New York derivatives specialist John Servidio has jumped to Goodwin Procter, joining the firm's capital markets group after just 15 months at Winston & Strawn.

Servidio is the second corporate partner from the Chicago-based firm to announce an exit Monday, alongside Richard Frye, who is returning to Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Dallas. Servidio represents dealers and issuers in structuring derivative and equity-linked capital market transactions.

“It's exciting to join a law firm that is strong and growing like Goodwin Procter, because they have great banking relationships across a variety of sectors and a top base of clients in life sciences, real estate and technology, which are the largest sectors for the client base that I work on,” Servidio said. 

Firmwide, Goodwin Procter has about 230 lawyers in its technology and life sciences group and another 150 in real estate.

Servidio brings along with him a client roster that includes Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he earlier served as an assistant general counsel, along with other leading dealers including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs.

Servidio joined Winston in September 2017, after leading McGuireWoods' derivatives and structured products group. At the time, he said he was drawn to the firm by complementary practices such as banking regulatory, investment management and broker-dealer regulatory work, which he said McGuireWoods didn't heavily focus on. In previous comments, he also pointed to his past work alongside Chicago-based Michael O'Brien, who continues to lead Winston's derivatives practice.

Servido said that demand in the derivatives sector continued to be brisk in 2018, after 2017, which he previously noted was the busiest year since 2009.

“Demand is continuing to grow, and we think that 2019 will be as strong or stronger than 2018,” he said. 

Servido said that he did not know Frye, and a spokeswoman from Winston did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the two departures.

“John's impressive depth in converts, derivatives, hedges and structured products and his ability to seamlessly execute these increasingly complicated transactions will be a great complement to our comprehensive, full-service offering,” Jim Barri, the co-chair of Goodwin's debt capital markets practice, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome him to the firm.”

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