Legal News

The Howrey Defections Continue: 15 Lawyers Bolt to Pillsbury

By Ashby Jones

The Howrey boat has sprung a few more leaks. At this point, the vessel isn’t entirely underwater, but it certainly appears to be on its way down.

The latest: well, more news of partners jumping o’erboard.

For starters, just announced this morning: A construction litigation team of 15 Howrey lawyers — six partners, two counsel and seven associates — will be joining Pillsbury in its Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC and New York offices.

"We are enthusiastic to have this team of market-leading professionals join Pillsbury, as these attorneys are remarkable for their breadth of litigation and arbitration experience combined with an unsurpassed focus on construction and infrastructure,” said Pillsbury Firm Chair Jim Rishwain. The partners joining Pillsbury are John Heisse, David Dekker, Robert Thum, Jeffrey Gans, Melissa Lesmes and Michael McNamara.

On Tuesday, the American Lawyer rounded up the latest rash of departures.

• Washington, D.C., corporate partner and firm general counsel Roger Klein is headed to Sheppard Mullin. Klein served as chair of Howrey’s corporate and transactional practice.

• D.C. antitrust partner C. Scott Hataway will join Paul Hastings.

• London antitrust partner Shaun Goodman and counsel Sarah Jordan are leaving Howrey for Kirkland & Ellis.

• The head of Howrey’s London antitrust practice, Tom McQuail, is headed for Morrison & Foerster

This batch followed closely on the heels of other losses for the firm. As AmLaw reports, last week Howrey lost five antitrust partners in Brussels to Shearman & Sterling.

On Tuesday, Chicago firm, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, announced that it had lured former Howrey insurance recovery cochair Jill Berkeley and partner Seth Lamden to the firm.

Click here for other recent LB posts on Howrey’s troubles.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 02, 2011 (boomark / email).