McDermott Touts $100M Haul as Raid on DLA Piper Grows
McDermott Will & Emery's chairman said in an internal memo that he expects to hire around 50 lawyers from DLA Piper that will add about $100 million in annual revenue and open a new San Francisco office for the firm.
March 30, 2018 at 12:46 PM
5 minute read
McDermott Will & Emery has lured another group of partners from DLA Piper, this time a real estate finance team headlined by Jeffrey Steiner, the former New York-based global co-chair of DLA Piper's finance practice.
An internal memo obtained by The American Lawyer sent on March 29 by McDermott chairman Ira Coleman gave the names of 22 partners that have joined the firm this month. All but one previously worked at DLA Piper.
Coleman's memo states that McDermott expects to bring in 50 lawyers in total. The Chicago-founded Am Law 100 firm expects a $100 million boost to top-line revenue as a result of the new additions, Coleman wrote, making it one of the largest group hires the legal industry has seen in recent years.
A number of the new partners are based in San Francisco, and McDermott will open an office in the the city later this year, Coleman said in his memo. McDermott already has an office in Silicon Valley, which late last year saw a five-lawyer group decamp for Polsinelli.
McDermott has now taken on three practice group leaders from DLA Piper, which last year also saw its former global co-chair, Juan Picón, move to Latham & Watkins. McDermott's raid on the global legal giant began in Chicago earlier this month when the firm picked up Michael Poulos, a former co-managing partner of the Americas at DLA Piper who runs a litigation practice that several sources said was worth around $30 million in business.
McDermott also brought aboard Michael Sheehan, the former co-chair of DLA Piper's global employment practice and chair of its U.S. employment practice. Coleman, who became head of McDermott in late 2016, noted in his memo that both groups had already opened 60 new matters at the firm and brought in more than 200 new clients.
The hires amount to three groups of partners, spanning from New York to San Diego, who practice in litigation, employment and real estate finance.
The memo from Coleman states that nine employment partners will join McDermott in Rachel Cowen and Marilyn Pearson in Chicago; Maria Rodriguez and Michelle Strowhiro in Los Angeles; Ellen Bronchetti in San Diego; and Pankit Doshi, Dave Durham, Chris Foster and Ron Holland in San Francisco. Seven litigators are also making the move from DLA Piper to McDermott with Larry Wojcik in Chicago; Nicole Figueroa in Dallas; Mike Piazza in Los Angeles; and Seth Friedman, Jason Gerstein, Tim Hoeffner and Raphael Larson in New York.
And in addition to Steiner, who will lead McDermott's global real estate finance practice and serve as a nonvoting member of the firm's management committee, three other New York-based real estate finance partners are also joining the firm in Dino Fazlibegu, Robert Unger and Scott Weinberg. Fazlibegu, a former partner at now-defunct Thelen who spent the past decade at Nixon Peabody, is the lone lateral not coming from DLA Piper.
Steiner, a fellow Thelen alum, was named one of The American Lawyer's “Star Lateral” hires after he joined DLA Piper in 2008. Steiner, who was immediately named co-chair of the firm's U.S. finance practice, came over with a group of seven other partners, all but one of whom appears to have since left DLA Piper.
The 3,609-lawyer firm, which has been busy making lateral additions of its own this year, including absorbing a firm in Chile, declined to comment on the spate of exits to McDermott. The latter saw head count rise slightly in 2017, to 985, as gross revenue and profits per equity partner increased to $925.5 million and $1.7 million, respectively, according to ALM Intelligence.
“Real estate finance is an important component of our corporate platform, and adding Jeffrey and his team will do even more to deepen and extend the services we offer to our global institutional clients,” Coleman said in a statement announcing the addition of Steiner's group. “This team enriches our ability to partner with our clients across the legal spectrum to support their goals—and that's what we love.”
Several other lawyers are also joining McDermott from DLA Piper. Robert Mower and Michael Twersky will be counsel in the real estate finance group at McDermott in New York, while Kevin Connelly will be counsel in its Chicago employment group, according to Coleman's memo.
Bloomberg's Big Law Business first reported the news of Steiner's group moving to McDermott.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllFTX Investors Claim Sullivan & Cromwell 'Aided' and Encouraged Fraud
4 minute readReed Smith CINO Discusses Firm's Generative AI Plans, From New Role to Pilot Projects
6 minute read'Look What Texas Is Doing': States With Biggest Insurance Settlements—And Those Pushing Back
5 minute readAm Law 100 Law Firm Sued Over China-Based Partner's Alleged Due Diligence Failure
4 minute readTrending Stories
- 1The Pusillanimous Press
- 2Contract Lifecycle Management Company ContractPodAi Unveils Leah Drive
- 3'Great News' for Businesses? Judge Halts Transparency Mandate
- 4Consilio Announces ‘Native AI Review,’ Expanding Its Gen AI E-Discovery Offerings
- 5Federal Judge Hits US With $227,000 Sanction for Discovery Misconduct
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250