Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Detroit-based Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone announced the opening of a Washington, D.C., office on Tuesday at 2200 Pennsylvania Ave. in Foggy Bottom.

“We've had our eye on D.C. for that financial-sector regulation [capability] and other things for a while,” said Michael McGee, CEO of the Am Law 200 firm. “For us, given the market niche that we occupy, we're really excited at this particular fit.”

The Miller Canfield D.C. office will be led by Pawel Chudzicki, who is part of a trio of lawyers joining Miller Canfield's international practice from K&L Gates. Alongside Chudzicki, Wladek Rzycki is joining as a principal and Lana Yaghi is arriving as a senior attorney.

Rzycki will divide his time between Chicago and Poland, while Yaghi will split her time between D.C. and New York. McGee said the firm has aspirations of having a couple dozen attorneys in its D.C. office in the near-term.

K&L Gates announced the close of its Warsaw presence last month, selling its office to DWF, a U.K. firm. McGee labeled that closure the “triggering event” for the K&L Gates lawyers' migration, but he said he thought that Miller Canfield would have pursued an opportunity in D.C. and Poland regardless of the closure.

The K&L Gates lawyers making the move to Miller Canfield were not part of the team of 45 lawyers that DWF acquired, according to McGee.

The new Miller Canfield team represents U.S. clients in the aerospace, defense and cybersecurity sectors doing business in Poland and Qatar. McGee said the trio's defense and government procurement expertise fits well with the Michigan-based firm's longstanding ties to the automotive industry because of the defense sector's work in southern Michigan.

McGee called the relationship between the defense and auto industries an “echo of the old arsenal of democracy,” referencing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's call to arms against the Axis Powers before the U.S. entered World War II.

Chudzicki's practice involves cross-border transactions involving the defense, aerospace, banking, transportation, telecommunication, media, manufacturing and cybersecurity industries. His team will work closely with John McHugh, former U.S. secretary of the Army who left K&L Gates earlier this year to launch his own lobbying shop.

McGee said there is no formal relationship between McHugh and Miller Canfield.

Chudzicki and Rzycki's move to Miller Canfield also represents a return to a firm with Midwestern roots. McGee noted that Chudzicki and Rzycki previously worked at the now-defunct Altheimer & Gray, a Chicago firm that closed its doors more than 15 years ago.