Michael A. Carrillo partner with Barnes & Thornburg.

With a new managing partner at its helm, Barnes & Thornburg's Chicago team is preparing for a growth spurt in its downtown Loop offices.

Michael Carrillo, a nine-year veteran at the Indianapolis-based firm who was elected to the role in early November, said his initial goal for growing the Chicago office is to reach 130 lawyers by 2021, the end of his first term. Barnes & Thornburg currently has 111 lawyers in the Windy City, Carrillo said.

"I didn't inherit a fixer-upper, the office is in great shape," Carrillo said, who added that he is focused on adding lawyers "who have depth in sophisticated practice areas."

The practice areas Carrillo is looking to build out include corporate mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on private equity and venture capital, white-collar and intellectual property litigation.

Carrillo said he is also looking to increase the number of associates in the firm's Chicago office—it now has 25. He expects to reach about 35, which would require the firm to hire partners who can bring in large clients with lots of work, Carrillo added.

Barnes & Thornburg as a whole, and its Chicago office specifically, had a great 2019, Carrillo said. The Chicago office is profitable and "we're exporting more business to other offices than we import," he added.

An IP lawyer by training, Carrillo noted that the firm earlier this month picked up a 17-person team from IP boutique Brinks Gilson Lione, spread across several locations.

The firm's head count grew faster than its revenue last year, according to financial data collected by ALM Intelligence. Although Barnes & Thornburg's gross revenue has grown each year since 2014, the percentage of growth has fluctuated between less than 1% and just under 7%.

2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of Barnes & Thornburg's Chicago office, as well as the 10th anniversary of its offices in Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis and Wilmington, Delaware.

Since Carrillo's election to the managing partner role in Chicago, two of Barnes & Thornburg's Midwest competitors—Minneapolis-based Faegre Baker Daniels and Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath, which has a sizable Chicago presence—announced they were creating an Am Law 50 firm that would have more than 1,300 lawyers and consultants across 22 locations in the United States, the United Kingdom and China.

In Chicago alone, Faegre and Drinker employed 158 lawyers total, according to ALM data. At this point, Carrillo said he doesn't believe the newly combined Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath "is going to impact what we're doing at all."

Although the firm doesn't rule out mergers, Carrillo said Barnes & Thornburg likes to expand into new markets by acquiring groups that are already established there—the Brinks Gilson team gave Barnes & Thornburg beachheads in North Carolina, Michigan and Utah.

Carrillo is stepping in for Mark Rust, who ran the firm's full-service Chicago office for 18 years before stepping down last month. Rust is still at the firm, serving as the chairman of Barnes & Thornburg's management committee.

"I am proud of the success the Chicago office has achieved over the years, as we have grown to be a valuable client and community partner," Rust said in a press release. "I have no doubt that we will continue to climb to new heights under Mike's leadership."