Kirkland & Ellis has strengthened its competition practice with the hire of a partner and a counsel, who will rise to partner, from Weil Gotshal & Manges. dding partners Nafees Saeed and Chris Thomas to its London team. Saeed joins after more than 12 years at Weil, where he was promoted to partner in the firm’s 2024 promotions round, while Thomas moves over from his role as counsel, becoming a partner. The additions mark a further expansion of Kirkland’s antitrust capabilities in Europe, reinforcing the firm’s integrated London–Brussels platform. According to Weil’s website, some of Saeed’s highlighted matters include advising Microsoft on its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and representing Meta Platforms in its $1 billion purchase of customer-service platform Kustomer in 2023, as well as advising American Securities and its portfolio company Emerald Kalama Chemical on the antitrust aspects of Emerald’s $1.1 billion sale to Germany’s LANXESS in 2021. "Nafees and Chris bring unique skill sets and insights to our business," said Matthew Elliott, corporate partner and member of Kirkland’s executive committee. "Both have strong track records advising private capital clients on all aspects of competition law, and we are excited to welcome them." The dual hire underscores Kirkland’s ongoing investment in its European antitrust bench amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of global transactions and foreign investment. The moves follow a period of notable personnel activity at Weil. Partner Phil Baynes rejoined the firm’s private funds group in London in July, and in November Weil promoted 17 lawyers to partner, including four in London. Kirkland & Ellis did not formally announce its partner promotions this year, but data company Pirical, using publicly available information, estimated that around 20 lawyers were promoted in London. In September, Law.com reported that Kirkland anti trust partner Sally Evans defected to Paul Hastings. A Weil spokesperson said: “We appreciate their contributions and wish them every success going forward."