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Schulte Roth & Zabel to Open Office in D.C.
The American Lawyer
July 02, 2008
Schulte Roth & Zabel, best known for its investment funds clients, Tuesday announced plans to open an office in Washington, D.C. The announcement coincides with the hiring of several securities litigation lawyers from Washington, D.C.'s Dickstein Shapiro and national firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
Among those joining the 414-lawyer New York firm are: Howard Schiffman, the former head of Dickstein's securities litigation, regulatory and compliance practice; fellow Dickstein securities partner Ida Wurczinger Draim; and former Morgan Lewis securities partner Mark Mandel.
"For this little firm that has never really expanded past its New York borders -- except for London, which we did five years ago -- this is a monumental move," says hiring partner Jeffrey Lenobel, who sits on the firm's executive committee. "We are adverse to opening up other offices but after much deliberation felt this was a necessity for us to be able to maintain our position with our existing clients."
Lenobel says the firm's private equity and hedge fund practice requires a great deal of SEC enforcement and regulatory compliance work for its clients. All three laterals have worked at the SEC. Schiffman and Mandel provide experience on the litigation side while Draim advises broker-dealers.
"We are very selective about how we expand, but we think this is the perfect fit for a variety of reasons," says Martin Perschetz, co-chair of the firm's 100-lawyer litigation practice. "We had intended for some time to expand and bolster our SEC enforcement, securities litigation and regulatory work."
Lenobel says Schulte has made it a priority to bolster its securities and regulatory practice in the last two years. Schulte's last lateral hire was securities litigation partner Robert Ward from Mayer Brown in October 2007. In addition to Schiffman, Draim and Mandel, the firm is also adding Dickstein special counsel Eric Bensky and James Wines, who each have nearly 14 years of securities litigation experience.
Schulte began speaking with Schiffman and Mandel several months ago but working out the logistics of the move took time. The firm initially tried to expand its practice in New York but found the work to be too D.C.-based, so the need for a presence on the ground in the District soon became apparent.
All of the firm's 82 equity partners needed to agree to the new office before a deal could be finalized, says Lenobel, adding that there were numerous internal discussions about the feasibility of opening the firm's second office outside of New York. There was also the matter of wooing Schiffman, who had been at Dickstein since 1980.
"Emotionally I think it's a difficult move for Howard," Lenobel says. "But I think the client base that we have on the [investment funds] side is really unique and will give Howard a platform to exponentially expand his practice." (Schiffman was not immediately available for comment by the time of this post. In response to the Dickstein defections, firm Chairman Michael Nannes issued the following statement: "We fortunately are not veterans in the business of losing partners. But we wish our former colleagues well.")
Lenobel, whose practice is real estate, says he was particularly concerned about making sure the laterals were on board before a lease was signed. "The last thing I wanted to do was tell my partners that we'd signed a three-year lease but we have no deal with anyone in Washington," jokes Lenobel. "So doing it all so it broke on the same day took all of the magic that we had in our bag of tricks."
Schulte's new lease for the eighth floor of 1152 15th St. NW became effective on Tuesday. Lenobel says he expects the office to be up and running in about a week. In addition to Schiffman, Draim, Bensky and Wines, Lenobel says five associates will be sent from New York to help it hit the ground running. The firm expects a partner from the New York office to relocate to D.C. as well, and Lenobel says the office currently has enough space to be able to meet its target of 16-17 lawyers.
Lenobel also doesn't want others to think the D.C. office opening is the start of a new era for Schulte Roth. "This is not the beginning of the globalization of Schulte Roth," he says. "We have no other plans to open up any other offices but this is still a very important step for us."
