George Casey, a global managing partner at U.S. law firm Shearman & Sterling, is leading a team of mergers and acquisitions lawyers in a move to Linklaters in New York, just ahead of Shearman's merger with Allen & Overy.
London-founded Linklaters said on Monday that Casey will join the firm next week as global co-chair of its corporate group alongside four other dealmakers from Shearman, including partner Heiko Schiwek.
"Growing our M&A capability in the US is a strategic priority for us and George and the team joining is a transformational step," Linklaters senior partner Aedamar Comiskey said in a statement.
Linklaters is among the major UK law firms that have sought to expand in the United States through significant partner hires and mergers.
Rival UK-founded firm Allen & Overy is set to merge with Shearman this spring, creating a nearly 4,000-lawyer firm with combined revenues close to $3.5 billion across 48 global offices.
A Shearman spokesperson said the firm thanks Casey and Schiwek for their contributions and wishes them well. Shearman's M&A team had a strong year in 2023, and following the merger with Allen & Overy the combined firm is expected to have more than 180 M&A partners, the statement said.
Shearman ranked 13 in the London Stock Exchange Group's principal legal adviser ranking by value of global announced M&A deals in 2023.
Casey, whose previous roles at Shearman included serving as global head of corporate and global M&A practice leader, advises corporate boards and management on M&A deals, corporate governance, ESG and shareholder relations matters, Linklaters said.
He works with the chemical, industrial, healthcare and mining sectors, and his past clients have included Anglo American, Dow Chemical and GlaxoSmithKline, according to an archived version of his Shearman online biography.
Casey was not available for comment on Monday. Doreen Lilienfeld remains a global managing partner at Shearman and Adam Hakki is the firm's senior partner.
Schiwek, who focuses on chemical and industrials deals, will be a global leader of the chemicals sector at Linklaters. Greg Gewirtz, who was counsel as Shearman, joins Linklaters as a partner, alongside a counsel and two associates.
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