The partner set to take over leadership of Weil, Gotshal & Manges has held talks to leave the firm for a rival, a move that would compound ongoing talent drain at one of Wall Street’s top dealmaking and restructuring shops.
Ramona Nee, Weil’s co-managing partner, has had discussions to join Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, according to people familiar with the matter. Nee, an adviser to big private equity firms including Advent, was slated to take over as Weil’s sole chair in January.
Weil declined to comment. Nee did not return a request for comment. Her departure is not guaranteed and the talks could fall apart, the people said.
If she does leave, she would follow a flood of Weil’s top talent out the door and the breakdown of merger talks with crosstown rival Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Rainmaker Michael Aiello defected to Cravath, Swaine & Moore with a team of partners. It would be likely that a sizable portion of Weil’s Boston partnership would leave with her, according to one person familiar with the matter who is close with many of Weil’s top Boston lawyers.
Nee had told Weil partners she would not take the chair job, which was announced last spring, according to a person briefed on the communication. The Financial Times earlier reported that decision.
Remaining and former Weil lawyers place blame on Aiello’s departure — and Nee’s possible departure — at the feet of executive partner Barry Wolf, who has helmed the firm to some success for more than a decade but in recent years has failed to convince senior partners that Weil has a vision for a world where AI and outsize pay packages upend the perceived usefulness of high-end legal advice.
Aiello’s departure came as a result, in part, because top Weil leaders including Wolf failed to lay out a convincing long-term vision for the firm, according to a person familiar with his thinking.