Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced Monday that it has added partner Elizabeth Ryan to the firm’s complex commercial litigation practice in Dallas.
Ryan joins the firm from litigation boutique Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, where she began her legal career in 2008 after spending a year clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit right out of law school.
This is the third partner Lynn Pinker has lost to an elite national firm in the past couple of years, reflecting a current trend that reverses the former phenomenon of big firms losing lawyers in droves to litigation boutiques.
Ryan is known for her work in complex, high-stakes business litigation, and has a client rolodex that includes Silicon Valley pioneers, Fortune 500 companies and individual entrepreneurs.
She kicked off her legal career as a member of a trial team that won a record-setting, $12.5 million jury verdict in an Internet defamation case on behalf of a national lender.
Some of her other wins since then include a $7 million judgment for a national private lender in a breach of contract case, a $3.3 million jury verdict for a Fortune 100 company in a fraudulent transfer case and a favorable settlement for a video game developer in a breach of contract and trade secrets case that sought more than $40 million in damages. She also has been involved in the opioid crisis litigation in Oklahoma on behalf of a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer.
“Liz is known for her relentless advocacy and her dedication to her clients,” said Courtney Marcus, co-managing partner of Weil’s Dallas office. “She will enhance our firm’s ability to serve clients at the highest level in Texas and beyond.”
Ryan said she decided to make the move to Weil because she has “long admired” the firm’s trial practice, strong global platform and commitment to serving its clients.
“The opportunity to join that team, coupled with the unparalleled opportunities for serving the growing Texas business market, was simply too good to pass up,” Ryan told The Texas Lawbook. “It was made all the more enticing because Paul Genender, who leads Weil’s Dallas complex commercial litigation practice, is an outstanding lawyer and he has assembled an excellent team of attorneys.”
She said she looks forward to handling “cutting-edge, highly sophisticated legal work” at her new firm.
“No client hires Weil to solve easy problems,” she said. “I’m thrilled to join a national team of talented litigators and corporate practitioners who are rolling up their sleeves, tackling difficult cases in the courtroom and looking for new legal avenues to secure client victories.”
Her recent caseload has included everything from pharmaceutical multi-district litigation to complex insurance coverage issues to bet-the-company cases.
“I look forward to this next chapter in my practice and hope to maintain that same level of diversity on my docket,” she said.