Latham & Watkins Adds Two M&A and Finance Partners
The law firm Latham & Watkins has hired Emily Johnson and Mark Stagliano as partners in its New York office. The firm announced on February 22 that the two new hires will join its public M&A and finance practices. The additions are intended to enhance the firm's capabilities in advising on sophisticated transactions.
- Both partners were hired from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, an elite competitor, signaling a strategic move by Latham to bolster its top-tier transactional teams. - Mark Stagliano has advised on major transactions including United Technologies' $147 billion merger with Raytheon and its $30.3 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins. - Emily Johnson specializes in designing the capital structures for complex corporate deals; she was ranked as the #1 financing lawyer in North America by MergerLinks in 2024. - The hires reinforce Latham's dominant market position, as the firm ranked #1 for both the value and number of global M&A deals in the first half of 2025, according to league tables from Bloomberg and Dealogic. - Stagliano focuses on M&A, securities law, and corporate governance, advising on matters like shareholder activism and takeover defense. - Johnson's practice covers all financing aspects of corporate transactions, from bank financings to capital markets, in both investment-grade and leveraged markets. - This strategic expansion comes as public M&A activity saw an increase in the first half of 2025, with law firms positioning for an anticipated busy deal market in 2026.
