Top dealmaker Kamyar Abrar returns to WEIL as Co-Head

Frankfurt/ Munich — WEIL is conti­nuing the expan­sion of its Euro­pean private equity prac­tice: With the arri­val and return of Dr. Kamyar Abrar, who will lead WEIL’s private equity prac­tice in Germany toge­ther with Dr. Sebas­tian Pauls, the firm is consis­t­ently pursuing its ambi­tious growth course.

Kamyar Abrar is the 17th part­ner to return to WEIL since the begin­ning of 2023. The firm is expe­ri­en­cing an excep­tio­nal influx of top lawy­ers world­wide. Kamyar Abrar joins from Will­kie Farr, where he was most recently Co-Mana­­ging Part­ner for Germany. “Kamyar is one of Germany’s leading private equity lawy­ers and an excep­tio­nally accom­plished advi­sor. We are deligh­ted to welcome him back to WEIL,” said WEIL Execu­tive Part­ner Barry Wolf. 

Sebas­tian Pauls, co-mana­­ging part­ner of WEIL’s German offices and co-head of the German private equity prac­tice, says: “This was a clear and logi­cal decis­ion for both of us. Kamyar is one of the most outstan­ding lawy­ers in the market and will imme­dia­tely expand our strength in large, complex and stra­te­gi­cally important private equity tran­sac­tions and thus decisi­vely drive the next growth phase of our practice.”

WEIL’s global co-head of the private equity prac­tice, Marco Compa­gnoni, says: “Kamyar is one of the most renow­ned and sought-after private equity and M&A lawy­ers in Germany. He advi­ses on complex, large-volume Euro­pean and US cross-border tran­sac­tions. We are deligh­ted to welcome him to our top Euro­pean team. Our ambi­tion remains unch­an­ged: to build the leading global private equity plat­form with the brigh­test minds.”

Kamyar Abrar (Photo: WEIL): “I am looking forward to working with Sebas­tian and the part­ners in Germany with great anti­ci­pa­tion. Retur­ning to WEIL was a logi­cal step for me, as we share a clear commit­ment to colla­bo­ra­tion and first-class advice for the leading global sponsors.”

Kamyar Abrar’s return follows just three months after Sebas­tian Pauls’ highly acclai­med move from Latham to WEIL with a renow­ned team — inclu­ding part­ner Susanne Decker, part­ner Dr. Andreas Holzgreve and coun­sel Dr. Julia Schö­fer. The move was seen throug­hout the indus­try as a “game chan­ger” for the German legal market and as a signi­fi­cant gene­ra­tio­nal change in private equity advice. — WEIL has recently signi­fi­cantly increased the strength of its Euro­pean private equity prac­tice. In addi­tion to new late­rals in Germany, the firm has also streng­the­ned its London team with the arri­val of secon­da­ries part­ner Simon Saito­witz, who was invol­ved in the five largest GP-led tran­sac­tions in Europe in 2025. The firm has also appoin­ted five new private equity part­ners in London and Paris. 

About WEIL’s Private Equity practice

WEIL’s Private Equity prac­tice is a global market leader. We have outstan­ding experts in all areas of the private equity spec­trum inclu­ding buyouts, growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and credit. Our clients include the largest and best-known private equity funds, sove­reign wealth and pension funds, as well as family offices and other finan­cial inves­tors. WEIL advi­ses more than 300 private equity clients world­wide, inclu­ding over 70% of the 20 largest global private equity funds (PEI 300 2025). 

About WEIL

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 lawy­ers. WEIL has offices in New York, Austin, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Miami, Munich, Paris, Shang­hai, Washing­ton, D.C. and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the Ameri­can law firm has two offices in Frank­furt and Munich. The focus here is on provi­ding specia­li­zed advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients on cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion manda­tes, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings as well as tax struc­tu­ring. — www.weil.com