The Foster Group Featured in Law360 on "The Top Mid-Law People Moves of 2023 So Far"
/The Top Mid-Law People Moves of 2023 So Far
Halfway through 2023, Mid-Law firms have made some major moves, from welcoming groups of attorneys changing firms to snapping up attorneys leaving government service to instituting notable changes on the business side.
Following the talent wars that dominated 2021 and extended into 2022, hiring has slowed sharply for associates, but recruiters told Law360 Pulse that interest in lateral partners has remained high - especially at midsize, midmarket and regional firms.
“For these middle-market and Mid-Law firms that have been doing well financially and been successful the last few years, they’re well-positioned to take advantage,” said Elaine Oh, a New York-based recruiter who focuses on middle-market firms.
Recruiter Josh Shirley - who works in several markets, including Chicago and Denver - said that firms have become more discerning about lateral partners and in general are doing more due diligence than they did during the talent wars, but that the first half of 2023 was still a busy time in the lateral market.
“Firms have been very particular in what they’re looking for,” he said.
Law360 Pulse spotlights some of the top people moves so far this year among Mid-Law firms.
Group Moves
The year started with a bang when a team of 32 attorneys decamped from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP for the employment-focused firm Constangy Brooks Smith & Prophete. The group was spread across 17 cities in 12 states and included 16 partners, led by Sean Hoar.
At the time, Constangy indicated that it was looking to invest heavily in cybersecurity and privacy based on the growing needs of its clients. Since January it has added several more cybersecurity attorneys, including a group of four attorneys who joined in May from Octillo Law PLLC.
The departure of the Lewis Brisbois cybersecurity attorneys occurred just months before the even more significant departure of more than 100 employment attorneys, who formed their own midsize firm. Originally called Barber Ranen, the firm has since rebranded as Daugherty Lordan LLP after an email scandal prompted both name partners to resign and created blowback for Lewis Brisbois itself.
Among other significant group moves, Porter Wright in January opened an office in Tampa, the Ohio-based firm’s second in the Sunshine State, with five attorneys from Freeborn & Peters LLP ahead of that firm’s since-completed merger with Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP.
After Ropes & Gray announced it was dropping it's private client practice, Boston firm Choate Hall & Stewart attracted a five-attorney wealth management group representing clients with a combined $2 billion in assets.
Seven attorneys, including four partners, from Florida firm Wicker Smith O’Hara McCoy & Ford PA launched a new office in Jacksonville in April for national insurance defense firm Tyson & Mendes LLP.
And a Washington, D.C.-based corporate team joined Brown Rudnick LLP from Seyfarth Shaw LLP in January. The team, which included two partners, was to focus on counseling clients regarding governance, franchising, and middle-market mergers and acquisitions, according to the firm.
Government Attorneys
After resigning from the Florida Supreme Court in March following 14 years on the court, Ricky Polston joined Florida firm Shutts & Bowen LLP in June, following a brief stint as general counsel and chief legal officer of Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
Polston was appointed to the state’s high court in 2008 and became the chief justice in 2012. He announced his resignation on March 20, effective March 31. Before being named to his first judicial position in 2001, he worked in private practice and as a certified public accountant with Deloitte Haskins Sells.
He joined Shutts & Bowen’s appellate group in the Tallahassee office.
Polston wasn’t the only attorney who made a splash jumping from a government office back into the world of law firms.
Longtime congressional staffer Rachel Snyder Good joined Epstein Becker Green as a strategic counsel in March. Good was most recently a senior policy adviser to Rep. Steny Hoyer.
After 14 years at the Federal Trade Commission, Katherine White joined Kelley Drye’s Washington, D.C., office in January.
And Tom Cullinan, former acting chief of staff to then-IRS Commissioner, Chuck Rettig, left government service in March to join Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry’s Atlanta office.
On the Business Side
As firms have become increasingly savvy about their business-side operations, the first six months of 2023 also saw plenty of activity when it came to legal professionals switching homes.
Karen Campbell joined Foley Hoag LLP in New York in April after three years as the global director of Simpson Thacher’s information technology operations. She is the first chief information officer at Foley Hoag, expanding the firm’s executive team.
Prior to joining Simpson Thacher in 2019, she spent time at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
Other firms reinforced their corporate and administrative teams as well.
After 11 years at Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, the firm’s director of human resources and talent management, Lauren Symington, joined Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP as its first chief talent officer in April.
Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP created an attorney development director role and filled it with Peter Glowacki, the former director for the American Bar Association’s Center for Continuing Legal Education.
And Fredrikson & Byron PA named Ann Rainhart as the firm’s new chief operating officer in March. Rainhart joined after three years with Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP and has more than 25 years’ experience working in law firms.