Willkie Farr & Gallagher has hired an 11-strong capital markets and M&A team including four partners from Mayer Brown in Chicago.  

The team is led by highly rated capital markets specialist Edward Best, who co-led Mayer Brown’s capital markets practice and will also co-lead the corresponding team at his new firm, alongside current co-heads Cristopher Greer and Gregory Astrachan.

Joining the New York firm with him is fellow Mayer Brown capital markets partner Jennifer Carlson as well as corporate partners John Ablan and Esther Chang. Corporate lawyer Susan Rabinowitz, who was a counsel at Mayer Brown, is joining Willkie as a partner along with six associates.

The hires build on the eye-catching progress Willkie has made in Chicago since opening for business there four years ago when it hired former Jenner & Block chairman Craig Martin, along with five other Jenner partners, to lead the initiative.

The office currently houses 88 lawyers, according to the firm’s website, while publicly available data tracked by Pirical make it the sixth-largest office by headcount in Willkie’s network, neck-and-neck with its Los Angeles arm, which it opened three years ago, and behind its branches in Paris, London, Washington DC as well as its New York headquarters.

Martin said: “Willkie Chicago’s growth continues to focus on strategically offering to its clients and the business community in Chicago and beyond those practices in which Willkie excels in its global platform.

“Today, one-third of our lawyers in the growing Chicago office is comprised of private equity, M&A, finance, private funds, and now capital markets, and two-thirds are in our well-established trial, intellectual property, antitrust, ERISA, investigations, governance and private wealth practices.” 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Best has spent his entire legal career to date at Mayer Brown, which he joined in September 1986. He represents issuers and underwriters in public and private securities offerings in the US and international markets and has an active M&A practice.

Carlson joined Mayer Brown from Skadden’s Chicago office in 2011 and helped found its Salt Lake City office in 2022 as well as spending time in its Palo Alto office, where she will maintain a base at her new firm. Like Best, her practice also spanned corporate work, including advising companies on SEC disclosures, stock exchange compliance, fiduciary duties and corporate governance matters

Corporate specialists Ablan, Esther and Rabinowitz worked alongside Best and Carlson at Mayer Brown, according to Willkie. 

In May, Willkie launched in Dallas with a group of seven private equity partners, including three it hired from Texan firm Haynes and Boone. That brought its total number of offices globally to 15 and followed its opening in Munich earlier this year.

Commenting on the departure of Best and his team, a Mayer Brown spokesperson said: “We wish them well. Mayer Brown’s capital markets practice is among the global leaders with more than 100 lawyers, and continuing to build on the growth the practice has experienced in recent years remains one of the firm’s key strategic priorities.”