Sullivan & Cromwell has recruited David Avery-Gee and Sarah Flaherty from Weil, Gotshal & Manges for its London office, strengthening the US firm’s European M&A practice with two senior corporate lawyers experienced in major cross-border transactions.
Avery-Gee will join Sullivan & Cromwell as co-head of its European M&A practice alongside Paris partner Olivier de Vilmorin. At Weil, he was co-managing partner of the London office and headed its London M&A practice, advising on public and private transactions, cross-border deals, joint ventures, restructurings and strategic corporate matters.
Flaherty will also join Sullivan & Cromwell as a partner. Her practice covers international public and private M&A, corporate restructurings, joint ventures and equity offerings, with experience across the natural resources, consumer and healthcare sectors. She previously spent two years on secondment as a senior case officer at the UK Takeover Panel, giving her additional experience of the regulatory framework governing UK public takeovers.
Sullivan & Cromwell co-chairs Robert Giuffra and Scott Miller said the appointments would strengthen the firm’s ability to advise multinational clients on complex international transactions. Avery-Gee brings experience spanning sectors including energy, natural resources and financial services, while Flaherty adds further depth in UK public-company transactions and Takeover Code matters.
London co-managing partners Kon Asimacopoulos and John Horsfield-Bradbury said the pair would complement Sullivan & Cromwell’s existing capabilities in US securities, regulation and European Commission Merger Guidelines: Sullivan & Cromwell across offices including Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels.
The appointments also come during a Tom Rodzoch Joins Greenberg Traurig’s London PE Team. On 16 September, Weil named Kyle Krpata and Michael Lubowitz as co-chairs of its Corporate Department, describing the appointments as part of an accelerated growth strategy across its M&A, private equity, private funds and finance practices.
Sullivan & Cromwell has meanwhile been Sullivan & Cromwell and Newmark: London Expansion Earlier this year, the firm began looking for as much as 160,000 square feet of new central London office space, potentially more than doubling its existing footprint. The property search offered another indication of the scale of the firm’s ambitions for its City operation.
In this case, the appointments combine senior practice leadership with experience across public M&A, private transactions and regulated takeover work, giving Sullivan & Cromwell additional depth in areas central to its European transactional practice.
Avery-Gee’s planned appointment as European M&A co-head is particularly significant because it places a former Weil London practice leader directly into a regional leadership position at Sullivan & Cromwell. Flaherty’s arrival alongside him strengthens the firm’s UK public M&A offering at a time when major cross-border transactions increasingly require coordinated corporate, securities and regulatory advice.
For Weil, the departures come immediately after the firm reshaped the leadership of its wider Corporate Department. For Sullivan & Cromwell, they add two experienced London deal lawyers as the firm continues to build both its transactional bench and physical presence in the City.