Dallas-based Bailey Brauer has announced the addition of commercial litigation lawyer Jared Wilkinson as partner.
Wilkinson joins Bailey from Vinson & Elkins where he was an associate for more than six years. During his tenure, he practiced in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Prior to V&E, he was a litigation associate at Brackett & Ellis.
“The main goal of the move to Bailey Brauer was to continue to provide sophisticated representation in a more cost effective manner and maintain kind of a broad trial practice in a diverse array of cases in a variety of courts and tribunals,” Wilkinson said. “And that’s where I see things going forward.”
Wilkinson’s practice is focused on complex commercial litigation, class actions and muti-district litigation, corporate governance, shareholder litigation and appellate matters.
“Jared is an exceptionally talented young attorney that we are excited to bring into this office,” name partner Clayton Bailey said.
Wilkinson obtained his law degree in 2016 from Baylor University School of Law, where he met his now-wife, Abby Wilkinson, an associate in Jackson Walker’s real estate practice group.
Wilkinson, a first-time partner, discussed his move with The Texas Lawbook in the following Q&A. The interview has been edited for clarity.
Why did you decide it was time to leave Vinson & Elkins?
I can’t say enough about V&E and my colleagues there, the clients, just the whole firm. I was lucky to spend over six years there working on pretty complex cases with teams of incredible attorneys and support staff. So I’m grateful for my time there. V&E has been around for a hundred years for a reason, and it’ll be around for a hundred more. But as a senior associate, an eight year attorney, you kind of approach a fork in the road. Do I stay or do I go? And you start to think about, ‘What do I want out of my practice? Where am I going to build my business?’ So, the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I started leaning towards wanting to be at a smaller firm with a more robust trial practice. And I wanted to be at a firm where litigation is the focus, not the corporate work, not the corporate clients, but a true litigation and trial boutique, because that will give me more of the deposition, hearing and trial experience. Those opportunities can be pretty rare at big law firms, even for partners. So I think Bailey Brauer, the boutique model, is a great opportunity for me to gain that experience.
Of all the trial boutiques, why is Bailey Brauer best for your practice now?
I was actually introduced to Clayton Bailey through one of my wife’s co-workers at Jackson Walker. I had breakfast with Clayton one morning and we had a long conversation and just really hit it off. Hearing him talk about the firm that they’ve built over the last 10 or 11 years, it was just a great meeting. Over the coming weeks, I met everybody here at the firm, asked a bunch of follow up questions. It just really confirmed that it was exactly what I was looking for professionally. They’re just down to earth, good people, too. That’s really important to me, and that’s why I went to V&E – because of the people. And that’s mostly why I’m here. So they’re just really good people and great attorneys on top of that.
What is it you enjoy most about being in trial?
I think it’s the unscripted aspects of it. Attorneys pay a lot of attention to detail and we love our scripts. I personally love my scripts, too, but when you’re in trial, things just come up and you’re just handling things as they come up, in the moment. I think being forced to think on your feet and represent your client in the court courtroom is really exciting.
What news, developments or trends in law are you particularly keeping an eye on at the moment?
One in the broader industry that kind of dovetails with my move here to Bailey Brauer and the boutique model. One of the trends I’ve seen is a lot of articles discussing the pressure on in-house legal groups to reduce their spend on outside counsel. I also see articles about how rapidly hourly rates are going up in Big Law. I think I saw one last week saying we’re approaching $3,000 an hour, which is a pretty mind boggling number. That trend of just ever-increasing rates and associates billing out over $1,000 an hour was weighing on my mind when I was at V&E and thinking about developing business. That’s one of the things that really attracted me to Bailey Brauer. They formed the firm 11 years ago with the goal of providing top notch service without all the overhead, which allows them to reduce their rates and provide tremendous value to the clients. That was a huge draw for me, and aligned with my goals as I try to build up my practice.
Another hot topic right now, especially in Texas and litigation, is the new business courts that have been formed, and the opportunity to move cases in there or file new cases there. That’s an exciting development for me. When I was at V&E, I spent a lot of time litigating in the Court of Chancery in Delaware, and so, I’m excited about the recent establishment of a business court here in Texas, and I’m hopeful that the business court will allow me to leverage some of that experience I have from the last six years.
How have your existing clients reacted to the news of your move?
I think it’s been received positively. In my first week here, I got a call from someone I’ve known for years, but who had never hired me on anything. But when I made the move, they reached out and hired me on a matter. I think that fact speaks volumes about what Bailey Brauer offers. People or companies want to hire Big Law names, but many of them don’t want the price tags and large bills that come along with hiring Big Law attorneys. So, here at Bailey Brauer, we all spent years in Big Law, so we have the training and credentials. We’re just offering our services at more competitive rates.