By David Thomas

Feb 25 (Reuters) - U.S. law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell said on Wednesday it has hired another partner from rival Cravath, Swaine & Moore, marking at least the sixth Cravath partner to depart the prominent New York law firm this year.

Amanda Hines Gold joined Davis Polk as a partner in its executive compensation practice in New York, the firm said. Davis Polk last month hired Benjamin Joseloff, a former U.S. Treasury Department official who was a national security partner at Cravath.

Cravath, one of the most profitable U.S. law firms, historically rarely lost partners to competing firms or made outside partner hires. That has changed in recent years as some partners have left and others have joined. The firm also reportedly joined rivals in creating a nonequity, salaried-partner tier in recent years.

Gold's departure follows moves earlier this year by two Cravath partners to Paul Hastings and another to Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Jelena McWilliams, who joined Cravath to help launch and lead its Washington, D.C., office in 2022, joined financial technology company Plaid as president of corporate and external affairs last month.

A seventh Cravath partner, George Schoen, who co-leads the firm's global mergers and acquisition practice, is poised to leave to become general counsel of building materials supplier Martin Marietta Materials in March, the company said earlier this month.

A spokesperson for Cravath in a brief statement said the firm wished Gold well.

Cravath has brought on six partners from other law firms and the federal government since the start of 2025, including Nicole Argentieri, the former head of the U.S. Department of Justice's criminal division during the Biden administration. The firm internally promoted six of its lawyers to partners at the start of 2026.

Gold, in a statement released by her new firm, said Davis Polk has "a highly regarded executive compensation team."

Gold was among the Cravath partners who represented Frontier Communications when the fiber-optic internet provider was bought by Verizon VZ.N for $20 billion in 2024. The acquisition closed after the California Public Utilities Commission approved the deal last month.

(Reporting by David Thomas)

((D.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com;))