Sports · Sun Belt Post
Linklaters has hired Wachtell partner Mark Gordon as its managing partner of the Americas and co-chair of global M&A. Gordon decamps after more than 30 years at the Wall Street firm, which has suffered the first string of partner exits in its history. “We have a clear ambition: to build a top-tier team in the US as a core part of our global offering,” said Aedamar Comiskey, senior partner and chair of the firm, in a statement.
“As a preeminent M&A lawyer, Mark joining us is a landmark advance toward this ambition. Alongside our other recent strategic hires, we will use this momentum to accelerate our US growth.” Gordon succeeds Tom McGrath as managing partner and will join Linklaters in November. Gordon has steered deals including those in industrials and life sciences.
Gordon co-led Wachtell’s team steering Teck Resources in its merger with Anglo American announced last year. Other transactions include guiding Analog Devices in its purchase of Maxim Integrated Products for $21 billion, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals in its $39 billion sale to AstraZeneca in 2021. He joins another senior lawyer, William Savitt, the Wachtell Lipton co-leader known for taking on Elon Musk in high-profile court battles, in departing the firm.
Savitt left to join Gibson Dunn with a team of lawyers in July. Gordon’s hire at Linklaters complements several other high profile US hires at the London-founded firm over the past two years. Most recently, the firm hired Erik Haas, who led legal defense strategy for significant mass tort lawsuits in his previous role as worldwide vice president of litigation at Johnson & Johnson.
The firm poached three partners focused on sports litigation from Paul Weiss in the past two months. Christopher Boehning, a litigator who is known as longtime counsel to soccer’s governing body FIFA, joined Linklaters as chair of its global sports practice and US strategic disputes. He brought on colleagues including Daniel Levi and César Rivière.
Linklaters reported a 7% increase in revenue to $3.3 billion and 39% increase in its US profits for fiscal 2026. It ranked 16 in Bloomberg Law’s M&A league tables for the first half of 2026. “We are looking to grow, and are growing across all key areas,” George Casey said in an previous interview with Bloomberg Law.
“We’ve added partners across three key buckets of corporate M&A, finance, and disputes over the last few years.” Josh Dull, Jillian Storms and Sabina Lippman of legal recruitment firm Centerpeak LLC brokered Gordon’s move. Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading: See Breaking News in Context Bloomberg Law provides trusted coverage of current events enhanced with legal analysis. Already a subscriber?
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Source: Bloomberg Law News
