Sedgwick office
The migration from Sedgwick continues as lawyers continue to leave the dissolving Am Law 200 firm for new positions elsewhere.
Hinshaw & Culbertson announced Tuesday its addition of a six-lawyer team in California from Sedgwick, which is winding down its operations this month.
Among those making the move to Hinshaw & Culbertson are ex-Sedgwick partners Eugene Brown Jr., Amee Mikacich and Dennis Rolstad in San Francisco, while partners Edward Stumpp and Robert Bohner and associate Jenna Nguyen come aboard in Los Angeles.
These new recruits bring ballast to Hinshaw & Culbertson’s litigation bench, particularly in the areas of commercial litigation, health care, ERISA and product liability.
Eugene Brown Jr.
“We came over to Hinshaw because its platform allows us to continue to represent the interests of clients that we have nationally,” said Brown, who last year was elected chair of Sedgwick’s complex division.
Brown and Mikacich joined Sedgwick in early 2013 after the San Francisco-based firm absorbed the bulk of Oakland, California-based toxic tort boutique Brown Eassa & McLeod. Brown said his team’s decision to move to Hinshaw & Culbertson came after meetings with the latter’s chair, Kevin Burke, who outlined the scope of his firm’s ambition to add breadth and depth to its practices on a national and international level.
“The move to Hinshaw has been terrific, and I expect that it will continue to blossom,” Brown said.
The group’s addition to Hinshaw & Culbertson is part of a strategic plan implemented by Burke—who in 2015 became his firm’s first new leader in 26 years—to expand within major metropolitan markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Daniel Ryan, chair of Hinshaw & Culbertson’s litigation group, said that includes growing within certain practice areas, such as health care litigation.
In late 2014, Hinshaw & Culbertson absorbed California-based Barger & Wolen, which gave the acquirer a stronghold in Los Angeles and San Francisco. With the addition of the six lawyers from Sedgwick, Hinshaw & Culbertson now has 90 lawyers in the Golden State.
“This piece was kind of an extension [of that,]” said Ryan, alluding to the Barger & Wolen deal, noting that Hinshaw & Culbertson is in discussions for continued expansion in California, as well as other markets.
Hinshaw & Culbertson’s hires are just the latest in a series of recent lateral moves dominated by Sedgwick lawyers and staffers looking for new homes following the collapse of the firm late last year. Last week Steptoe & Johnson took on a seven-lawyer commercial and class action litigation team from Sedgwick that included San Francisco office managing partner Stephanie Sheridan. Michael Healy, Sedgwick’s former chairman, led a three-lawyer team joining Shook, Hardy & Bacon in the Bay Area.
Akerman, Duane Morris and Goldberg Segalla also expanded in Los Angeles after making hires from what remained of Sedgwick. Earlier this week, Goldberg Segalla hired two more former Sedgwick partners in Miami, while New Jersey-based Porzio, Bromberg & Newman nabbed Sedgwick complex litigation partner Martin Healy.
Hinshaw & Culbertson has also inadvertently felt the pinch from Sedgwick’s contraction. Clyde & Co, a U.K.-based firm that held unsuccessful merger talks with Sedgwick and has since agreed to take on up to 80 lawyers and staffers from the failing firm, last week said it would hire a 10-lawyer insurance team from Hinshaw & Culbertson in Miami.
