Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C) has strengthened its position in the US private equity market by hiring a team of four partners from rival firm Kirkland & Ellis, marking a significant strategic shift for the traditionally Fortune 500–focused corporate law firm. This expansion represents S&C’s first dedicated US private equity team and comes amid growing recognition that private equity constitutes a substantial portion of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the United States.

The new hires include Los Angeles-based partners Hamed Meshki, who will lead S&C’s global private equity practice, Luke Guerra, Guirgis Nasief, and New York-based Y Michael Chung. The team specialises in private equity-led acquisitions and counts prominent clients such as Oaktree Capital and Clearlake Capital among its portfolio.

Scott Miller, co-chair of S&C, acknowledged the firm’s historical reluctance to act for buyout firms, citing a perceived conflict with its longstanding client base of large corporate entities. “Private equity is now, in the US, a third of M&A activity. We simply have to participate in that part of the market,” Miller said. He noted that past stereotypes of private equity—characterised by aggressive cost-cutting and leveraged buyouts—have evolved and do not reflect the current practices of these firms.

The move reflects broader trends in the legal industry, where firms like Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins have grown rapidly alongside the private equity sector. Buyout groups are attractive clients due to their frequent dealmaking, which can provide steady streams of work for law firms. S&C’s decision to recruit an entire group from a competitor also signals a shift in its traditionally conservative approach to lateral hiring, as elite New York firms have generally preferred organic growth over partner poaching.

Miller highlighted the firm’s changing culture, noting that seven or eight years ago, such a sizeable lateral hiring would have been seen as incompatible with S&C’s values. However, the firm has since embraced integration of new partners who align with its approach, allowing for more rapid expansion into private equity.

While S&C’s private equity practice currently will concentrate on transactional M&A work, Miller indicated the firm might consider expanding into other areas such as fund formation in the future. However, he expressed that fund structuring could face disruption from technological advances such as artificial intelligence, unlike M&A transactions which remain largely manual and relationship-driven.

This US expansion complements S&C’s ongoing efforts to grow its private equity capabilities in London, where it has recently added partners specialising in restructuring, private equity, and financial services. The firm has also diversified its client base by hiring Viet Dinh, a prominent conservative legal figure and former top lawyer at Fox Corporation. In addition, S&C has taken on former US President Donald Trump as a client for legal matters including his challenge of his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.

Together, these developments indicate S&C’s strategic intent to broaden its footprint in private equity and related transactional work as the sector continues to account for an increasing share of global M&A activity.