A longtime advocate for insurance policyholders who for years was a litigation group leader at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has moved to McGuireWoods in New York, saying he was drawn to its focus on policyholder-side representation and the vision of firm leaders.

Stephen Foresta joined McGuireWoods as a partner on Thursday after spending a combined three decades at Orrick and at Donovan Leisure, a firm that folded in the late 1990s and saw most of its lawyers join Orrick.

He had nothing but good things to say about his time and his colleagues at Orrick but said he was drawn to his new firm's lack of conflicts in insurance cases.

“As a former head of a litigation business unit at Orrick, I was familiar with the competition and always admired the strength of the litigation practice at McGuireWoods,” he said. “The ability to come here to McGuireWoods and do insurance recovery work on behalf of policyholders, with no restrictions in terms of suing insurance companies, was a big draw for me.”

Besides insurance, Foresta has worked on and said he anticipates that he will continue to handle a variety of complex business litigation over the years, including mass tort and product liability cases against pharmaceutical and medical device companies. He said insurance was important in such cases, when claims can reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Foresta said economics had “no impact” on his decision to move firms, saying he was impressed with the culture and leadership at McGuireWoods. He said he met chairman Jonathan Harmon, managing partner Tracy Walker and deputy managing partner Dion Hayes during the hiring process and saw eye to eye with them on key issues.

“When you have that kind of leadership, the finances tend to fall in line,” he said.

He said he had no desire to reprise his own former leadership role in Orrick's global business unit while at McGuireWoods.

Foresta said he has long-standing relationships with several clients but declined to name them, noting that many insurance disputes don't take place in the public eye.

He added that there were no plans for any associates he worked with in his time at Orrick to join him, and emphasized that he had “lifelong friends and lots of wonderful memories” from his time at the firm.

“We are grateful to Steve for his contributions to our firm,” Orrick said in a statement. “He will be missed.”