Latham & Watkins Welcomes Andrew Elken from Cravath: Boosting M&A Expertise

Law firm Latham & Watkins has announced the strategic addition of Andrew Elken, a broker from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, to its New York team. Elken's extensive expertise in guiding public companies and boards of directors through intricate corporate landscapes, including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism defense, securities law, and corporate governance, makes him a valuable asset to Latham.
 

Elken played a pivotal role as a member of the Cravath team that steered Amazon.com Inc's monumental $8.45 billion acquisition of Hollywood giant MGM, a deal that concluded in 2022. With a career spanning over a decade at Cravath, he has also orchestrated significant transactions such as U.S. data center operator CyrusOne Inc's acquisition worth $15 billion by KKR & Co Inc and Global Infrastructure Partners in 2022. Industry giants like Deutsche Telekom, PG&E, and Atlas Air Worldwide are among his notable clients, as highlighted in his Latham online biography.
 
Commenting on Elken's arrival, Charles Ruck, the global chair of Latham's corporate department, expressed enthusiasm for bolstering their M&A practice to serve their growing public company clients. Elken's legal journey began at Cravath, where he ultimately rose to partner status in 2018, as indicated by his LinkedIn profile.
 
Cravath has rarely seen partner departures to competitors historically, but in recent years, there has been a limited exodus of lawyers to other firms. One such example is David Portilla, a specialist in bank regulatory law, who transitioned to Davis, Polk & Wardwell in April. Katherine Forrest, a former federal judge, and senior government antitrust lawyer, also left Cravath for a position at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in January. In December 2021, Cravath adopted an evolved compensation model, shifting from a purely seniority-based system to a modified lockstep system that factors in partner contributions and tenure. This change aimed to enhance the firm's ability to attract and retain mid-career partners by affording them more flexible compensation options.
 
While Cravath is traditionally promoted from within, the firm has selectively brought in external talent since 2021. Notable among these hires is Jeffrey Rosen, the former acting U.S. attorney general during the Trump administration, who joined Cravath's new Washington, D.C., office in July. This move aligned with the firm's broader strategy of adding former government officials to its ranks after launching its Washington office the previous year.