Kirkland & Ellis is growing its new litigation practice in Dallas with the arrivals of Sean Royall and Olivia Adendorff from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Royall worked alongside former law partner Rob Walters in representing AT&T against in its multibillion-dollar antitrust trial last year against the Department of Justice over the Time Warner merger. He was also the lead lawyer for Facebook in its recent privacy-related investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which Adendorff also played a large role in.
According to its website, Kirkland now has five litigators in its Dallas office, which opened last year with a large group of corporate lawyers who lateraled from four other elite law firms. The announcement of Royall and Addendorff’s arrival comes nearly two months after the firm hired its first litigator in Dallas, Jeremy Fielding, who the firm also officially announced joining today. Fielding came over from Dallas boutique Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst.
“Adding this group of litigation partners makes a strong statement about our commitment to having top-notch litigation talent, including here in Texas,” Andy Calder, a corporate partner in Kirkland’s Houston office and a member of the firm’s global management committee, said in a statement. “They are a great addition to our platform.”
Other attorneys who have joined Kirkland’s new litigation practice in Dallas include partner Jon David Kelley and associates Sable Hodson and Steven Taylor. Like Fielding, Kelley joined from Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst, where he was an associate. Taylor most recently was a clerk for Senior U.S. District Judge Terry Means of the Northern District of Texas. Hodson has been with the firm since 2016, and before that, was a legal extern in Alaska’s Public Defender’s Office and was a clerk in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
Royall has not officially joined Kirkland yet, but will do so “upon finalizing obligations at his current firm,” a firm release said. When he joins, he will divide his time between Kirkland’s Dallas and Washington, D.C. offices.
Royall served as the long-time co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s antitrust and competition practice group. He was also a founding co-chair of the firm’s privacy, cybersecurity and consumer protection practice group.
In addition to Royall and Adendorff’s substantial experience handling major FTC and Department of Justice investigations, they both also maintain active litigation practices in courts throughout the U.S., handling high-exposure government, private party and class action lawsuits for clients in high-tech, pharmaceutical and a wide range of other industries.
Kirkland also announced Wednesday that Richard Cunningham, who had been a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Denver office, has joined the firm in Washington, D.C.