2019 has been a year of ups and downs for McDermott Will & Emery globally: it lost three partners in London in the space of a week in the spring, though it is rebuilding, and earlier this month it closed an office in Seoul, centre of Asia’s fourth-largest economy. But the firm made the Top Four globally and in the US for healthcare private equity deals, itself a booming sector, and opened an office in Wilmington, Delaware to take advantage of the city’s hot bankruptcy scene.

It has now enticed two New York-based corporate lawyers – one from fellow Chicago-headquartered behemoth Kirkland & Ellis, and one from West Coast powerhouse Morrison & Foerster. Equity capital markets partner Ze’-ev Eiger arrived from the latter, boosting McDermott’s securities capabilities, while Patrick Rowe, who comes from an associate position at Kirkland & Ellis, bolsters McDermott’s M&A and private equity bench.

“McDermott has a strong capital markets bench with lawyers focused in key areas such as structured finance, corporate restructurings and private equity,” said Eiger in a statement. “I’m looking forward to joining forces with seasoned colleagues to support issuers, financial institutions and investors seeking to push forward their business objectives.”

Rowe, for his part, said that he was “excited to join [McDermott’s] dynamic and growing transactions team and contribute to its top-tier, global M&A and private equity work”.

The firm’s head of transactions, Harris Siskind, said in a statement: “Ze’-ev and Patrick have strong experience with market-shaping deals that will create significant synergies with our corporate work in New York.”

These are not rainmaker hires, and it is unclear what specifically the two lawyers will bring to the New York practice other than additional resource – but since McDermott Will & Emery has been growing steadily over the last decade, it seems that as its pie grows, so does its oven.