Winston & Strawn has added eight lawyers from Nixon Peabody for a foray into the New York private equity market. Dominick DeChiara, who was head of Nixon's private equity practice, will co-chair Winston's private equity practice. He is joined by three other former Nixon partners and four associates, which he called "our core deal team" in an e-mail to friends and colleagues Friday.

Winston has a robust private equity group in Chicago and had been looking to expand it into New York. The law firm has been on a growth spurt in the city. In September, it added telecommunications partners Eric Cowan and Glynna Christian from Dewey & LeBoeuf, and in August it hired restructuring partner James Donnell from Andrews Kurth. Michael Elkin, who became one of the managing partners of Winston's New York office earlier this year, said the firm would "like to build up to at least 300 lawyers in New York." Winston now has around 200 in the city.

DeChiara joined King & Spalding in 2005, only to leave a year later to join Nixon Peabody. He said his group did not always find the right level of support following their initial move. "We're confident that Winston has what we need to stay here for the long term and to make this a big success," he said. Bradley C. Vaiana, Bryan C. Goldstein, and Jennifer C. Kurtis are the three other partners joining Winston.

DeChiara said his clients were coming with him. Last month, he advised Addus HomeCare Corp., a portfolio company of private equity firm Eos Partners, on its $54 million initial public offering, a deal expected to earn Nixon around $1.3 million in fees, according to its prospectus. In July, DeChiara advised private equity fund GenNx360 Capital Partners in acquiring Trimaster Manufacturing Inc. "We're seeing now a lot more activity in the mid-market, which is where our client base typically plays," DeChiara said.