Seyfarth (Courtesy photo)

Seyfarth Shaw is looking to build on its "very strong" 2019 financial performance by opening an office in Seattle and increasing its head count further by the end of the year.

Managing partner Peter Miller said the firm hasn't formally announced a Seattle opening. But the firm already has 14 lawyers and staffers working in the greater Seattle area, according to LinkedIn. That includes a real estate team led by Denice Tokunaga, Miller said.

For now, the firm has leased temporary office space in the city.

"We hope to announce later this year," said Miller, who added that Seyfarth aims to have around 25 lawyers in Seattle by the time the office launches formally, possibly in October. "That will round out our footprint pretty nicely," he said.

Miller's comments came as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were just beginning to hit the U.S. broadly—before most law firms had switched to remote working arrangements and before predictions of a major recession became widespread. A Seyfarth spokesman declined to comment in late March on whether the pandemic had affected the firm's plans.

Miller said the firm was also eyeing Dallas as a potential location, noting that Seyfarth partners and clients have been pushing the firm to open a second office in the Lone Star state. The firm had around 40 lawyers in Houston last year.

Seyfarth expanded into Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2019, opening up what will become a full service office with two veteran partners who live in the city. Miller said the firm now has 12 lawyers practicing in Charlotte. The city is an attractive destination for law firms looking to build or strengthen ties with the financial institutions that are located there; the work that brought Seyfarth to Charlotte included real estate lending and labor and employment matters.

The Chicago-founded law firm saw its overall revenue increase by 7.2% to $717 million in 2019. Miller credited that to the diversified set of clients Seyfarth has spread out among its core areas, including labor and employment, commercial litigation and corporate work.

"We had over 40 clients where we had $1 million-plus growth last year. It would not have been any one case or matter or client that drove any of the success," Miller said.

The firm's profits per equity partner rose 10.9% last year to about $1.3 million, with the partnership contracting by six equity partners. Overall attorney head count increased by 4.5% from 844 lawyers to 882 in 2019.

Miller said Seyfarth would like to grow further this year and to close out 2020 with between 925 and 950 lawyers.

Among the new faces at Seyfarth last year were: Juan D. Reyes III, the former chief counsel of the Federal Railroad Administration; Martin Hopkins, who is now leading Seyfarth's European practice development, and Ana Cid Velasco, from Eversheds Sutherland; Tracee Davis, a data and privacy partner who spent 17 years at Zeichner Ellman & Krause; Kori Carew, a Shook, Hardy & Bacon veteran who became Seyfarth's first diversity & inclusion officer; and a team of litigators from Polsinelli.

Seyfarth rebranded itself in November 2019, dropping the Shaw from its informal brand name and redesigning its logo. Per the firm, the changes "[reflect] who we are today, and where we want to go in the future."

In March, Seyfarth named James McGrath the chair of its 160-lawyer litigation department, a little more than four years after he jumped over from Bingham McCutchen. In December, the firm saw one of its partners, Adrian Zuckerman, become the U.S. ambassador to Romania.

Among notable matters last year, Seyfarth's Gerald Maatman represented The Weinstein Co. in litigation leading to a $25 million settlement that resolved sexual misconduct claims against the now-bankrupt film studio and its incarcerated figurehead, Harvey Weinstein.

But Seyfarth did have some fumbles in the courtroom. Earlier this month, Seyfarth was demoted by the U.S. Soccer Federation after its lawyers wrote in a federal court filing that the U.S. Women's National Team has less "skill" than the men's team.

Read More

Seyfarth Takes On New Moniker, New Look