Five trainees at the London office of collapsing US firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges have been snapped up by Latham & Watkins.

In a statement, Ed Barnett, managing partner of Latham & Watkins’ London office at Leadenhall Street, said: ‘We’re delighted to welcome this talented group from Weil to Latham. Training the next generation of lawyers is one of our most important responsibilities, and we’re excited to support them as they look to build exceptional careers.’

The City of London Law Society said last week that it was on standby to help UK trainees and junior lawyers potentially marooned by the demise of venerable Wall Street firm Weil. Dozens of solicitors and other workers at the US firm’s Fetter Lane, London office appear to be facing redundancy after Weil’s leaders recommended that partners vote to ‘pursue an orderly wind-down’ of the 95-year-old firm.

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Writing in today’s Financial Times, Yale law school professor John Morley described Weil’s demise as ‘shocking’, but ‘remarkably predictable’.

’Law firms are vulnerable to a spiral of partner withdrawals that resembles a run on a bank,’ Morley said. 'When one partner leaves and takes clients with them, the firm’s profits may drop. The pay of the other partners must then decline in proportion. This may prompt another partner to leave, and then another, and so on in an accelerating crisis of withdrawal.’

He adds: 'What, then, can Weil’s experience teach us about other firms? First, that a firm can collapse even when it has no debts and when its profits are still increasing.’