Photo: John Disney/ ALM

Eight months after bringing a team of corporate partners from Morrison & Foerster into its Washington, D.C., office, King & Spalding is formally opening its doors in Northern Virginia.

Charlie Katz, who will lead the new office, said that when he joined the firm with Larry Yanowitch, Tom Knox and Jeremy Schropp in October, the plan was always to have a clear presence in the tech-rich suburbs of the nation's capital.

"The goal was to open an office to support the clients we have in this region," he said. "We wanted the office when we came over."

The new office, King & Spalding's 22nd worldwide, will host 25 lawyers once personnel return to the workplace as the threat of the novel coronavirus subsides. For Katz, Yanowitch, Knox and Schropp—as well as fellow Morrison & Foerster veteran Rick Vacura, who brought his leading government contracts practice to the firm in early 2020—the space on Tyson's Boulevard in McLean will be familiar; it previously was home to Morrison & Foerster's Northern Virginia office.

That firm is following an inverse trajectory in the capital region: even before Katz and his colleagues exited, Morrison & Foerster announced it would fold that office and consolidate operations within the District of Columbia. 

Even as they were introduced as the newest members of King & Spalding's D.C. office—which, with 250 lawyers, is the second largest in the firm—the newcomers said upon arrival that they would be looking to lease space on the other side of the Potomac River starting early this year.

Katz said that as the region begins to reopen, it was important to show clients that the firm has a real presence. But attorneys and staff are not expected to come in just yet. When a limited opening begins in the next few weeks, it will be up to individuals to determine if they wish to work out of the office.

The announcement also coincides with a thawing in the region's deal market, which is headlined by work in defense, aerospace and technology.

"More properties are coming onto the market," Katz said.

And the goal, according to Katz, is to continue to expand both the office and the firm's emerging industry vertical in tech, aerospace and defense, both through lateral hires and organic growth.

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