Chicago Chicago skyline at dusk. (Photo: Shutterstock.com)

Willkie Farr & Gallagher landed in Chicago with a splash Tuesday, announcing a new office there staffed by six prominent partners from Jenner & Block, including the firm's former chairman.

Craig Martin, who was Jenner's top leader until less than a month ago, is joining Willkie as a member of the firm's executive committee and as its Midwest chairman. When Martin stepped down as the chairman of Jenner, a role to which he was first appointed in January 2019, he said, "It was the job of a life, but not for a lifetime."

Martin, who as the Midwest chairman will champion Willkie's strengths to clients in Chicago and beyond, described Willkie's offer as being too good to pass up.

"We thought our future and our clients' future would be bright with Willkie," Martin said.

Two Jenner practice chairs are making the jump with Martin, himself a former chair of the firm's litigation department—Amanda Amert chaired the ERISA litigation practice while Barbara Grayson led the private wealth practice. The other three partners who are joining Willkie—Matt Basil, Sara Horton and Matthew Thomas—were all members of Jenner's complex commercial litigation group.

Willkie's decision to open an office in Chicago's River North neighborhood at 300 N. LaSalle St.—the same building Kirkland & Ellis and Quarles & Brady are located in—comes on the heels of a good financial performance in 2019, according to preliminary reporting for The American Lawyer's Am Law 100 rankings. Last year, Willkie saw its revenue, profits and nonequity partner tier swell even as one of its co-chairs pleaded guilty to a college admissions scandal.

Jenner also had a good year in 2019, finally pumping the brakes on a revenue slide that had started in 2015. It was during Martin's tenure as chair that the firm saw its top-line revenue grow by 1.5%.

But Willkie's decision to open a new office also comes as Chicago and the rest of the country grapple with both the health and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered residents to stay in their homes earlier this month, although law firms were exempt from that order because legal services were listed as essential business.

Like Daniel Blouin, the Seyfarth Shaw partner who just joined Winston & Strawn in Chicago, Martin and his colleagues haven't been able to use their new office space because of the pandemic. But both Martin and Willkie chairman Thomas Cerabino said the opportunities afforded by a Chicago office were too good to pass up.

"Despite this challenging time, we're in this for the long haul," Cerabino said.

Cerabino wouldn't give any specific head count target for the new Chicago office, but he said the firm is looking to build up the litigation practice there first, and then bring in partners who have experience in Willkie's core strengths, like private equity and financial services.

Reached for comment Tuesday, Jenner & Block said in a statement that it wishes Martin and the rest of the group well.

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