Kannon Shanmugam at a panel discussion during The Federalist Society's 2018 National Lawyers Convention in Washington, D.C. on Nov 15, 2018. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Four months into his tenure as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison's Washington, D.C., managing partner, Kannon Shanmugam said he's preoccupied with turning the office into a boutique within a behemoth.

The appellate star, whose move from Williams & Connolly to Paul Weiss shook up the D.C. legal scene this winter, is still settling into his first-ever law firm leadership position, working from what he called a “rental, picnic-table computer desk” in his K Street corner office.

“I think my vision for the office is that I want Paul Weiss to be the best place to be a litigator in D.C.,” Shanmugam said. “I really want this to be the best little law firm in Washington, that's kind of how I think about it, and to have all of the benefits of a boutique-type practice within one of the world's greatest law firms.”

There's not much “little” about Paul Weiss, the 26th largest law firm in the United States by head count and the 17th largest by revenue. Average profits per partner stand at over $5 million, compared to $1.7 million at Williams & Connolly, and the firm's New York office boasts more lawyers—north of 800—than any other firm in that city tracked by ALM.

Paul Weiss' presence in Washington is about a tenth that size, and the smallest law firm office Shanmugam has ever worked in, he said. Williams & Connolly has more than 300 lawyers in Washington, its sole location. Shanmugam said Paul Weiss' D.C. office would grow, but that he didn't see it eclipsing the 200-lawyer threshold anytime soon.

He said he intends to build upon his new firm's existing talent to compete with the firms he views as the “major players” in the capital, namely Kirkland & Ellis (where he practiced as an associate); Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Latham & Watkins.

Shanmugam noted that none of those are native-born Washington firms, yet they boast some of the nation's leading U.S. Supreme Court practices.

He said Paul Weiss already has several market-leading practices in D.C., citing its antitrust practice and its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act team as examples. But since the firm's beginnings in the late 19th century, it hasn't had a dedicated Supreme Court and appellate practice the likes of which it is building now, with Shanmugam at the helm.

Simon Rifkind, a legendary named partner, built the firm's litigation practice after serving as a federal judge based in New York, and Shanmugam pointed to him as one of greatest Supreme Court litigators and trial lawyers of his generation. Long ago, litigators handled their own cases at the Supreme Court. More recently, Shanmugam said, Paul Weiss had referred out proceedings that reach the high court.

“I think it's very important for a firm like Paul Weiss to be able to market itself as a full-service litigation firm,” Shanmugam said. “A lot has been said about quote unquote 'New York firms' not having Supreme Court practices, but the reality is that Paul Weiss thinks of itself as a New York and Washington firm, and it thinks of itself as a litigation firm, not as a law firm that's confined to any particular market. And so I think it was natural that Paul Weiss, as one of the country's great litigation firms, would want to have a Supreme Court and appellate practice.”

Shanmugam said he wants to help ensure all aspects of the firm's litigation practice have market-leading talent. The firm announced the addition of former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in its litigation department last month, and Shanmugam said he's looking to increase its “horsepower” in Washington with a leading white-collar and investigations lawyer based in the D.C. office.

While Paul Weiss has won headlines for adding high-profile laterals, it received less welcome attention late last year when it announced a slate of partner promotions that skewed starkly white and male. The firm vowed to “do better” on diversity in the aftermath, and Shanmugam said “Paul Weiss does relatively well compared to its competitors on that score, but all of us have more to do.”

The firm also has the unique distinction of serving as the starting line of the legal careers of all three women justices on the Supreme Court. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan all worked as summer associates at Paul Weiss. After serving as a summer associate and graduating from Columbia Law School in 1959, Paul Weiss chose not to hire Ginsburg, however, and she has also spoken about the moment she “realized” her gender was a factor in Paul Weiss' decision to offer her the summer associate position.

[See also: Balancing Act: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Remembers Her First Steps in the Law]

In the 60 years since Ginsburg's law school graduation, there have been dramatic changes in the legal profession at Paul Weiss and throughout the D.C. market. Washington law offices in particular, Shanmugam said, are grappling with how to compete for clients in other markets such as Silicon Valley, New York and foreign countries.

“If I had to come up with an epigrammatic way of describing the Washington legal market, that's really the reality … we have the courts and the government, but we don't have the clients. The clients are largely elsewhere,” Shanmugam said. “They're coming to D.C. for expertise with the courts, expertise in dealing with the Justice Department, expertise in dealing with Congress. And that's why it's so important for a firm like Paul Weiss to be in Washington, and to have a major presence.”

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