DLA Piper Makes Major Lateral Move In Private Equity Space
The firm's making a big play in the space.
The red hot lateral market strikes again! Blockbuster lateral moves have become a recurrent theme that has ripple effects throughout the industry. The latest winner in the battle for attorney talent is megafirm DLA Piper.
DLA Piper added 27 private equity lawyers from Honigman in a major lateral move. The group will be based in DLA’s Chicago office, and consists of eight partners — including Harris Eisenberg, Alex Plakas, Nathan Wilda, and Drew Rosenberry — with the balance of the attorneys being counsel and associates.
Joe Alexander, DLA Piper’s U.S. vice chairman, pointed to the benefits of transitioning an entire group of attorneys in one fell swoop:
“So they know each other well and have a lot of current deals going on. So the hope is by bringing the entire group, it can be fairly seamless,” Alexander said. “And in addition, we’re looking for capacity. The last 18 months have been a very busy time period. So it’s not only a matter of the group being able to help each other, but we’re always in the market for top-notch private equity lawyers because there’s need for capacity.”
He added: “It’s a double positive. It both helps us fill a need we already had as well as helps the group make sure there’s nothing missed in transition.”
As reported by Bloomberg Law, Honigman’s statement on the departures is very evenhanded and looks to the positives of the firm:
Honigman said it is a “healthy, highly profitable” firm that’s recruiting to support its corporate, private equity and transactional practices, which have made nearly 80 hires over the past 18 months. The firm said it has experienced “record growth” in recent years and remains “well-positioned” across its practices and in Chicago.
“We will have departures just like we will have arrivals,” the firm said in a statement. “In today’s highly competitive environment, it is simply the nature of the beast for the legal industry.”
However, law firm consultant Peter Zeughauser of the Zeughauser Group says these sort of blockbuster lateral moves are causing anxiety for smaller firms that would really like to keep these highly profitable attorneys right where they are:
“These firms have much more net operating income to play with, and with their large concentrations of lawyers in high-rate markets, they have higher average billing rates, and they’re just much more profitable. And they’re able to pick groups off,” he said.
“I don’t know a firm in the regional space that’s not anxious about that or nervous about that,” Zeughauser said.
Susan Mendelsohn, a Chicago-based legal recruiter who worked on the move, said the group fielded “extraordinary offers” from multiple firms trying to land the talent. Mendelsohn also has some theories as to why we’re seeing large-scale lateral moves right now:
“Maybe the firms that need to merge aren’t merging, so larger, profitable groups are finding new homes within a larger platform that are more beneficial to their practice. Because if you’re at a smaller firm, there is a ceiling to your growth, for sure,” she said.
Whatever the reason behind them, these large lateral moves are sure spicing up Biglaw.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
