John Jarosak, Litchfield Cavo

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

Taking the reins is not unlike taking over an NCAA basketball dynasty, Jarosak said. He compared his succession to Gene Bartow replacing John Wooden at UCLA after Wooden led his team to 10 NCAA championships in 12 years. Bartow took over when 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.

The firm has 30 attorneys in its Florida offices in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa to rank 86th on the DBR's Review 100 list of top law firms in the state by headcount.

Jarosak is hoping the firm will grow under his watch as well. He said he anticipates Litchfield Cavo will expand to 300 lawyers within 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 that limited the amount a Naples golf course could recover after Hurricane Irma blew through.

"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."

Jarosak 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 also saw a couple of high-profile departures from Litchfield Cavo. In January, two partners in Pennsylvania jumped ship to Freeman Mathis 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: 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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