The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200

Am Law 200 firm Michael Best & Friedrich has acquired Salt Lake City–based business and litigation boutique Vantus Law Group, adding nine attorneys to the firm.

The new hires include BRAD JACOBSEN, RICK ENSOR, STUART FREDMAN, MELINDA MORGAN, EVAN STRASSBERG and JASON ROGERS, who all join Michael Best as partners, as well as ANDREW BUFFMIRE as of counsel and two associates.

Michael Best managing partner David Krutz says the firm has been looking to expand in Utah—and Salt Lake City in particular—for some time, drawn by what he says is the city’s growing economy and high-tech industry. In July, Michael Best intellectual property partner Michael Langer moved to Salt Lake City to better serve the firm’s clients there, and Krutz says firm leaders plan to tap other attorneys “to spend time there over a significant period to integrate the two firms.”

In addition to shifting Michael Best attorneys to the new office, Krutz says the firm plans to make lateral hires. He anticipates the branch eventually having intellectual property, technology transfer, energy, employment, derivatives and venture capital practices.

In other Churn news …

Baker Botts has hired two special counsel in Washington, D.C., TERRY BESSEY and KAREN SHEFFLER. Bessey, previously with Patton Boggs, represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in mergers and acquisitions, as well as in other financing transactions. Sheffler comes from Kirkland & Ellis and advises companies on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, financings and corporate transactions in the energy, health care and hospitality industries, among others.

DELPHINE BROWN has left Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle to be a partner at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, which specializes in antitrust, intellectual property and litigation matters. Based in New York, Brown is a litigator who focuses on intellectual property and commercial cases involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, computer software and hardware, and business methods and processes.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has hired ROSS COHEN as of counsel in its tax department and corporate mergers and acquisitions group. Cohen, most recently at Haskell Slaughter Young & Gallion, joins his new firm in Birmingham.

NEIL MACBRIDE, who resigned in September as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is set to join Davis Polk & Wardwell in Washington, D.C., as a partner in the firm’s white-collar criminal defense and government investigations groups. As U.S. attorney, MacBride oversaw the grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks and the leak prosecutions of former CIA officials John Kiriakou and Jeffrey Sterling, sibling publication Blog of Legal Times reports. At Davis Polk, he will focus on criminal, civil, regulatory, administrative and congressional cases once he joins the firm early next year.