Chicago-headquartered firm Keller Lenkner has opened a physical presence and announced its intention to expand in the highly competitive Washington, D.C., market.

Firm founders Ashley Keller and Travis Lenkner both have close connections in the nation’s capital—they both clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Lenkner was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington at the beginning of his legal career.