Palantir CFO David Glazer recruits Weil summer associates as 90-year law firm winds down

Palantir Technologies CFO David Glazer is turning a law firm's collapse into a recruiting opportunity. On Thursday, Glazer posted on LinkedIn: "If you were going to be a Weil summer associate but now want to put your experience to work at Palantir, want to work a real summer job (with way less lunches) but way more fun. Reach out!" The invitation lands as Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a Wall Street institution with more than 90 years of history, prepares to wind down pending a vote by its partners.

Weil announced Wednesday that its management committee had recommended closing the firm. "Following a careful review of strategic alternatives, the firm's management committee has recommended to the partnership that the firm pursue an orderly wind-down," Weil said in a statement. Partners are expected to vote in the coming days. The unraveling follows an exodus of partners and unsuccessful merger talks, leaving approximately 1,200 lawyers worldwide facing an uncertain future. As recently as Sept. 30, Weil was touting industry recognition, having been named "Competition Team of the Year" at the Legal Business Awards 2026 for advising Boeing as global antitrust counsel outside the U.S. on its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems. Yet prominent departures continued. On Oct. 22, Law.com reported that Caroline Hickey Zalka, head of Weil's securities litigation practice and a member of its management committee, was in advanced talks to join Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Within a week, Weil's leadership had recommended winding down the firm.

Glazer's own career path gives the offer extra weight. He joined Palantir in 2013 as legal counsel for corporate and securities, held several other leadership roles, and became CFO in July 2020. Before that, he was a corporate securities attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he advised technology companies and founders on IPOs, equity and debt financings, M&A, and corporate governance. His move from law to finance offers one way to read the invitation: legal training need not lead exclusively to a legal career. Glazer now leads Palantir's finance organization as the company's market cap exceeds $450 billion. In Q2, revenue surged 93% year over year to $1.94 billion, giving Palantir both the balance sheet and the brand appeal to scoop up talent from a distressed legacy institution.

The collapse of Weil is striking not just for its scale but for its speed. A firm that handled major matters for Lehman Brothers, Enron, and General Motors, and that was celebrating an award weeks earlier, is now preparing to dissolve. The pattern follows a familiar dynamic in Big Law: when partner departures accelerate, clients follow, revenue drops, and remaining partners face a choice between merging or winding down. Weil's management committee chose the latter, a decision that will ripple through the legal market and the clients who relied on the firm's antitrust, securities, and corporate work.

For summer associates, the timing is brutal. These are typically law students who accepted offers months in advance, expecting a prestigious summer program that often converts into full-time employment. Glazer's pitch reframes that expectation: instead of a summer of lunches and orientation sessions, Palantir offers a "real summer job" with "way less lunches" but "way more fun." The post does not specify what work they would do, but it raises an interesting question about the AI era: how companies can put analytical judgment to work beyond conventional career tracks. Palantir, whose software is used for AI and data analytics across government and enterprise, is a natural destination for legal minds trained to parse complex documents and assess risk.

The broader lesson for executives and boards is that talent markets are now fluid across industries. A law firm's distress is another company's recruiting opportunity, and the CFO who once sat in the associate's chair is best positioned to make the pitch. Glazer's outreach is a reminder that career paths are no longer linear, and that companies willing to hire for judgment rather than pedigree can turn a competitor's crisis into their own talent pipeline. For the 1,200 Weil lawyers watching the partner vote, and for the students who expected to start there, the offer from Palantir is an early signal of where the next generation of analytical talent may land.