Kannon Shanmugam is leaving Paul Weiss for Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he and fellow partner Masha Hansford will launch the firm’s new Supreme Court and appellate practice. The move, announced Thursday, sends one of the country’s best-known appellate lawyers to a rival firm as Paul Weiss continues to lose prominent litigators.
Shanmugam is the best-known lawyer to exit Paul Weiss since Brad Karp stepped down in February. He is a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, a veteran of the U.S. Solicitor General’s office and has argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court. His resume also includes work for Exxon Mobil Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and the National Football League, and he is set to argue for Cisco Systems, Inc. before the court next week.
The move matters because Shanmugam was central to Paul Weiss’s effort to build a top-tier appellate bench in Washington. He joined the firm in 2019 from Williams & Connolly to launch its first dedicated Supreme Court practice and lead the Washington office. In 2020, he was lead counsel in the case in which the justices ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership structure was unconstitutional, a victory that underscored his standing at the court.
His departure also lands after a bruising stretch for Paul Weiss. Last year the firm reached a controversial deal with President Donald Trump, pledging $40 million in free legal services on shared causes to rescind an executive order targeting the firm. In June 2025, Shanmugam described that decision as difficult and one shaped by “practical considerations.” The firm then saw a series of notable litigators head for the door, including Karen Dunn, who left with partners Bill Isaacson and Jeannie Rhee to start a boutique firm, Jeh Johnson, who retired after 40 years at Paul Weiss, and Damian Williams, who left for Jenner & Block.
For Davis Polk, the hire adds instant credibility to a practice the firm is building from the ground up. For Paul Weiss, it is another sign that the 150-year history and the marquee name on the door have not stopped the drain of courtroom talent. What happens next is plain enough: Shanmugam will be in a different firm’s colors next week, still in the same fight, arguing another major case before the Supreme Court.
