A former counsel at Paul Hastings has become a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he will advise private equity firms and strategic buyers on mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures.

Russell Franklin, based in New York, began his career in the corporate department of Boies Schiller Flexner and made partner in his nearly 10 years there before moving with the bulk of his team to join Paul Hastings in 2017. A junior partner at Boies, he said he took an of-counsel position at Paul Hastings due to the firm's partnership structure.

He said he decided to consider his options after about two years at Paul Hastings and was impressed with what he found at Morgan Lewis. He joined the firm this week.

“There are a lot of firms that will say to you, 'we're interested in you,' but the follow-through is lacking,” he said, adding that he met Morgan Lewis managing partner Steven Browne just days after his initial interview. Throughout the interview process, he said, “all of the people that I met were outstanding. They were extremely personable, extremely candid.”

While he declined to identify his clients and whether they would come with him, Franklin said he has represented both buyers and sellers of companies and has counseled private equity firms, who tend to buy a company with the intention of boosting its profitability and selling it, and strategic buyers, who often seek to fold an acquired company's operations into their own.

Paul Hastings' website lists deals Franklin has worked on in the U.S. and abroad, including transactions that involved consumer-goods companies, a hospitality company and the purchase of coal and transportation assets from a major mining company. Clients on the list include EG Capital and its affiliates and Goldman Sachs.

Franklin, a graduate of Harvard Law School, said Morgan Lewis had three elements he sought in a law firm: a collaborative culture, a focus on succession planning for client relationships and a strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion, which he said were “weaved into the culture” of his new firm.

“For a lot of firms, it's just a buzzword,” he said.