2022 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER Weil

A powerhouse in restructuring, M&A, private equity, and litigation, Weil, Gotshal & Manges has long been one of the world’s leading law firms. The firm has pioneered major areas of law, such as corporate governance, private equity, and bankruptcy and restructuring.

To New York and Beyond

Weil was founded in New York in 1931 and has been located in New York’s iconic General Motors Building since the building opened in 1968, overlooking the city’s playground, Central Park. With approximately 1,100 lawyers, the firm has offices spanning three continents and six countries, and it continues to be one of the highest-grossing law firms in the world.

Restructured Thinking

Weil fields one of the most respected restructuring departments in the world and has played an integral role in nearly every high-profile bankruptcy in history, including WorldCom, Enron, General Motors, Washington Mutual, AIG, and Lehman Brothers—and more recently, Sears, PG&E, and Takata.

A corporate powerhouse, Weil continually ranks in the top 20 in Vault’s rankings for General Corporate Practice, Private Equity, M&A, Banking & Financial Services, and Securities/Capital Markets. The firm is involved in some of the most high-profile M&A deals in the market. Over the last five years, Weil has handled more than 1,500 deals totaling more than $2.1 trillion in deal value. The firm‘s global private equity practice is also recognized as being one of the market leaders in the field—PE clients include the majority of the largest and highest-profile private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, and pension funds, as well as family offices and other equity financial investors. 

Litigation is another strong suit for the firm, which boasts more than 350 lawyers in its litigation practice. The American Lawyer has recognized Weil with an Honorable Mention in the publication’s biennial Litigation Department of the Year contest. The firm takes pride in its ability to serve clients on wide-ranging issues drawing on cross-departmental expertise in the class action, crisis management, investigations, and trial contexts, among others.  

Legal Innovators

Through its initiative Weil Legal Innovators Program, the firm has partnered with eleven law schools—Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Penn, Stanford, Michigan, Texas, and Yale—to offer 10 incoming students an opportunity to perform one year of public service at a partnering nonprofit. The firm expects the group of participating law schools to grow in the future. The participants will defer law school for one year as they engage in the program and will receive a $50k salary plus a $10k law school scholarship. Each participant will also be paired with a Weil partner for mentoring. The firm’s goal is “to engage incoming law school students in addressing some of the most pressing social and legal challenges in our communities today.”

• Counsel to Willis Towers Watson in its pending $80 billion combination with Aon—the largest deal ever for the insurance industry. 
• Counsel to PG&E Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company, one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the U.S., in its landmark chapter 11 restructuring. 
• Counsel to Brookfield Asset Management in its formation of Brookfield Infrastructure Fund IV, L.P., a $20 billion global infrastructure fund that was Brookfield’s largest fund raise to date and the second-largest infrastructure fund raise ever. 
• Counsel to Giant Eagle in securing a favorable mid-trial settlement in a bellwether trial in the multi-billion dollar opioid MDL.

• Weil Named Among 2021 Law360 Firms of the Year, Wins Five Practice Group of the Year Awards — February 04, 2022
• Weil Named a 2022 Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality by Human Rights Campaign Foundation — January 31, 2022
• Weil Ranked Among Most Innovative North American Law Firms in 2021 by Financial Times  — December 10, 2021
• Weil Named to 2021 A-List by The American Lawyer — August 05, 2021
• Twenty-two Weil Partners Shortlisted for Euromoney's 2022 Americas “Women in Business Law Awards” — April 20, 2022