridge its first plank, hiring her for foreclosure work at his Long Island practice. Arias agreed – on one condition.

"I told him, I know you don't need real estate help right now, but I’ll assist with the foreclosures if you let me work some real estate deals." He agreed. She handled the foreclosures, gained experience on the real estate side, and once she felt she had absorbed what the arrangement could teach her, she made her move to Big Law with that small but real foothold of experience.

The mentor who truly empowered her was Jeffrey Page, then at Reed Smith, who was looking for something specific in a junior associate – someone hungry, not entitled; someone who wanted to take over deals, not just support them.

Arias told him exactly who she was and what she needed.

"I'm behind the curve because I didn't start in Big Law from year one," she told him. "If I come work for you, I need you not to treat me like a second or third year. I want to learn as much as I can handle, whatever level I'm at. If I’m ready to handle a loan agreement next year, give me that opportunity."

What followed was six years of exacting, demanding, deeply effective mentorship. Page returned Arias’ loan agreements covered in red lines. He’d debrief her after client calls: “too many ums, he'd say. Learn to be comfortable with silence.” He pushed her into the deep end and expected her to swim.

You can describe a property to me as a multi-family asset in Los Angeles, but that only tells part of the story.

“He was instrumental in my early development, giving me a foundation that I’ve continued to build on throughout my career," she says.

She left for same reason many talented attorneys eventually have to leave a mentor. Every annual review, she was told she needed to work with more partners. Every year, she and Page were too busy together for it to happen.

She left for Cadwalader. From the first interview she knew it was the right call. "There were more women interviewers than men," she says. "And a woman was the leader of the group. That was like candy to me."

CADWALADER AND THE VALUE OF BEING SEEN

Six years into her time at Cadwalader, Arias is candid about what keeps her there: the work, the culture, and a sponsorship program that she credits with accelerating her path to partnership in ways that pure performance alone might not have.

The program, originated by senior partner Linda Swartz, pairs high-performing associates with sponsors who help them set goals, hold them accountable, and crucially, put their names forward for opportunities they might not have pursued on their own.

"There are a lot of times, especially in Big Law, where really talented attorneys get overlooked," Arias says. "Sometimes another attorney may get more face time with a particular partner – or simply be more adept at networking – and as a result, they’re given opportunities you might miss while you’re focused on your work."

The program, she says, corrects for that. Through it, she was encouraged to join the planning committee for a CREFC Women's Symposium, expanded her network, and built the kind of visibility that partnership requires.

What she values most about Cadwalader, though, is harder to quantify: a boutique feel that has survived inside a major, centuries-old firm. Leaders are accessible. Partners collaborate across practice groups. You don’t need to go through seven people to reach the person you need.

That culture is being stress-tested by a historic and widely publicized pending merger that will significantly expand the firm's global footprint. Arias watches the process with the measured eye of someone who has navigated change before.

"My understanding is that we’ll continue to have that boutique, specialized feel. The practice groups we’re combining with are largely complementary rather than overlapping, so, I don't see any reason why that dynamic would change."

THE MARKET RIGHT NOW

Arias practices at a moment of unusual complexity in real estate finance, and she moves through it with the calm of someone who has seen cycles come and go.

The current landscape, she explains, is defined by a collision of forces with one unifying theme: uncertainty. On the macro level, there’s the kind of underlying anxiety in interest rates, economic signals and general instability that leads to lenders pausing before dispersing capital. There is also a massive wave of loans originated a decade ago, when rates were at historic lows, now coming due in a dramatically different environment – with dramatically higher rates to refinance.

The result is a market in creative tension. Traditional lenders are pulling back from certain asset classes – office space, in particular – while private credit steps in, offering flexibility at a price. Arias has seen a notable uptick in loan-on-loan structures, a form of leveraged financing she handles for current clients, in which a major institution (like a bank) provides back-leverage to a subordinate lender (such as a debt fund or non-bank lender), enabling deals that might not otherwise get done.

The current landscape, she explains, is defined by a collision of forces with one unifying theme: uncertainty.

"My deals have become increasingly creative," she says. "Lenders are leaning on more complex capital stack solutions including leverage financing, A/B note structures, preferred equity, and mezzanine capital to bridge gaps and get transactions across the finish line. In today’s market, with tighter liquidity and ongoing valuation uncertainty, I’m seeing a lot more of that."

It is, she notes, a highly competitive market, with private credit and institutional lenders constantly watching one another and recalibrating. Alternative lenders and private credit funds continue to step in where banks and life companies pull back, particularly for transitional assets and higher-yield opportunities.

WHAT’S more real THAN REAL ESTATE?

Outside the office, Arias is a person of eclectic, specific, grounded enthusiasms. She travels constantly, almost always somewhere new. It doesn’t hurt that she’s assessed some of the best resorts and hotels in the country. This December she’s traveling with her family to Rome for Christmas.

She also makes the most of her New York City home base, frequenting museums and taking full advantage of Central Park, catching Shakespeare in the Park and other performances in the summer.

This February, she was voted onto the board of El Museo del Barrio, the East Harlem institution dedicated to Latino art and culture. The appointment holds a special significance for Arias. She remembers visiting as a fourteen-year-old on a school trip and the excitement of seeing something that reflected her world.

"As a Latina, when I was invited to join the board, I said of course, 100 percent," she says. "I feel like, as an inner-city kid, the art opens your mind to broader possibilities. And I want to make sure El Museo continues its much needed educational programs, because I know first-hand, they work."

She also maintains an active pro bono immigration practice – currently representing a young man who fled gang violence in El Salvador. She helped secure his asylum status and is working on his residency.

She doesn't dwell on the parallel to her own story – the young person from another country, arriving in New York, figuring out how to build a life. But it’s there, unmistakably.

Her son, who went through law school with her as a toddler is graduating from Vermont’s Norwich University this year. He’s told her he might want to be a lawyer too. She gives him honest advice: it's hard, it's not glamorous, and you should only do it if you find the right corner of it.

"He likes history and politics," she says. "So, I told him, if you want to explore it, maybe constitutional law. Something more concrete. Something you'd actually love."

It echoes the advice the professor on that staircase gave her – not a prescription, but a permission: If you like this, explore it.

The rest, Arias has long since proven, you figure out on your own.

Andrew St. Laurent learned a long time ago that victory for a lawyer and victory for a client aren’t necessarily the same thing.

Convincing a jury to return a verdict in the client’s favor that precludes prison or financial penalties, leading to splashy headlines and a cable news sound bite, is a win for the attorney and may look and feel like victory to the client in the moment. Ultimately, however, it may fail to undo damage to the client’s career, professional reputation or standing in the community.

“People don’t live in a courtroom; they live in the real world,” says one of the founding partners at Harris, St. Laurent. “If you win, after the verdict, there are tears and hugs and if it’s a high-profile case, there is press attention and you have the opportunity to say, ‘We were vindicated, and we won.’ But the reality in a criminal case is that there may be 70 percent of the people on the street who, if they’re asked and even if they know nothing about the case, will say, ‘They were probably guilty. They got off on a technicality.’ If your client is never charged, that never happens. The real victories are the ones that are not victories for the lawyers at all; they’re victories for the clients.”

Practicing law effectively, St. Laurent explains, is somewhat like an iceberg: 90 percent of it is out of sight. A graduate of Brown University, St. Laurent earned his law degree from Columbia before joining white-collar boutique firm Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Silberberg, as it was known at the time, and then becoming a public defender for the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan, where he tried more than a dozen cases through verdict.

Today, his practice in commercial litigation and white-collar and regulatory defense includes representing defendants in high-profile commercial cases.

He currently represents the former CFO of a public company who was sued in a federal securities class action along with the CEO and several other directors and officers following a high-profile stock drop. The court granted Harris St. Laurent’s motion to dismiss and denied plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend. That decision is now on appeal.

In another recent high-profile matter, St. Laurent represented a former UK-based Big Law partner who faced two RICO cases based on allegations of hacking, imprisonment of dissidents and attempted blackmail. Both cases against the partner were dismissed without any admission of wrongdoing and without any payment of money by the partner.

Finally, in another prominent matter, and the longest of St. Laurent’s current engagements, he is representing an institutional salesperson who received an 18-month suspension from FINRA in 2019. After exhausting appeals within FINRA, and a long but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to obtain relief from the Securities & Exchange Commission, St. Laurent is gearing up to appeal the SEC decision to the D.C. Circuit, raising a number of constitutional arguments about FINRA’s ability to prosecute violations of federal law.

Lawdragon: Tell me more about your transition from white-collar attorney to public defender. How did that come about?

Andrew St. Laurent: [In 2004] I had been at Morvillo Abramowitz for four years, and the typical career arc for somebody my age, with my level of experience, was to go into the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, or to some other position in government – which I did not want to do. I'm not a prosecutor at heart, though it’s a an important job. That’s not what I wanted.

If you understand the client, if you explain the risks, if you try to accomplish the goals they give you, you cannot fail.

LD: So what drew you to the public defender's office?

ASL: I like the independence. And fighting the good fight. And really, you get to know your clients in a unique way. Good defense attorneys have to be able to practice at a really high level, but most importantly they have to be able to communicate effectively with their clients and understand what their clients want to achieve. Now, it’s not that different for prosecutors; a good prosecutor needs to really be able to identify, understand and empathize with a complaining witness in a unique way, or it doesn’t work. A good defense attorney can break the case open during cross-examination if the prosecutor wasn’t able to empathize with the witness and didn’t prepare them appropriately. In my view, the whole game is understanding your clients and their goals. If you understand the client, if you explain the risks, if you try to accomplish the goals they give you, you cannot fail. You can blow a trial, for sure. You can lose the appeal. Your client could get a life sentence, but you did not fail in your job because you went with your client, you met them where they were, and you took them where they told you to go. That's what I took away from that job. And that's the foundation of everything I do now.

LD: Were you seeing a high caseload volume as a public defender?

ASL: It’s always been a challenging job. There is always more you can do. The people who were 15 years senior to me when I came into that office in 2004 had been New York City public defenders in the '80s and '90s, which was a completely different animal in terms of caseload. I would have 30 indicted felonies and 150 cases in my portfolio at a time, which is a lot of cases for a human being. But 20 years earlier, people doing the same job would have 90 indicted felonies, and many of them violent: burglaries, gunpoint robberies, shootings and stabbings and murders, because that was what was happening in the City of New York. So, it was a heavy caseload. But it is a little bit like working in the emergency department at a hospital: There's always more you can do. You're always short of resources, but there's short of resources in a hospital during COVID and there's short of resources in September 2025, which is a different measure. I always felt I could render competent service to my clients. But I know people who had different experiences, and some of that is just the human beings who worked there. We had people who could carry 50 indicted felonies and they could do the work, and that's a lot. I tried 15 cases while I was there. Again, compared to the guys in the '80s, they would try 15 cases in six months. They'd just go back-to-back to back-to-back.

LD: How much of that training and experience carries over into your work now? Do you have an example of a case you took that was, perhaps, outside your comfort zone?

ASL: One example is a case I took on involving the Adult Survivors Act on the defense side, which I’d never done before. Especially in that kind of situation, you have to be straight with people. You tell them, "I'm a litigator and I'm sort of a generalist litigator. I do primarily criminal and regulatory and criminal- and regulatory-adjacent cases. I'd say the heartland in my practice, the dead middle of it, is a civil case where you're taking the Fifth Amendment as a complete defense. That's the type of case I defend." And the client was like, "That's OK. I like you. I think you understand what I'm trying to do here, and you can work with me to this." As long as you establish your ground with a client and you start on a page that's open and honest, it's hard to go wrong.

LD: That’s a good segue into your client relationships and the way you practice law. You’ve talked about preserving the client’s power of choice before, for instance. Tell me more about that.

The empowerment of making [the client] the hero of their own story is a tremendous step forward.

ASL: You definitely have more choice in some cases than others, depending on factors such as budget, time and the point at which you took on the case. But ideally, you want to make the client the hero of their story. When you do that, it's just like a key in a lock. Everything falls into place, and they feel the power rising in them. They don't feel chased anymore. Litigation is a terrifying ordeal for most people, whether you're a plaintiff or a defendant. People start wondering why they ever agreed to it. Well, they agreed to it because they needed to tell their story, they needed to be heard and they needed to tell how they got hurt and what can be done to make it right. And I'm telling you, if you do that in the right way, in an honest and complete and forthright way where you own your own mistakes, you'll get relief. It really works, but it takes time.

LD: But as a lawyer, getting the information you need to use that strategy successfully must be really challenging.

ASL: It can be, because people are coming at this with their whole history, their fears, their doubts, their insecurities, their previous bad experiences in litigation. Some people are excellent at litigation, and you know it right away, either because they've done it a million times or they're just people who aren’t bothered by it. They will tell the worst parts of their case in the first meeting. Which makes it a lot easier on the lawyer. Whereas if you hide it, you elide it, it comes out in dribs and drabs. Every lawyer who's been on trial has seen that happen to a witness, and hopefully it wasn't yours, where the bad facts just keep coming out while your client is on the stand, slowly getting destroyed by the things that they didn’t tell their lawyer or that their lawyer didn’t figure out. If there’s something, the other side is going to find it.

LD: Knowing all the facts on the front end is vital.

ASL: Definitely. The empowerment of making them the hero of their own story is a tremendous step forward. And it may not necessarily lead to trial or winning a trial. It can also make your client realize, "You know what? I've had enough of this. Can we work this out?" And then you go from there. Having the authentic relationship with your client that leads to that sort of open dialogue is foundational. I have to love my clients because if I don’t love them, no one else will. That’s a fundamental principle of legal practice: If you don’t believe in the person sitting next to you, the jury’s certainly not going to.

“Adam has a 30-plus-year track record of successful outcomes in some of the most challenging disputes in the country, experience that will serve our clients well,” said Paul, Weiss Chairman Scott A. Barshay. “I have known Adam for decades and could not be more thrilled that he is now a Paul, Weiss partner.”

“At Paul, Weiss, we handle the most important, complex matters facing public and private corporations and high-profile individuals. Adam has spent his career leading clients in complex commercial matters, multidistrict proceedings, complex class actions and arbitrations across the country,” said Mike Holston, co-head of the Paul, Weiss Litigation Department. “His track record makes him a wonderful fit for our department, and his courtroom experience and strategic advice will be invaluable to clients facing their most significant matters.”

Hoeflich has led a broad range of high-stakes commercial and personal disputes from pretrial through appeal in federal and state courts nationwide, including financial services and securities litigation, multidistrict and class action proceedings, pharmaceutical and consumer products litigation, and large-scale contract and commercial arbitration matters. Adam also has designed and advised on several of the largest and most successful U.S. and international mass tort and product liability resolutions. His record of consistent success has made him an invaluable partner to clients in a broad range of industries.

“I feel fortunate for the years I spent at my prior firm and for the exceptional colleagues and clients with whom I worked. But joining Paul, Weiss is an opportunity that I felt I had to embrace,” Hoeflich said. “Both the firm and its Litigation Department are extraordinary, and I am grateful to be moving from one elite firm to another. Paul, Weiss has the depth, the talent and the breadth of practice to handle the most complex and consequential matters, and I am excited to be part of its team.”

Hoeflich is ranked by Chambers USA in Band 1 for Litigation: General Commercial in Illinois. He has been recognized as one of the leading product liability lawyers in the United States for 16 years and as one of the leading litigators in Illinois for more than 20 consecutive years. Benchmark Litigation has recognized him as a “National Litigation Star” every year since 2009.

Hoeflich received his J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois College of Law, where he graduated first in his class and served as articles editor of the Law Review. Hoeflich, who is an elected member of the American Law Institute, will remain Professor of Practice at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he has taught courses in complex litigation and legal ethics, and continue his deep involvement in the Chicago civic community. He is a trustee of Northwestern University, where he serves on the Executive Committee, and a board member of Northwestern Medicine.

The Paul, Weiss Litigation Department regularly handles significant, high-stakes and complex litigations and enforcement actions for clients that include Fortune 50 corporations and other prominent companies in the financial services, investment, medical device, pharmaceutical, sports, technology, energy, media and insurance industries. The firm’s litigators have a long history of strength and success as trial lawyers, credibility with government officials and regulators, and a track record of courtroom wins and creative out-of-court resolutions.

Danielle, who previously served as Deputy White House Counsel and Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, brings with her more than two decades of leadership within government and private practice. Her practice will focus on investigations, congressional oversight, and crisis management where she is known for guiding corporations, boards, educational institutions, philanthropies, and public figures through their most challenging environments.

Also joining DIR is Danielle’s longtime colleague, Jude Volek, who served as former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Associate White House Counsel and former deputy chief of the Special Litigation Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Jude will serve as a Partner out of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office where he will guide clients through sensitive internal investigations and government enforcement actions. 

We look forward to introducing Danielle and Jude to many of you in the coming weeks. And please do not hesitate to reach out if you would like to set a time to meet them.

In less than a year since our launch, DIR has proudly engaged in more than 100 matters on behalf of new and longstanding clients, completed high-profile trials, taken on meaningful pro bono work, and secured preliminary injunctions, motions to dismiss, successful resolutions, and jury verdicts on behalf of our clients.

They represent the finest talent in every country in the Middle East – from Israel and Palestine, Iran and Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Syria. Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon, Yemen and Jordan.

Sworn enemies united by geography, oil, ancient beliefs and modernizing cultures, they are now tethered by fear from above, destruction below and financial erosion throughout.

We conceived this inaugural guide to the budding, prismatic legal profession in the Middle East in what today feels an ancient time. Which is to say 2025.

The energy industry, infrastructure development, investment and resulting disputes created boom times throughout the region, for lawyers practicing there and from London to New York to Houston. Today, a number of those lawyers have evacuated their countries and offices. But the legal work goes on, led by stellar minds with deep understanding of the region, its laws and cultures.

Kamran Bajwa is the founder of Kirkland & Ellis’ Riyadh office and leads the firm’s Middle East practice. A renowned M&A dealmaker, he represents Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as lead counsel and a consortium member in its $55B acquisition of Electronic Arts. He has practiced and served as a business advisor in Dubai and Cairo, and served as chief legal counsel of the leading bank in the MENA region, establishing the first in-house legal department. He has also served as an advisor to international NGOs in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

Sara Aalamri is a partner at Clyde & Co. in its Jeddah office. She is one of the first Saudi women lawyers to be licensed to practice law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She was also among the first class of women law students to graduate from King Abdulaziz University, in 2008. She is a specialist in international dispute resolution, representing clients in the energy and natural resources, infrastructure, projects and construction industries. She is Vice Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce Saudi National Committee for Arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, and a delegate to the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. 

Rasem Kamal founded Kamal & Associates in Ramallah, Palestine in 2007. Before starting his own firm, he worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development West Bank and Gaza Mission, leading the Rule of Law portfolio; as well as at the Palestine Investment Fund. He is managing partner of his firm and practices in corporate, microfinance, tax and labor law. He has also participated in the drafting and advocacy of numerous laws in Palestine, including the Palestinian Companies Law, passed in 2021.

These lawyers and their fellow Middle East 100 honorees will be ready when swords are sheathed and plowshares – or oil drills, cranes and the pursuit of prosperity – resume. Because one thing is certain. The legal work that follows devastation is astounding. It may take the blink of an eye to destroy a civilization, but it takes thousands upon thousands of hours to resurrect its necessities: bridges, highways, schools, airports, refineries.

As engineers of societal infrastructure, lawyers will clear up all details, from justice efforts to finance to dispute resolution to rebuilding. They will support the peacemakers, the negotiators, and help the humanity who had been going about their business before to do so again.

We created this guide, as so many before it, through journalistic research, nominations and talking to sources who either practice in the Middle East or are regularly engaged in its matters. As an inaugural guide, we always have much to learn. And as we look forward to publishing the second edition next year, we hope for more plowshares, and lawyers being allowed to build bridges joining lands, peoples and beliefs.

Recognized leaders in corporate M&A and private equity, Gorsche and O’Brien bring nearly 30 combined years of experience to O’Melveny. Their work spans a vast array of industries that align with O’Melveny’s strengths, including the energy, technology, transportation, media, and health care sectors.

Gorsche and O’Brien come to O’Melveny from the Dallas office of BakerHostetler, where they practiced together in that firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, and Venture Capital Practices. Their arrival continues O’Melveny’s rapid expansion in Texas. They are the third and fourth lateral Texas partners to join the firm in just the past two months. And since 2021, O’Melveny has added more than 90 lawyers—including 34 partners—across its offices in Dallas, Houston, and Austin.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Ryan and Katie to our fast-growing Dallas office and to our outstanding M&A team,” said O’Melveny chair Bradley J. Butwin. “Many of our clients have a significant presence in Texas, and the need for sophisticated advisers of Ryan’s and Katie’s caliber continues to rise. Their dynamic skillset and extensive experience leading complex deals will immediately benefit our clients. We are delighted to welcome Ryan and Katie to our firm.”

“We’re excited by this incredible opportunity to work alongside O’Melveny’s talented team of M&A lawyers, and to provide our clients with the firm’s signature service,” said Gorsche. “O’Melveny’s expansive global platform was a huge draw for us, and its genuine, collaborative culture sealed our decision. We’re confident that O’Melveny will be a perfect fit for our clients and our practice.” 

“We were also drawn to O’Melveny’s proven commitment to Texas,” added O’Brien. “In just a few short years, the firm has established deep Texas roots and has constructed one of the state’s most highly rated legal teams. We’re thrilled to make O’Melveny’s Dallas office our professional ‘home.’”

The addition of Gorsche and O’Brien further propels O’Melveny’s continued strategic growth. With their arrival, 50 lateral partners have joined O’Melveny since 2023, including 31 corporate partners.

About the Partners

Ryan Gorsche is recognized among the leading corporate dealmakers in Texas. He represents private and public companies, as well as private equity sponsors, in a broad spectrum of complex domestic and cross-border transactions, including buy-side and sell-side acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, divestitures, corporate restructurings, and venture capital financings. Earlier in his career, he served as in-house counsel for a multibillion-dollar hedge and private investment fund.

Gorsche earned his J.D. from the University of Texas Law School, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and articles editor for the Texas Law Review. He earned his B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Katie O’Brien is an accomplished dealmaker and trusted adviser who guides clients through M&A transactions, dispositions, and other corporate matters. She represents a wide range of corporate entities—both privately and publicly owned. She also advises various market-leading private equity sponsors. Before entering private practice, she served as a judicial intern for the Supreme Court of Texas.

O’Brien earned her J.D. from the University of Texas Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and associate editor for the Texas Law Review. She earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University.

Dan Binstock is a nationally known legal recruiter based in Washington, D.C. His reputation for handling high-impact partner moves with the utmost ethics has earned the trust of top partners and law firms. He’s also known for playing a role in educating the lateral partner market through extensive writing.

After spending time as an intellectual property attorney at the top-ranked boutique Finnegan Henderson, Binstock transitioned to recruiting. Two decades in, he operates as equal parts strategist, confidant and fixer at Garrison.

“Partner recruiting is inherently intricate and multidimensional,” says Binstock. “It requires substantive knowledge of law firms, practice areas, finances, partner compensation models, ethical requirements, interview skills, due diligence, lateral partner questionnaires and more. No two deals are the same, and I’m at my best when things get complicated. That’s what keeps things interesting.”

Lawdragon: Can you describe for our readers the focus of your recruiting practice?

Dan Binstock: I focus exclusively on lateral partners and groups in leading AmLaw firms and elite boutiques. My practice also encompasses helping very high-level government attorneys transition into law firms. My role is a combination of quarterbacking moves for partners and handling targeted searches for law firms.

Aside from targeted searches and placements, I am passionate about playing a role in elevating the legal recruiting community. I served as President of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC) and currently chair the Ethics Committee. I also speak at industry conferences such as NALSC and National Association for Law Placements (NALP).

I also love writing. A few years back, I also started putting down all the advice I gave to partners more than once, and it culminated in LateralPartners.com. The site is a comprehensive resource of articles for lateral partners. It has articles and checklists covering every stage of the process, from the very beginning stages of considering a possible move to the logistics of giving notice, and all the issues that come up along the way. It also includes explanations and charts of the various partner compensation models, which seems to be one of the more popular sections.

Since late 2023, I have written a column for The American Lawyer called “Dear Dan” where I address the most frequent questions that partners and firms have about the lateral partner process. It’s a place to address some of the more practical topics that are not often discussed elsewhere but play a key role in many lateral partner moves. Recent topics have included things like the various types of partner guarantees, capital contributions and buy-ins, gauging the legitimacy of cold emails and calls, advice from managing partners at many top firms, advice from recruiting directors at top firms, ethical flags, and other crucial elements that aren’t widely discussed outside of one-on-one discussions.

LD: How do you think that relates to certain challenges in the legal recruiting industry today?

DB: I don’t want to come across as judgy, but there’s no other way to say this – one of the biggest challenges is a group of unethical recruiters who don’t adhere to basic principles of honesty. It’s eroding trust in the industry.

Stepping back, most attorneys are never taught how legal recruiters work. Many have no idea. So when the calls start, they are often unaware of how to protect themselves from breaches of confidentiality, unauthorized submissions and a host of other messes. Because the legal recruiting field is unregulated with no bar to entry, with the potential to make a lot of quick money, it can attract some who are motivated mainly by short-term gains. And with AI becoming so prevalent, attorneys are receiving many more emails that are difficult to decipher whether emails are genuine or not. I wrote a book “The Attorney’s Guide to Using (or Not Using) Legal Recruiters” to help explain how the recruiting process works behind the scenes, but it’s a small pebble in a sea of education that needs to keep continuing.

I spend a lot of time helping partners evaluate, analyze and make informed decisions, even if that means staying put.

On the other hand, there are also many very ethical and trustworthy recruiters who balance out the bad ones. I encourage people to consider using search firms who are members of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC), which has the NALSC Code of Ethics. I may be biased because I chair NALSC’s Ethics Committee, but I see first-hand what can happen when search firms violate the ethical guidelines. It’s the only real protection in the industry against unethical recruiter behavior, other than taking formal legal action. 

LD: That’s very important. Stepping back, how did you first become interested in becoming a recruiter?

DB: I started off practicing law at a large IP firm but was always quietly envious of the recruiters who would call me. I thought their role seemed very interesting and I found myself more interested in their approach to cold calling than the positions they were calling about.

I also take a strong interest in delving into whether a move will really satisfy their goals on both a professional and personal level. I spend a lot of time helping partners evaluate, analyze and make informed decisions, even if that means staying put. Decision-making is such a key part of my process. Some partners will tell me, “Wow, that conversation felt kind of like a therapy session. You should be a psychologist.”

While much of the lateral partner process is rooted in more front-and-center issues like client needs, navigating conflicts, due diligence, compensation and negotiation, etc., there’s also a critical parallel track of underlying personal issues that inevitably bubbles up. Certain partners I assist have more than enough money to last several generations, but there’s always an emotional element to the move that’s important. Sometimes money is really a proxy for respect or appreciation, and how firms address this can directly impact the outcome.

LD: For somebody thinking about becoming a lateral partner recruiter, what advice would you give them?

DB: Partner recruiting requires a combination of knowledge, skills and mindset. It requires substantive knowledge of law firms, practice areas, finances, partner compensation models, ethical requirements, interview skills, due diligence, lateral partner questionnaires and more. It requires connections to decision makers who can make things happen, and who trust you to be straight. Communication skills should be sharp and exacting. And from a personal standpoint, it requires discipline, resilience, discretion, recall and the capacity to connect seemingly unrelated information.

Most importantly, it’s essential to be able to anticipate several moves ahead in any given transaction. Bringing all these aspects together is what makes this work so intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. However, if you have thin skin or have trouble with rejection and major disappointments, this may not be the ideal field – there are so many ups and downs.

LD: Are there any trends you are seeing in lateral partner recruiting from the law firm side?

DB: One thing that stands out lately is how much more deliberate firms have become when it comes to bringing on lateral partners and groups. Rather than simply chasing portable business, firms are looking closely at how a combination really fits with the firm’s clients and needs. Currently, certain firms are now passing on partners or groups with 8 or multi-8-figure practices because they just don’t fit in with the firm’s existing practice footprint or strategic plan. While certain firms always seek to opportunistically expand in new areas, some realize that hiring a profitable island carries some additional risk if it’s hard to integrate.

Rather than simply chasing portable business, firms are looking closely at how a combination really fits with the firm’s clients and needs.

More recently, the topic of AI is on everyone’s mind. It’s pretty frightening because we know things will be changing dramatically but we’re not sure which firms will end up on the winning or losing side in a few years. It’s pretty clear that firms who are investing significant amounts in AI – and not avoiding the fairly inevitable – will have a leg up. We are already seeing that now.

On the candidate's side, partners are more educated than they were five to ten years ago. They want to know more about the firm’s finances, leadership style and credit methodologies. They are asking much better questions in terms of how the fit really will work. As touched on before, lot of my time goes into helping them analyze those factors, weighing the pros and cons, and figuring out how a move could impact both their satisfaction and their client relationships.

LD: Was there an early experience or mentor who impacted you?

DB: As a junior associate, I worked with a partner who was a brilliant critical thinker with a steel-trap memory. When I’d walk into his office to discuss research, he’d always rapid-fire questions. He had an uncanny ability to zero-in on exactly the one small detail I hadn’t fully researched. These grilling sessions were humbling, and I’d walk out feeling defeated, but they were also incredibly helpful in getting me to look at things from many angles and to be fully prepared. I didn’t realize it at the time, but those experiences led to me being rigorously focused on details and accuracy.  

LD: How has your profession changed since the early part of your career?

DB: The quality of legal recruiters has dramatically increased, despite the smaller group of bad apples that can tarnish things for others. When I first started in 2004, the legal recruiting field was more of the Wild West and somebody who gave advice that was not self-serving was considered unique. Years later, it’s still an unregulated industry, but most recruiters have realized that doing right by people is the smartest way to build a long-term career.

LD: What one piece of advice would you give partners at firms in terms of how to most productively work with an outside recruiter?

DB: If you are in high demand, choose your recruiter very carefully. Ask a lot of questions in terms of experience, approach and how they will guide you during the process. Make sure the person is not what I call a “one inning” recruiter who will send your materials and leave you on your own during the process. There are some legal recruiters who have impressive lateral deal sheets, but they actually do very little other than send a biography with a brief write-up and let the partner and firm take things from there. When analyzing a recruiter, focus on how much the recruiters will assist you with innings two through nine. That’s when the real work happens.

LD: What are your hobbies outside of work?

DB: I’ve been playing piano since I was four, which has been a thread throughout my whole life. More recently, I’ve been known as @PianoDadDan on Instagram and TikTok, where my daughter and I create music videos and we are approaching a million followers (we got very lucky from a few videos that went viral early on). I’m also starting a series on LinkedIn called Chords and Counsel, where I’ll be posting videos of me playing piano along with musicians or vocalists who are in the legal industry. There are many talented musicians behind the scenes in the legal industry, and this is a way to help showcase their more artistic side. In the current state of the world, we can all use a bit more music and fun.