Gibson Dunn takes six Wachtell partners in New York, led by the co-chair of its executive committee

Just landed in Rome. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher hired six Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz partners in New York, a corporate governance and M&A litigation team led by the co-chair of Wachtell's executive committee and litigation department, who now co-chairs Gibson Dunn's litigation practice group. Bloomberg Law calls him the most senior lawyer to leave the firm, in a run of recent partner departures there. DLA Piper added two finance partners in New York, one in capital solutions and one in restructuring, while Cooley took a DLA Piper emerging companies and venture capital partner in Palo Alto. Baker Donelson poached a bankruptcy shareholder from Winstead PC in Houston, and Arnold & Porter added an IP litigation partner in DC.

On the business side, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Vinson & Elkins and White & Case are among the firms splitting a $50 million pie to advise the US Energy Department over the next five years, after the agency lost many of its in-house lawyers to staffing cuts.