Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Firm overview: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is a premier firm of more than 1,000 lawyers with diverse backgrounds, personalities, ideas and interests who provide innovative and effective solutions to our clients’ most complex legal and business challenges. With 11 offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and a robust international network, the firm represents many of the world’s largest and most important asset managers, public and private corporations and financial institutions, as well as clients in need of pro bono assistance. We consistently earn high praise for our collaborative, commercial approach to highly sophisticated matters, providing novel and efficient solutions to otherwise intractable situations.

The firm is widely recognized as having market-leading practices in private equity, public company M&A, litigation, white collar and regulatory defence, and restructuring. Within these broad practices, we also offer numerous market-leading specialized practices, including finance, capital markets, private funds, competition/antitrust, tax, executive compensation and real estate, among others. The firm recently significantly deepened and enhanced its capabilities in London, immediately bringing market-leading capabilities across all major corporate practice areas, and launched new offices in Los Angeles and Brussels.

Mergers and aquisitions: Our M&A group is among the most experienced and effective in the world. With scores of dedicated partners, we have helped many of the world’s leading companies execute their most important global transactions. Since 2020, we have advised on over 180 billion-dollar-plus M&A transactions and have handled over a trillion dollars in total M&A, including for publicly listed and privately held companies, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and other investors. We have deep experience in executing transactions with counterparties across the globe, and in highly regulated sectors such as financial services and infrastructure.

Private equity: We provide trusted counsel to the world’s leading private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and are go-to advisors in the alternative asset management industry for the most landscape-shifting, cutting-edge global transactions. We represent dynamic, sophisticated firms of every size across the spectrum of investment strategies, handling their most important private and public M&A and investments, fundraisings, leveraged finance transactions, debt restructurings and securities offerings. Because we have extensive familiarity with the full range of deal structures, we are able to advise our clients on the latest innovations, as well as current market practices and trends.

Broader corporate practice: Across the corporate area, we are widely recognized as preeminent in multiple other important practices, including, among others:

• Activist defence
• Capital markets
• Corporate governance
• Finance
• Intellectual property and technology transactions
• Investment funds

We are also preeminent in myriad transaction-focused practices, including, among others:

• Competition/antitrust
• Digital technology
• Executive compensation
• Family office and high-net-worth individuals
• Financial services
• Hybrid capital and special situations
• Infrastructure
• M&A disputes 
• Media, sports and entertainment
• Real estate
• Sustainability and ESG advisory
• Tax 

Litigation: No other law firm can approach Paul, Weiss’s experience and record of success in the most complex, high-stakes disputes in U.S. federal and state courts and before major arbitration bodies. Our renowned trial team is a particularly powerful advantage, both in the courtroom and at the settlement table.

With a deep bench that includes many of the country’s most accomplished trial lawyers and former senior government officials, our Litigation Department is uniquely positioned to handle multifaceted crises, from sprawling cross-border, multi-regulator enforcement actions to parallel private litigation. We are regularly entrusted with fast-moving, franchise-threatening matters because of our ability to develop and execute a winning strategy, no matter the problem or adversary, and to see the matter through to the ultimate resolution, whether at trial or before the Supreme Court.

The practice boasts dozens of former federal prosecutors and senior U.S. government officials, including a former U.S. Attorney General; former U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of New York and the Northern District of California; a former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; former senior leaders in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division; numerous senior counsel from the SEC, the CFPB, the FTC and other key U.S. regulatory agencies; and former senior members of the White House Counsel’s office.

White-collar and regulatory defence: Clients facing white collar and regulatory enforcement challenges look to Paul, Weiss to protect their businesses and reputations and manage the behind-the-scenes interplay among competing regulators and enforcement agencies. We have experience handling a vast range of regulatory and enforcement inquiries, including involving multiple jurisdictions. Our lawyers are adept at conducting internal investigations on behalf of companies, boards, audit committees and special litigation committees.

Within the broad litigation and white collar and regulatory defence practices, we are widely recognized for our expertise in many specialized areas, including:

• Anti-Corruption & Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Artificial intelligence
• Bankruptcy litigation
• Competition/antitrust
• Congressional investigations
• Crisis management
• Cryptocurrency and blockchain
• Cybersecurity and data protection
• DEI strategic advisory
• Digital technology
• Economic sanctions and anti-money laundering
• Employment, workplace investigations and trade secrets
• ERISA, pension and benefits litigation
• False Claims Act and qui tam litigation
• Financial services litigation and investigations
• Insurance litigation
• Intellectual property litigation
• Internal investigations
• International arbitration
• Mergers and acquisitions litigation
• Product liability
• Civil rights and racial equity audits
• Securities litigation
• Supreme court and appellate litigation
• Sustainability and ESG

Restructuring: The Paul, Weiss Restructuring Group helps companies, creditors and investors facing rapid market transformation respond to business challenges with comprehensive and innovative strategies. With a deep bench of experienced counsel, we are a critical advisor in almost every major, complex and headline-grabbing in-court and out-of-court restructuring matter, including cross-border restructurings. We possess a thorough knowledge of every aspect of bankruptcy law, coupled with perspectives earned from representing every type of client.

Chairman: Brad S. Karp
Deputy chair: Valerie E. Radwaner