Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has added a former M&A and private equity practice leader from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, joining as a partner in New York. The firm on Monday said Stephen Amdur is joining its M&A and private equity group, with firm leaders calling him a “stellar” corporate lawyer who complements its offerings across industries such as technology, financial services, life sciences, media, sports, and energy, among others. Amdur, who had joined Pillsbury in 2017 from Latham & Watkins, counsels both public and private companies, as well as private equity and venture capital funds on a range of transactions, the firm noted in a release on Monday. Steven Epstein, managing partner and co-head of the M&A and private equity practice at Fried Frank, said in an interview Monday that Amdur had the three things they look for in partners: he's an "excellent" lawyer, has a strong client following, and is collaborative. He pointed specifically, too, to Amdur's representation of large family offices, which he said act similarly to high-end private equity firms. "Those types of clients are becoming more and more important on the M&A and PE landscape. Stephen has an entree into a couple of those clients, so that’s a somewhat newer angle for us, because as we see those types of businesses becoming more significant players in bidding for assets, we think it’s important to have coverage in that area," Epstein said. "And Stephen has the range to be able to do public company deals, PE deals and high-end family office transactions." Amdur said in an interview Monday that he was particularly attracted to the combination of elite lawyers, as well as "a level of hunger and growth to build a dynamism within the practice groups and communities here." He said one area in particular that will make for a good synergy is sports. He said Fried Frank has the world's leading GP stakes and minority investments practice, and Amdur has been very active representing teams, leagues and individual investors in sports, pointing to the sale of Chelsea FC and minority investment by Sixth Street in the San Francisco Giants as transactions he's worked on. "It's an area where there’s a lot of interest and activity from private capital, and I think that interest is reciprocated by the teams and leagues, viewing this as a great opportunity to find new homes for private stakes," Amdur said. His move comes as law firms have continued to pile up transactional talent, across the U.S., coming off a rare simultaneous bounce in both deal work and litigation in 2025. Corporate and M&A practices “saw meaningful activity throughout the year” in terms of group laterals specifically, according to a new report this week. Additionally, several Am Law 50 and Am Law 100 firms announced additions in their transactional practices in January. And the momentum has carried into February, with firms like Sidley Austin and Norton Rose Fulbright adding talent in Chicago and St. Louis . Fried Frank in December also added Saif I. Shah Mohammed as a partner in its asset management M&A practice in Washington, D.C. Going forward, Epstein, a firm leader and practice co-head, said the firm is looking specifically for small teams that service upper middle market and larger sponsor clients in private equity, as well as those with public company skillsets, saying both are areas the firm has a "storied history." "So, that’s a skillset we constantly need to refresh," he said, adding that both talent buckets are important priorities in the firm's medium term growth plan. While some analysts have noted some reasons for firms to be cautious this year, there remains plenty of optimism about deal work, with some transactional lawyers pointing to pent-up demand, healthy stocks and greater predictability on financing as reasons demand could be high in 2026. Epstein said while uncertainty remains, many companies have figured out how to price that uncertainty into their deal mix. He said there could be some kind of slowdown later this year, but the outlook for deal work in 2026 is mostly solid. "Toward the end of 2026, as we hit midterm elections, there could be a slowdown in M&A activity as people see how the political environment here in the US shakes out," he said. "But I think over the next 6 months or so, I expect M&A activity to be quite strong." Pillsbury said in a statement on Amdur's departure that partner movement "is a routine part of large law firm business." "We wish Steve well," the firm added.