Shearman & Sterling is pleased to announce that, as previewed last month, the partners of the firm have elected Adam S. Hakki, as the firm’s Senior Partner and new leader, effective today. Adam is the 17th Senior Partner in the firm’s 150-year history. Adam succeeds David J. Beveridge, who served as the firm’s Senior Partner since 2018.

Previously the firm’s co-Global Managing Partner and Head of Disputes and Litigation, Adam, aged 51, is based in New York and has spent his entire career at the firm. As a preeminent litigator and, for the last 11 years, the leader of the firm’s Litigation Group, Adam has spearheaded exceptional success and growth of the firm’s Litigation practice, including achieving record revenue in 2022. Supported by a strong management and business services team in his role as Senior Partner, Adam will continue to actively represent and advise clients alongside his leadership duties.

As Senior Partner, Adam’s priorities will include:

• Driving a high-performance, client-centric culture to deliver the highest level of legal service and quality of client experience to the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, and funds.
• Focusing the firm on its core strengths as an elite firm of choice worldwide for the most complex and high-value transactions, disputes, and advisory work—consistent with the firm’s 150 years at the highest end of the legal profession.
• Enhancing and sharpening the firm’s industry focus as a true destination firm for critical industries aligned with the firm’s experience and practice strengths, including industries such as technology, media, telecom, energy and energy innovation, infrastructure, financial services and fintech, private and sovereign funds and capital, healthcare and life sciences, metals and mining, chemicals, telecommunications, and transportation, among others.
• Continued growth and expansion in key practices and geographies, with a focus on profitability and practice balance, as well as business discipline and operating efficiency in every aspect of the firm.
• Recruiting, developing, and retaining the world’s finest legal talent through active partner mentoring, robust opportunities for growth and substantive experience, and a strong emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Ensuring preparedness for technology changes affecting the legal industry and leveraging the opportunities those changes are creating.
• Actively engaging with the broader community, particularly through pro bono work and public service, as well as with the firm’s alumni across the business and legal world.

David Beveridge said: “I am confident that Adam is the leader the firm needs to accelerate the pace of our ongoing transformation and execute a new strategic plan. He has exceptional leadership and management ability and will be pivotal in helping us deliver on our ambition, ensuring that we fully capitalize on our strengths and continue to deliver exceptional service to our clients.”

Adam Hakki said: “It is an honor to be elected by my fellow partners to lead our great firm. This year marks Shearman & Sterling’s 150th anniversary, and I am excited and energized by the opportunity to lead the firm into the future. I believe strongly that a client-centric mindset, with true industry expertise focused on our clients’ most complex and important legal work must be our focus. We have enormously talented and dedicated lawyers and professionals, and I hope to help them reach their highest potential as a team.” 

Adam joined Shearman & Sterling nearly 26 years ago and maintains a full-time litigation and investigations practice focused on “bet the company” matters. Adam is one of only four lawyers ranked as a “Star Individual” by Chambers USA in New York for Securities Litigation and is the only lawyer in the United States ranked by Chambers in each of the areas of securities litigation, antitrust, and financial services enforcement. In 2021, Adam was named Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer, and in each of the last four years, he has been named a Banking MVP by Law360.