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Firms are looking to deploy windfall profits from 2024 to invest in rainmaking partners with substantial client followings, said Sabina Lippman, one of the recruiters who brokered Cromie and Grubman’s moves.

Lateral partner additions typically ramp up in the first quarter, after partners have received their full profit distributions and bonuses for the prior year.

Simpson Thacher reps did not return a request for comment on Cromie’s departure.

Grubman served as M&A chair for Jones Day’s Americas region before accepting a role co-leading Sidley Austin’s global M&A practice earlier this month. He and Cromie started at Sidley over the weekend, continuing their work advising public companies in M&A transactions.

The pair counseled equipment and services provider Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. in its 2023 $7.5 billion merger with Xylem and US Steel in the 2021 sale of Transtar to Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors for $640 million, according to their online profiles.

Sidley ranked 20th among Big Law M&A dealmakers last year, advising on nearly $94 billion worth of global transactions. Simpson Thacher landed in the sixth spot, handling $245 billion in deals, while Jones Day has seen its position slip over the past five years.

Grubman has been tasked with adding to the firm’s client base and recruiting partners. He will work alongside Chicago partner Paul Choi, global co-leader of Sidley’s M&A practice. Sharon Flanagan in San Francisco/Palo Alto and Mark Metts in Houston are the other co-leaders, according to a firm spokesman.

Grubman has “a number of client relationships who are of interest to us,” said Brian Fahrney, chair-elect of Sidley’s executive committee and global co-leader of the firm’s M&A and private equity practice. “And our platform will be able to serve those clients even better.”

Legal recruiters at CenterPeak, including Meredith Frank, Josh Dull, and Lippman, brokered the hires, Lippman said.

“M&A practices, especially practices at this level, have always been in very significant demand,” Lippman said. “We are seeing enhanced interest in public M&A with relative optimism about deal flow in every market this year. In any market, with someone like Dave who is a known quantity, there is a lot of interest.”

Cromie and Grubman said they were drawn to Sidley because of practice areas that complement their work with public companies, pointing to shareholder activism, antitrust, and foreign direct investing.

“Those are things that are increasingly in focus in the boardroom and for any M&A practice,” Grubman said. “It takes a lot of people to do what we do.”

Cromie has not always been a corporate lawyer. He spent more than a decade in various roles for the Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, climbing the ranks to become assistant general manager and vice president while also attending law school at Georgetown University, according to his LinkedIn profile.