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Winston Gains 18 Thelen Attorneys
The Recorder
November 19, 2008
Winston & Strawn has gathered some prized partners from the rubble of Thelen.
Antitrust litigator Robert Pringle and bankruptcy partner Richard Lapping are some of the headliners in a group of 18 lawyers that is joining the Chicago-based firm.
Large groups of lawyers have found new homes at firms like Nixon Peabody, Howrey and Robinson & Cole since Thelen announced that it would dissolve in late October.
Winston has a big-time Thelen connection. San Francisco managing partner Charles Birenbaum was a Thelen partner but left in 2003 after losing a bid to be chairman by one vote.
"Winston is very fortunate to get this group of practitioners from Thelen, and it's personally gratifying because I've worked with them at Thelen," Birenbaum said Tuesday.
Pringle, the head of Thelen's antitrust practice, has a book of business between $5 million and $10 million and does antitrust work for Samsung and NEC Corp. Two other antitrust partners, Paul Griffin, second-in-command in Thelen's antitrust group, and Jonathan Howden, will also be joining Winston along with some associates.
"Bob's a very strong member of the local antitrust bar," said Gary Davis, a recruiter with Patterson Davis Consulting who was not involved with the deal. "He obviously had multiple choices. This is a good effort on Winston's part to land a team like this."
Lapping was the San Francisco managing partner for Thelen and will be bringing over an associate who works in his bankruptcy practice.
The other former Thelen partners coming to Winston include Kit Loke and Jarrett Fugh, who do real estate and corporate work for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group; Robert Nelson Jr., a project finance partner; Jonathan Bristol, a business and finance partner; and Dirk Mueller, a real estate and energy transaction lawyer who does work for companies including Calpine Corp. and Vestas.
All of the Thelen partners aside from Bristol in New York and Fugh in Los Angeles come from Thelen's headquarters in San Francisco.
Citing tough economic times and a stream of departing partners, Thelen announced that it would dissolve Oct. 28. The firm said it would keep its doors open until Dec. 1.
Even before Thelen hit such dire straits this year, Thelen partners had been flocking to join Birenbaum at Winston.
Well-known IP litigator Michael Elkin left Thelen for Winston two years ago with a large group. This past February, David Aronoff, co-chair of Thelen's intellectual property and trade regulation group, also joined Winston with two other partners.
