For restructuring lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges, a golf and tennis outing in New Jersey last month was meant to be celebratory. Instead, much of the conversation centered around the shock news days earlier that Michael Aiello, widely viewed as the firm’s most powerful partner, was fleeing to a rival.

By Roy Strom, Ava Benny-Morrison and Preeti Singh The talk at Mountain Ridge Country Club was about how Weil would recover — not whether it would survive. The lawyers discussed rebounding with partner-level hires or even the firm pursuing a merger to put itself on more solid ground, according to an attendee.

Just over a month later, the storied firm told its workers that it planned to wind down.

The collapse of Weil Gotshal this week marked a stunning downfall of a 95-year-old firm that was once a powerhouse for corporate litigation and Wall Street deals. Hundreds of partners, associates and staff are now scrambling to find jobs in an already tough market for legal hiring, while the firm’s remaining lawyers work to move clients and cases elsewhere.

Interviews with people close to the firm, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, show that decision to unwind was the cumulation of a slow deterioration that turned into a relatively swift collapse. A long erosion of Weil’s competitive position gave way in recent months as key lawyers departed, an expected leadership transition faltered and merger talks fell apart. Weil declined to comment.

The wind-down was so unexpected that a new class of first-year associates had just started this month. The firm has pledged to help incoming junior lawyers find new places to work. Top leaders are also securing new gigs: Ramona Nee, who had been tapped to lead Weil, is in advanced talks to join Kirkland & Ellis.

“It’s been a chaotic, anxiety-inducing moment,” said Casey Sullivan, a recruiter at CMW Legal Search, which is representing both Weil attorneys and other firms seeking to recruit them. “It is a shockwave in that I don’t think anybody expected things to unravel this quickly. This has presented hiring opportunities almost overnight, and discussions are happening at an accelerated level.”Weil will enter the halls of failed law firms, alongside names such as Dewey & LeBoeuf, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.

What distinguishes its collapse is the speed of the unraveling, and the role played by star partners who left for more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. In that way, it will add to the concern of lawyers that the profession has somehow lost its way and is designed to chase profit over building stable, long-term enterprises clients can rely on.

Across the legal industry, the elite firms that advise Wall Street increasingly operate more like the investment banks and private equity firms they serve: aggressively recruiting stars, paying top performers eight-figure sums and treating partners with lucrative books of business as prized free agents. All the while, the prospect of upheaval from artificial intelligence looms large.

Weil struggled to keep pace with the shift. Rivals poured money into building private equity practices and raiding competitors for rainmakers, while Weil grew more slowly and remained less aggressive in the market for talent. The firm’s revenue rose at half the annualized rate of its competitors from 2008 to 2025, according to data from American Lawyer and Citigroup Inc.’s law firm banking group.

Still, the firm was seen as a sturdy place for employment, with workers joking internally that Weil Gotshal Manges stood for “We’re Gonna Match” when lawyers fielded competing offers. As of last year, it was among the country’s 30 largest, with nearly $2.1 billion in revenue. It was also among the most profitable, with profits per equity partner topping $5 million, according to American Lawyer.

Partner Exodus Over the past two years, Weil had to contend with a slow exodus. Two top partners and members of the firm’s management committee departed in late 2024. In February 2025, executive partner Barry Wolf announced plans to step down, with Nee tapped as his incoming replacement earlier this year.

Nee, however, privately told a small group of leaders in August that she no longer intended to take the job. That was little known among the Weil staff; as recently as this month a firm press release referred to her as an incoming leader.

In August, Chris Machera, private equity partner and management committee member told Weil he was leaving for Paul Weiss. Then came the resignation of Aiello, the powerful chair of the firm’s 600-lawyer corporate practice, for Cravath, Swaine & Moore. As one of the firm’s biggest rainmakers, the departure took a sizable chunk out of the firm’s revenue.

The risks of relying so heavily on Aiello had long been a topic of conversation within the firm. A partner once remarked that if Aiello ever left, they might as well all go home, said one person, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. Aiello declined to comment.

Among the legal community, talk of potential angst was swirling even before the departures. But normal business at Weil continued. Lawyers gathered at a Sept. 29 gala for Tina’s Wish, a nonprofit supporting ovarian cancer research, that honored Weil partner Gary Holtzer, and there was little outward sign of worry.

In recent weeks, partners were being sounded out by other firms, telling them the writing was on the wall. Some opted to stay, believing they could turn it around. One Weil employee in an administrative role said they weren’t worried because expenses for 2027 were still being approved.

The firm entered talks for a possible merger with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and as recently as last week some partners held discussions with their colleagues to gin up excitement for a possible tie-up. But by late in the week, the merger talks ended with the firms far apart on how they pay partners, among other sticking points, and pressure mounting as other top lawyers headed for the exits.

During marathon meetings over the future of the firm, management committee members discussed ways forward but ultimately came to the conclusion that winding down was the best option. Partners were convened at 3 p.m. New York time on Wednesday and told of the news.

For the rest of staff, an announcement arrived on calendars Wednesday for a 3:30 p.m. Zoom meeting. Wolf appeared from a conference room surrounded by members of Weil’s management team. The bomb dropped: Management was recommending an orderly dissolution.

Wolf said pay will continue for 90 days so that people can finish up with clients, collect fees and continue operations. Employees are slated to get their end-of-the-year bonuses. There was no question and answer session, and after roughly 15 minutes Wolf ended the call with a deep exhale and a trill of his lips.

People cried in some of the conference rooms while watching the Zoom, recalled a first-year associate who is now calling mentors in hopes of landing another job. He had only started at Weil last week.