Blank Rome offices in Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Blank Rome's six-month-old Chicago outpost has added two new partners in less than a month, including the head of another out-of-town firm's Windy City office and a longtime federal prosecutor.

Craig Culbertson, who led McGuireWoods' Chicago office and was an executive committee member at the firm, is the seventh hire for Blank Rome in the city. He compared his latest move to his decision to join McGuireWoods nearly 20 years ago, when that firm also had fewer than 10 lawyers in Chicago. It now counts close to 100.

"I relish the opportunity here to do very much the same thing," Culbertson said of his new firm.

Philadelphia-based Blank Rome opened its Chicago office in June with four partners from Katten Muchin Rosenman. Two days after Culbertson joined the firm, Blank Rome on Monday announced it was adding Paul Tzur, the former deputy chief of the narcotics and money laundering section at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, as its eighth attorney there.

Blank Rome's expansion into Chicago is part of a larger strategy to expand the firm in major markets by adding individual lawyers or small groups. The firm wants to grow its offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., "equal to or greater than Philadelphia" in terms of brand and reputation, managing partner Grant Palmer said last year.

Culbertson's resume is heavy on management experience. In addition to his roles at McGuireWoods, he was previously the co-chair of the corporate and finance department and a member of the executive committee at Jenner & Block.

"At his prior firm, he launched the Chicago office and helped it grow to more than 100 attorneys," said Kenneth Ottaviano, the chair of Blank Rome's Chicago office, in a press release. "As we execute against our growth strategy in Chicago, Craig's experience will be invaluable, and I look forward to partnering with him to strategically expand our Chicago office and serve our clients."

Culbertson is joining Blank Rome as a partner in its corporate, M&A and securities group and a member of both of its energy and financial services industry teams. He's not joining the firm in a leadership capacity, and he said that's fine with him.

"I'm 64 years old and I've had all kinds of very nice titles," Culbertson said. "I really enjoy, at this point, working with clients, helping strategize with them, helping grow this office. I know it'll be a very collegial and collaborative effort with Ken and the other folks in this office. … That never even entered into my mind or was something I particularly desired."

Culbertson noted that his energy and finance practice, which includes representing oil logistics and trading, aerospace, and banking and finance companies on the Fortune 100, will benefit greatly from Blank Rome's presence in Houston, and the firm's existing cadre of finance-centered lawyers. He said he has "strong confidence that the vast majority of my clients will move over here."

Tzur is joining Blank Rome's white-collar defense and investigations group after a nine-year stint as a federal prosecutor. The firm noted Tzur has prosecuted corporate accounting, bank and Medicare fraud cases, as well as narcotics and money laundering cases. He's also argued 11 appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

"The decision to join Blank Rome was an easy one," Tzur said in a press release. "I could not pass up the opportunity to contribute to the firm's strategic growth and presence in Chicago while building my own white-collar and civil litigation practice."

An Am Law 100 firm, Blank Rome generated $443 million in revenue in 2018, or $804,000 per lawyer, according to the latest American Lawyer rankings.

A spokesperson for McGuireWoods did not respond to a request for comment.

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