Mark Werbner, partner with Winston & Strawn in Dallas.

Dallas trial lawyer Mark Werbner joined Winston & Strawn as a partner Monday, three months after his former longtime partner Richard Sayles and eight others from their 25-year-old litigation boutique left to open a Dallas office for Bradley Arant Boult Cummings.

Werbner said a client conflict, which he declined to describe, delayed his move to Winston & Strawn, where his is part of the complex commercial litigation practice. Absent the conflict, Werbner said, he might have lateraled to Winston & Strawn around the time the rest of the Sayles group moved to Bradley.

Winston & Strawn opened its Dallas office in February 2017 with 21 lateral partners from eight different firms. It was the right destination for a number of reasons, Werbner said, including the “enormous talent” that Dallas office managing partner Tom Melsheimer brought together at the fairly young office. He also noted the firm's global reach and its “client base that is quite elite and probably the envy of many firms.”

A white-collar defense lawyer, Werbner said he looks forward to working with Dallas lawyers in that practice at Winston & Strawn, including Melsheimer and partner Matthew Orwig, a former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Texas. Other prominent white-collar lawyers at the firm include co-executive chairman Dan Webb in Chicago and Abbe David Lowell, a partner in Washington, D.C., and New York, Werbner noted.

Werbner declined to identify clients he is bringing to the firm. But he said he sees ample cross-selling opportunities at Winston & Strawn, because of a “heavy nonlitigation aspect to the firm.”

He could have moved to Bradley in January with the others from Sayles Werbner, but he decided to weigh offers from other firms, he said.

“I actually went to Tom Melsheimer and asked for some advice. He opened an office for Fish & Richardson [in Dallas] and opened Winston & Strawn a couple years ago,” Werbner said. During that conversation, Werbner said, Melsheimer asked him to consider a move to Winston & Strawn.

Werbner said he talked to some other firms over the last few months because of the conflict issue with Winston & Strawn, but he got it resolved.

“It just took a little more time,” he said.

Melsheimer said in a press release that Winston & Strawn is fortunate to have Werbner join the Dallas office.

“If we were the so-called 'Dream Team' before, then adding Mark makes us dream-plus-one,” he said.

Werbner isn't the only high-profile lateral partner hire for Winston & Strawn this month. On April 3, energy dealmaker Jimmy Vallee joined the firm's Houston office, coming from Paul Hastings.

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