Kasowitz loses an 11-lawyer litigation team, and Kirkland retakes the M&A crown

Choate Hall & Stewart LLP took an 11-lawyer complex commercial litigation team out of Kasowitz LLP in New York. Six of them join Choate as partners, and the team's leader joins as co-head of Choate's business and financial litigation practice. Also in New York, Holland & Knight poached a Clifford Chance capital markets and M&A partner. Dechert LLP added a partner to their capital solutions team. Freshfields added two capital markets partners, one in New York and one in Silicon Valley. Fisher Phillips launched a Miami office with a team from local employment and business law boutique Zumpano Castro, and four of them join as partners. Winston Taylor added a digital assets partner in Chicago.

On the deal side, Kirkland & Ellis led Bloomberg Law's M&A league tables for the first three quarters of the year, advising on more than $570 billion of M&A work. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is second, and Gibson Dunn is third.