Paul Weiss Expands San Francisco Workplace with Kirkland Rent
Kirkland & Ellis partner Austin Pollet joins Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as the Wall Street firm expands its newly established San Francisco office.
Pollet, who joined Kirkland in 2013, focuses on all aspects of private equity transactions, with an emphasis on transactions with technology companies.
“Austin is a rising star in the private equity space,” said Scott Barshay, president of Paul Weiss corporate division, in a statement. He has “significant experience at a young age in a range of transactions with high-growth technology companies”.
After the hiring of lawyers Karen Dunn and Bill Isaacson from Boies Schiller Flexner in June, Apple Inc., Oracle Corp. and Uber Technologies Corp. Difficult Market for Wall Street Firms.
In January Paul Weiss added Melinda Haag, Walter Brown and Randy Luskey from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, and Jeremy Veit from Kirkland to expand their San Francisco office.
Pollet represents private equity firms, including domestic and cross-border leveraged and management buyouts, venture and growth capital investments, divestments, and other mergers and acquisitions.
He has advised the San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners on numerous transactions, including the acquisition of RedSail Technologies and the carve-out acquisition of PioneerRx and its portfolio companies on several transactions.
Pollet has also represented Cerberus Capital Management as well as HGGC, K1 Investment Management, Tower Arch Capital, True Wind Capital and Vista Equity Partners.
His addition will expand the company’s transactional capabilities in California, Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp said in a statement. He noted that Pollet is “deeply embedded in the California business and tech community.”
Pollet is the latest addition to the Wall Street firm, whose gross revenue rose 11.2% to $ 1.54 billion last year and earnings per equity partner increased 14.3% to $ 5.369 million, according to the company American Lawyer’s Figures.
Earlier this month, the firm added Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom’s tax partner, Brian Krause, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s financial practice group co-chair, David Tarr, to its New York office. The company also brought in Sullivan & Cromwell partner Krishna Veeraraghavan as a partner in its corporate division in New York in January.
Large law firms flocking to Northern California looking for deals in the tech industry often struggle to compete with local firms like Cooley, Fenwick & West, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, especially when it comes to representing startups and growth companies goes. Outsiders sometimes struggle to prove to potential customers that they really “get” technology.
That didn’t stop Big Law from moving to the Bay Area last year to try to capitalize on a red-hot tech market.
Freshfields Bruckhaus & Deringer opened its Silicon Valley office in July with employees from Davis Polk & Wardwell, Sidley Austin and Wilson Sonsini. Since then, the company has signed a 10-year lease for 40,000 square feet in a new office building in downtown Redwood City.
Debevoise & Plimpton opened an office in March and moved 14 of its lawyers to its third office in the US to benefit from technology-related work. Jenner & Block also announced last month that it would move to San Francisco and hire Ann O’Leary, former California chief of staff Gavin Newsom, for its new office.
