(Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

While Katten Muchin Rosenman pares down its presence in the environmental law arena, Baker Botts is doubling down in the space, looking to fill in the intersection between environmental litigation and white-collar matters.

Baker Botts added nine former Katten environmental and workplace safety partners on Tuesday—ALM reported last week that the group would be leaving Katten for Baker Botts. They may be joined by some more junior lawyers in the near future, one of the nine said.

The partners are spread across Baker Botts's Houston, Austin, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices. With the addition, Baker Botts now has a 50-lawyer environmental practice group and offers a much larger bench for the former Katten lawyers, who add to the practice a focus on crisis response, internal investigations and white-collar capabilities in particular.

"Having worked with this group on past matters, and understanding the depth and breadth of their practice and our practice, this just seemed like a perfect fit," said Scott Janoe, firmwide chair of Baker Botts' environmental section.

Steve Solow, a former head of the Department of Justice's environmental crimes section who joined Baker Botts in Washington, D.C., said linking the environmental and white-collar practice groups is a perfect marriage.

"It's really marrying up the widest range of skills, experience and knowledge in a way that we think clients are looking for in this space," Solow said.

The group of environmental laterals now at Baker Botts include Greg Dillard and Scott Elliott in Houston; Danny Worrell in Austin; Solow, Nadira Clarke, Natalia Sorgente and Anne Carpenter in Washington, D.C.; and Lily Chinn and Matthew Baker in San Francisco. They joined as partners in Baker Botts' litigation department's environmental section and the white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice group.

With the departures, Katten is closing its small offices in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Katten chairman Roger Furey said in a statement Friday that key elements in the firm's three-year strategic plan include further development of the practices related to the finance and financial markets sectors "as well as other core market sectors for which Katten is well-known." He wrote that as Katten implemented that plan, lawyers in the environmental and workplace safety group determined in discussions with management that they would be "more successful" at a firm "more involved in the oil, gas and chemical industry sectors."

Solow said he and others in his group have been familiar with the Baker Botts team and its reputation for many years, often representing some of the same clients or similar clients on similar issues. The large lateral move developed organically with a "gradual recognition we could serve clients best if we were together," he said.

"We were not adversaries, but allies," Solow said.

The move is in no way a knock on Katten, Solow added.

Elliott, in Houston, said, "It's almost too good to be true. We could take what we were doing at Katten and incorporate it with what the folks are doing here." In his own practice, he has focused on "instant response" to environmental issues over the last several years.

Solow and Elliott declined to identify the group's clients, although Solow said he is a court-appointed monitor of Carnival Corp.'s compliance with environmental regulations. The group responds to accidents and environmental incidents, and handles environmental criminal and civil enforcement cases, internal investigations and related work for companies in the energy, chemical, refining, manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors.

John Martin, Baker Botts' managing partner, said in a press release Wednesday that the skilled lawyers who just joined the firm provide "strength on strength" and solidify Baker Botts'  position as a go-to firm for environmental, health and safety crisis response.

Solow said he expects some associates who have worked with the team from offices in Washington, D.C., and Texas to also move to Baker Botts.

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Katten Closing Austin, San Francisco Offices as Environmental Group Departs