Clyde & Co has landed a three-lawyer team of legal malpractice experts from Hinshaw & Culbertson to bolster its global law firm liability, regulatory and investigations group in New York.

Janis Meyer, who served as general counsel at Dewey & LeBoeuf for many years and oversaw that firm's wind-down, and Anthony Davis, who founded Hinshaw's New York office in 2003, will serve as of counsel. Rick Supple, a former prosecutor who joined Hinshaw in 2004, will be a partner. Until earlier this year, he served as the firm's general counsel and led its nationwide professional responsibility and risk management practice group.

The hires are part of a concerted effort by the global firm to expand its advisory practice for law firms in its home city of London and to build out its malpractice defense capabilities within the U.S.

"We are in the process of developing a truly global practice in the law firm defense, investigations and advisory space," said Richard Harrison, who leads the liability, regulatory and investigations group. "We have one of the biggest disputes practices in the world. What we haven't had is a significant defense and any advisory capacity in the law sector in the U.S."

Harrison and Davis have known each other for over a dozen years and have worked together in hosting a two-day law firm liability risk and compliance conference in London since 2012.

"Lawyers seem to have an inexhaustible ability to do stupid things," said Davis, who works closely with Meyer on the advisory side.

"The saying used to be, 'We're a law firm, why do we need lawyers?'" he added. "Lawyers are not good at following systems. The challenge is to create systems that lawyers will live within and work within. When they do that they will be fine, when they don't, they will be in trouble."

Davis said that his work on behalf of U.S. firms and U.K. firms operating on the U.S. made him aware that there was a void in similar advisory capabilities in London. American firms looking to come to grips with the U.K. market as well as a significant number of midsized U.K. firms are undeserved.

"It's a huge unmet market," he said, adding that he and Meyer intended to oversee additional hiring in London to build out the practice.

The hire of Supple also signals the firm's ambitions for defense work in the U.S., to complement the firm's malpractice and disciplinary defense capabilities in London, where 100 lawyers work on behalf of law firms and other professionals, along with such jurisdictions as France, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong and Singapore.

"This hire is the start to building out our defense practice," Harrison said.

While the firm already has seasoned defense attorneys in the U.S. who have tried significant malpractice cases, it's now looking to add law firm defense specialists in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"There's enough going off the reservation that there's room for both kinds of work for a long time to come," Davis said.

While the move is a blow for Hinshaw's lauded Lawyers for the Profession practice, chairman Peter Sullivan said the firm was in a strong position to move forward with current professional responsibility and risk management group leader Tom McGarry.

"We are always sorry to part ways with respected colleagues, and we certainly wish them all the best in their new endeavor," Sullivan said in a statement. "Our next generation of lawyers now have the opportunity to step into leadership positions and carry on our tradition as one of the nation's leading legal ethics and professional liability law firms."

Ellie Silverman and Schuyler Kraus have been leading the New York office since earlier this summer and will continue their management roles, and the firm will continue to look for opportunities to expand the New York office, currently home to over 30 attorneys and staff.

Meanwhile, Clyde & Co continues to expand in the U.S., after arriving in the country a dozen years ago. In December 2017 it brought on board a team of 90 lawyers and staff from Sedgwick and followed that in early 2018 with four partners from Shipman & Goodwin in Washington, D.C., and partner hires in Atlanta and Washington this year.

The firm now has nine offices, over 60 partners and more than 350 people nationally in offices that include Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, Orange County, New York City and New Jersey.

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