Goodwin hires Shearman healthcare co-lead for M&A group

(Reuters) - Boston-founded law firm Goodwin Procter on Thursday said it is expanding its M&A group by hiring Robert Masella, a co-leader of Shearman & Sterling's healthcare group.

Prior to joining Shearman in 2015, New York-based Masella was a managing director in the M&A group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a partner at Clifford Chance and an attorney at firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Masella has advised life sciences, healthcare and technology companies in deals and has represented Reuters' parent company, Thomson Reuters.

"Deal after deal in the market, I saw Goodwin," Masella said.

Goodwin closed out 2021 as the top legal adviser on global M&A transactions by deal volume, according to Refinitiv. The law firm last year worked on 1,112 announced deals worth $175 billion. New York-based Shearman in 2021 worked on 215 deals worth $124 billion, putting it in 36th place on Refinitiv's league tables.

Refinitiv data on Thursday afternoon showed that Goodwin worked on 287 announced deals worth $51.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, more than any other law firm.

Stuart Cable, the global chair of the firm's M&A practice, predicted the practice would stay busy even as deal volume worldwide shows signs of slackening this year.

Shearman & Sterling did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Masella's departure.

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