John Jarosak, managing partner of Litchfield Cavo (courtesy photo)

Chicago-based litigation defense firm Litchfield Cavo will get its second-ever managing partner since the firm's 1998 founding when Lynnfield, Massachusetts, partner John Jarosak takes over for Alan Becker on Wednesday, at the start of the new year.

Taking the reins of the firm from Becker is not unlike taking over an NCAA basketball dynasty, Jarosak said. He specifically compared his succession of Becker to Gene Bartow's succession of John Wooden at UCLA—Wooden led the men's basketball team to 10 NCAA championships in 12 years; Bartow became the coach after Wooden retired in 1975.

"It's very large shoes to fill," Jarosak said. "Al has guided the firm as its managing partner since its inception. We have grown in a measured and very positive sense since I've been with the firm, which is [in] 2002. At that time, we had four offices and around 38 attorneys in total."

Litchfield Cavo now has 275 lawyers spread across 22 offices and Becker was "instrumental in guiding the firm through that growth period," Jarosak said.

Jarosak is hoping the firm will grow under his watch as well. He said he anticipates Litchfield Cavo will grow to 300 lawyers within the next three to five years by adding people to new practice areas. Litchfield Cavo has largely focused on representing insurance companies. Earlier this year, the firm successfully represented an insurer who limited the amount of money a Naples, Florida, golf course could recover from Hurricane Irma.

"We have started to expand out to other areas of practice," Jarosak said. "I expect that trend to continue, [as] we diversify the nature of the practices here at Litchfield Cavo over the next three to five years."

Jarosak also said he is optimistic that the firm, under his leadership, will "increase our footprint across the country," although he demurred when asked if Litchfield Cavo is planning to open new offices.

"We're constantly in discussions with either potential [lateral] partners or sometimes small groups of partners and associates who are in locations that we currently do not have an office," Jarosak said. "There is nothing currently today that is imminent, but as I mentioned, we're always looking."

The last half of 2019 saw a number of merger and combination announcements from Litchfield Cavo's Midwest competitors, including Cincinnati-based Taft Stettinius & Hollister, which announced a deal with Minneapolis-based Briggs & Morgan, and Minneapolis-based Faegre Baker Daniels, which is planning a merger with Philadelphia-based Drinker Biddle & Reath.

Jarosak said Litchfield Cavo is under no pressure to scale up. "We prefer to do it within, so to speak, and grow the firm as it is," he said. "I don't anticipate any type of large-scale merger with another law firm."

2019 saw a couple of high-profile departures from Litchfield Cavo. In January, two partners in Pennsylvania jumped ship to Freeman Mathis, allowing it to open an office in Pittsburgh. In June, more than half of Litchfield Cavo's Houston office left to start its own litigation boutique—McKinney Taylor. Principal Andrew McKinney told Texas Lawyer client conflicts were becoming an issue at Litchfield Cavo, and they were worried about the financial costs created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Asked about their departures, Jarosak echoed a point made by McKinney earlier this year, that the former Litchfield Cavo lawyers wanted to create their own Texas-centric law firm.

"We respected their decision and we had a very professional and amicable departing," Jarosak said.

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