Justin Hamill, partner, Latham & Watkins (Courtesy photo)

Latham & Watkins has continued its streak of early-year New York corporate partner hires, announcing on Monday the addition of former Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner Justin Hamill.

Hamill is the third M&A and private equity partner to join Latham’s New York office this year and the second former Paul Weiss lawyer. The firm in early January brought on Alexander Johnson, who was the former leader of Hogan Lovells’ New York mergers and acquisitions practice, and David Beller, a former Paul Weiss counsel.

For his part, Hamill is well-known in the sports, entertainment and media industry. His work on a seriesof transactions involving William Morris Endeavor Entertainment garnered attention in a variety of industry publications and awards, including a 2014 New York Law Journal ‘Rising Star’ award.

In 2014, for instance, Hamill was lead counsel on Hollywood agency William Morris Endeavor's $2.4 billion acquisition of IMG Worldwide. More recently, in 2017, Hamill led Paul Weiss’ representation of Michael Kors in the fashion brand’s purchase of British shoe designer Jimmy Choo.

At Paul Weiss, Hamill also represented upstart media company Vice Media in a number of transactions, including a $450 million investment it received in 2017 from private equity giant TPG Capital.

Johnson, the former Hogan Lovells partner who joined in January, has also focused in the media and entertainment space, having represented 21st Century Fox in a number of transactions, as well as publisher clients including News Corp., HarperCollins Publishers, Hearst Corp. and Conde Nast.

“I look forward to leveraging Latham’s integrated, global platform and industry focus to serve my clients,” Hamill, who was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, said in a statement. “The firm has an excellent reputation globally for serving as a strategic adviser to clients on their most high-stakes transactions, and that reputation, combined with their deep industry expertise, particularly in entertainment, sports, and media, drew me to Latham.”

In a statement Tuesday, Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp said, "We appreciate Justin’s contributions to our firm, and we wish him well."

Latham’s global corporate chair, Marc Jaffe, said in an interview with The American Lawyer in January that the firm expected a strong 2019 for corporate transactions following a historically busy year for buyouts in 2018.

Private equity activity reached higher than $556 billion last year, its highest total in a decade and up nearly 4 percent from the money doled out the prior year, according to Mergermarket, which tracks M&A deals. The number of private equity buyouts—3,599—set a new record, as did the number of private equity exits.