US: Top DC antitrust lawyers to leave Cadwalader

Four antitrust partners in Washington, DC whose clients include Microsoft and Cigna, are leaving Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft to join Paul, Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Leading the group is Charles “Rick” Rule, the head of Cadwalader’s antitrust group, chair of the firm’s litigation department and managing partner of its Washington, DC office, according to a Paul Weiss announcement on Thursday.

The three others: Jonathan Kanter, Joseph Bial and Andrew Forman, all of whom practice in DC.

Rule will become co-chair of Paul Weiss’s antitrust group, the firm said.

A longtime advisor to Microsoft, the team advised the technology giant as antitrust counsel in its $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn this year; its $7.2 billion purchase of Nokia Oyj’s mobile phone business in 2013, and its $8.5 billion buy of Skype in 2011.

The team is also counsel for Cigna: In 2015, Rule, along with Forman and Kanter, advised the health insurance company as antitrust counsel in its $48 billion merger with Anthem, Inc.

Cadwalader managing partner Pat Quinn told his partners that the four were leaving in an internal email Wednesday evening, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. A Cadwalader representative declined to comment on the moves.

The hire marks the latest coup in the corporate department for Paul, Weiss, which has doubled down its lateral recruiting efforts this year. In April, the firm made a splashwhen it hired Scott Barshay, a top M&A partner from Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Full Content: NY Times

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