Top appellate lawyers leave Paul Weiss for Davis Polk venture

Kannon Shanmugam’s exit from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP lands as more than a partner move. It is another sign that one of New York’s most powerful litigation franchises has been weakened by a year of political fallout, internal uncertainty and aggressive competition for elite appellate talent.

Shanmugam, who chairs Paul Weiss’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, is leaving with Masha Hansford to launch a new Supreme Court and appellate practice at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. The pairing gives Davis Polk an instant bid for the highest end of appellate work, where a handful of lawyers can shape how major corporate disputes, regulatory challenges and constitutional fights are argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts.

The departures carry particular weight because Shanmugam was one of Paul Weiss’s most visible legal stars. He has argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court, including 31 in private practice, and more than 150 appeals nationwide. Hansford returned to Paul Weiss in September 2025 after five years in the U.S. solicitor general’s office, where she argued nine cases before the Supreme Court. Her move added government-side credibility to a practice already built around high-stakes commercial litigation and appellate strategy.

That visibility makes the timing especially awkward for Paul Weiss. The firm publicly featured Shanmugam and Hansford in an April 2026 Vault Q&A and in a March 2026 Supreme Court preview podcast, underscoring how recently the pair had been part of the firm’s pitch to clients and recruits. Their departure now suggests that even Paul Weiss’s marquee litigation brand and Washington, D.C. presence have not been insulated from the broader shakeout inside the firm.

The exodus traces back to Paul Weiss’s controversial March 20, 2025 deal with the Trump White House, under which the firm agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services in exchange for rescission of a March 14 executive order that threatened its security clearances and government-related business. Brad Karp said at the time that the agreement was consistent with firm values. But the backlash was immediate. In May 2025, four major partners, Karen Dunn, Jeannie Rhee, Jessica Phillips and William Isaacson, left to start their own firm, and more litigation departures followed by June.

Taken together, the exits point to a larger power shift in New York Big Law. Paul Weiss remains formidable, but the loss of nationally prominent litigators to rivals such as Davis Polk raises fresh questions about partner confidence, client portability and whether the firm can keep its hold on the top tier of politically sensitive litigation work.