Simpson Thacher & Bartlett competition head and former Clifford Chance star Kevin Arquit has left the firm to join Weil Gotshal & Manges in New York.
He exits after 14 years at Simpson Thacher, joining Weil as co-head of the antitrust and competition practice alongside Steven Newborn, a former colleague from Rogers & Wells and Clifford Chance.
Arquit has substantial experience cementing major deals including Sirius Satellite Radio in its closely-watched merger with XM Radio, DirecTV in its $49 billion sale to AT&T, and Lorillard Inc in its $25 billion sale to Reynolds American.
Prior to joining Simpson Thacher Arquit was general counsel of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the director of its Bureau of Competition.
Weil executive partner Barry Wolf said: “Kevin is widely recognised as one of the top antitrust lawyers in the market, and he brings a deep and sophisticated level of experience that will further enhance our already premier position in the antitrust space. We are thrilled to welcome him to Weil.”
It would be very interesting to have been a fly on the wall in the antitrust offices of Weil Gotshal’s New York operation over the past ten or twelve years.
Time was ten years or so ago when they absolutely WERE the gold standard for antitrust in New York; now, Barry Wolf protests a little too much when he talks about Weil’s “already premier position” in 2016. Plenty of ground has been lost since that assertion held good.
Losing lawyers of the stamp of Paul Victor, Jay Fastow, Scott Martin, Irving Schler, Fiona Schaeffer and Helene Jaffe from New York to local rivals over the course of about five years and suffering the retirement of Debra Pearlstein in the same period would have driven a coach and horses through anyone’s practice, although the fact that all the leavers have subsequently moved on again since their departure from Weil still makes the break-up of that team almost inexplicable.
The teaming up of Arquit and Newborn once again across the DC/NY axis makes Weil the serious antitrust player that it always was, a match for most, but it does feel as though the past decade has represented an unnecessary marking of time so far as the firm and antitrust is concerned. One can hope that this time, a potentially market-leading team will last the distance.