King & Spalding is continuing to lure partners from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in an effort to bolster its mass tort practice, one of the firm's "largest and most celebrated," one King & Spalding leader said Wednesday.

The Atlanta-based firm announced that it had added Shaila Diwan and Alvin Lee to its ranks in New York. They're part of the same team King & Spalding imported from Orrick earlier this month—Morton Dubin, John Ewald, Kristen Fournier and Kathy O'Connor.

"We have a long history in the mass tort space in this firm and we're continuing to build that out," said Andy Bayman, the head of the firm's trial and global disputes practice group. "There's a lot of mass tort litigation, there's a demand for trial lawyers—people who have true, first-chair experience. It's the state of litigation these days."

Like the four Orrick partners who came to King & Spalding before them, Diwan and Lee also worked on mass tort cases involving Johnson & Johnson and Dow. Both Orrick and King & Spalding have counted the companies as clients.

Diwan and Lee are on "the younger end" of their law careers, said Bayman, who pointed to their hiring as a sign that the firm was investing in its future. Bayman declined to say whether more defections to the firm were expected from Orrick.

Diwan and Lee's addition brings King & Spalding's lateral partner haul to at least a dozen so far in February.

Earlier this month, the firm added a benefits and compensation partner Jeanie Cogill from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, in New York, and two partners in Washington, D.C.: Rick Vacura, the former chair of government contracts and public procurement at Morrison & Foerster, and Steve Cave, who led McKinsey & Co.'s public sector legal team.

Then on Tuesday, King & Spalding brought on a trio of international arbitration partners who specialize in Latin America from Kirkland & Ellis, including Chicago-based Javier Rubinstein, who was also previously global general counsel for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and New Yorkers Lauren Friedman and Lucila Hemmingsen.

"Our New York office has enjoyed an incredible start to 2020 with nine lateral partners adding talent to the firm's trials, international arbitration and benefits practices," said Edward Kehoe, the managing partner of the firm's New York office, in a press release. "We anticipate investment to continue across all our practice groups in New York and look forward to further expanding our strength and depth."

An Orrick spokesman said the firm thanks for Diwan and Lee for their contributions and wishes them the best.

|

Read More

King & Spalding Lands New York Tort Trial Team From Orrick