McGlinchey Stafford put down another flag in the Northeast with an office in Boston, led by two litigators from LeClairRyan's shrinking Boston outpost.

Patrick Voke, who does commercial, insurance and financial services litigation, and Shanna Boughton, the co-chair of the consumer financial services litigation team at LeClairRyan, joined McGlinchey Stafford as partners Monday, kick-starting the firm's presence in Boston.

Additionally, Mikelle Bliss will join McGlinchey Stafford's New York office as of counsel, and associate Helen Mosothoane will join the Dallas office.

In an interview, Anthony Rollo, chair of the firm's strategic growth committee and the firm's 80-lawyer consumer financial services litigation practice group, said the firm opened an office in Boston because of client needs.

“The answer was the same when we were asked, 'Why Irvine, [California,] why Fort Lauderdale, [Florida,] why New York City, why Washington, D.C.?' That's where the clients want us to be,” Rollo said.

He said the firm knew Boughton and Voke because they represent some common clients, which he declined to identify. “We heard from those clients what great lawyers they are,” Rollo said.

The firm's objective in Boston is to grow into additional practice areas such as intellectual property, data security and privacy, financial restructuring and products liability work, in which the firm already does work out of other offices, he said.

Voke said he and others in his group could not pass up the chance to join McGlinchey Stafford.

“It's a great opportunity, because we do have mutual clients, but they have some things we don't have in the financial services area, in the regulatory and compliance practice area. Beyond that, in our commercial litigation practice, they do some of the same things we do, and complement it,” he said. He declined to identify the mutual clients, but said they are in the financial services industry.

Voke said they did not leave because of any issues at LeClairRyan, but noted “the time was right” to join McGlinchey Stafford.

The new Boston office is McGlinchey Stafford's 15th nationwide, and the eighth to open in the last nine years. The firm was founded in New Orleans.

“This is a stellar group of lawyers we've known and worked with a long time, and who share our commitment to client service,” Rudy Aguilar, managing member of McGlinchey Stafford, said in a press release.

“We're excited to bring them on as we grow the firm's footprint all the way up the East Coast, complementing our considerable national presence,” Aguilar added.

C. Erik Gustafson, CEO of LeClairRyan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the departures and to discuss the firm's Boston office. Neither did Elizabeth Acee, the firm's president, nor Daniel Blake, the partner in charge of the Boston office.

LeClairRyan had 30 lawyers in its Boston office in 2018, according to information submitted for the NLJ 500. But, according to the firm's website, that office is now down to six lawyers. In January, an 18-lawyer team, including 13 partners, left LeClairRyan's Boston office to join Freeman Mathis & Gary, launching a Boston office for the Atlanta-based firm.

On Monday, Duane Morris announced that it picked up five LeClairRyan lawyers, including two partners and an associate in Boston, and other lawyers in New York and Newark, New Jersey.

LeClairRyan's gross revenue declined by 13.9% in 2018. The firm's attorney head count declined by nearly 10% in 2018, but it did expand in May, opening an office in Dallas to bolster its small presence in Houston.

The firm has said it is restructuring, invoking a “Law Firm 2.0″ model that calls for growth in locations where clients want the firm to be. As part of that vision, it entered into a joint venture in 2018 with alternative legal services provider UnitedLex.

|

Read More

LeClairRyan Expands in Texas, Opening Dallas Office