Four months into his tenure as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison’s Washington, D.C., managing partner, Kannon Shanmugam said he’s preoccupied with turning the office into a boutique within a behemoth.

The appellate star, whose move from Williams & Connolly to Paul Weiss shook up the D.C. legal scene this winter, is still settling into his first-ever law firm leadership position, working from what he called a “rental, picnic-table computer desk” in his K Street corner office.