Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Eight prominent insurance dealmakers from Drinker Biddle & Reath have moved to McDermott Will & Emery, gutting a practice that Drinker has touted as an engine for transactional work.

The team, which includes corporate partners in three cities, will be the cornerstone of a new insurance transactions and regulations group at McDermott. It includes partners Andrea Best in London, Dan Brown and John Finston in San Francisco, and H. Michael Byrne, Thomas Dawson, Parimah Hassouri, Michael Halsband and John Mulhern in New York.

Halsband, named the new group's global leader, said in an interview that the attorneys making the move, most of whom came through the ranks of now-defunct LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae or its successor Dewey & LeBoeuf, had been thinking a lot about their future. He, Byrne and Dawson "had a lightbulb moment" around a year ago, he said, and "about two and a half, three months ago, the lightbulb came on again."

The group is anticipated to grow to about 15 people, including other lawyers and staff, Halsband said. He said he couldn't name the clients coming with them, but said the eight partners collectively had somewhere between 75 and 100 clients, with each of the lawyers being especially close with 20 or more of them.

"There are longstanding business and professional relationships. This is a rather closely knit group," he said.

The web page for Drinker Biddle's insurance regulatory and transactions group says the group "helped our insurance clients close $2.5 billion in M&A deals" in the past year. Clients mentioned on the page included Radian Group, Ironshore Inc., Enstar Group Ltd., Lloyd's and other big names in insurance and reinsurance.

According to McDermott, the new additions have decades of experience working with insurers, reinsurers, brokers, trade associations and other clients, including insurance tech companies, to help them structure their companies and comply with the myriad laws and regulations that apply to the industry.

"We are excited to land this wonderful team," said Ira Coleman, McDermott's chairman, in a statement. "They are first class lawyers and will help us grow in a very important vertical. One thing we know: Clients want lawyers with deep industry knowledge and expertise—and no one is better than this group."

The move comes amid challenges for Drinker Biddle. While Halsband declined to discuss his prior firm, its gross revenue and profits fell from 2017 to 2018 amid the departures of other groups. While the firm's head count fell and its revenue per lawyer rose by 3.2%, net income fell 8% and profits per equity partner dropped.

Andrew Kassner, Drinker Biddle's chairman and CEO, expressed optimism about his firm's future in a statement to ALM.

"We are executing on our strategic plan and have an aggressive growth strategy as part of that," he said. "While we are sorry to see them go, a firm's strategic vision isn't always for everyone."

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the insurance transactions and regulatory group's page had disappeared from Drinker Biddle's website. The group still exists, but was recently renamed and given a new URL.