White & Case continues to expand in Chicago, announcing Monday that it had brought on board two new partners formerly with hometown firms Kirkland & Ellis and Winston & Strawn.

William Guerrieri joins the firm's global financial restructuring and insolvency practice after 11 years at Kirkland, while banking partner Jacob Schtevie comes aboard after nearly 12 years at Winston.

“They will be the first partners in those two practice groups in the office but they will be quickly integrated in the U.S. and global teams in both practices,” said Chicago managing partner Jason Zakia.

White & Case opened its doors in Chicago in June 2018 with three partners and now is home to 30 lawyers.

“These are two parts of our firmwide practice that are extremely strong, but we wanted to wait until we had the right people,” Zakia added.

Guerrieri has experience representing distressed companies in Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court restructurings, and he's also represented distressed investors, financial sponsors and corporations with regard to distressed companies and asset acquisitions.

“We enjoyed working with Will and wish him well in his next position,” said a representative for Kirkland.

Schtevie advises leading financial institutions in a variety of complex financing transactions. He also has represented specialty nonbank lenders and borrowers. A representative from Winston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The firm still aims to eventually grow the Chicago office to 100 attorneys, as global head of M&A John Reiss said last year.

“If we can find people in the Chicago market to augment our practice, we are open to all areas as we build a full-service office,” Zakia said.

White & Case did lose a Chicago attorney last month to an even fresher entrant into the city, as real estate partner Marc Benjamin left to become a founding partner in Eversheds Sutherland's brand new Chicago office, alongside former Kirkland real estate partner Susan Kai and an Eversheds litigator who's relocating from New York.

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