Sidley Austin

Three corporate partners at O'Melveny & Myers have left for Sidley Austin in New York, including the former co-leader of O'Melveny's capital markets practice.

Sidley Austin said on Monday that it added former O'Melveny partners Michael Schiavone, Daniel O'Shea and David Ni. All three join Sidley as partners.

A Sidley spokeswoman who announced the hires on Monday said they weren't available to comment.

Schiavone, who co-chaired the capital markets practice at O'Melveny, represents underwriters and issuers in equity, debt and convertible securities offerings and has advised clients in acquisition finance, debt restructuring and liability management transactions. He joined O'Melveny in 2012 from Shearman & Sterling, where he led the capital markets Americas group.

O'Shea, previously a senior attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore who joined O'Melveny in 2014, has represented underwriters in IPOs and debt and bond offerings. Ni, who was promoted to partner in the last year at O'Melveny, also represents clients in a variety of offerings.

An O'Melveny spokesman said the firm wishes them well, declining to comment further.

The moves are the latest in a string of corporate departures from O'Melveny in 2018. So far this year, the firm saw the exit of project finance and M&A partner Richard Shutran, who moved to Winston & Strawn; investment funds partner Timothy Clark, who moved to Dechert; and Don Melamed, an investment funds partner, who joined Proskauer Rose. George Davis, a former member of O'Melveny & Myers' executive committee and co-chair of the firm's global restructuring practice, left its New York office to become the new global co-chair of restructuring, insolvency and workouts at Latham & Watkins.

The group departure to Sidley Austin comes within a month of reported merger talks between O'Melveny and Allen & Overy. An O'Melveny spokesman has said the firm has no plans to merge.

O'Melveny has also continued to hire firmwide. The firm added three M&A partners in Century City, Los Angeles, arriving from Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, as well as Hong Kong-based corporate partner Li Han, previously the general counsel of global investment firm Shanda Group. The firm added white-collar defense partner Nicole Argentieri, a former federal prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. And in the last week, the firm added Stanford Law School professor Jeffrey Fisher, one of the most frequent advocates at the U.S. Supreme Court, as special counsel in its appellate practice.

Meanwhile, Sidley has also seen its doors revolve this year. Jeffrey Bjork, a prominent bankruptcy partner, left to join Latham & Watkins. But in addition to the O'Melveny hires, the firm has added several others, including Greenberg Traurig's former national financial institutions co-chair, Andrew Cardonick in Chicago, and former Vinson & Elkins partner Kai Haakon Liekefett in New York.