By Mark Curriden
(Feb. 6) – Winston & Strawn plans to announce today that it is officially launching an office in Dallas with two-dozen partners from eight different law firms, including a handful of some of the most prominent lawyers in North Texas.
The Chicago-based law firm has lured an impressive list of business litigators and corporate transactional attorneys that includes Tom Melsheimer, Steve Stodghill, Bryan Goolsby, Matt Orwig and Tom Hughes to start its Dallas outpost.
The practice specialties of the 23 partners – many of them received multimillion-dollar, multi-year compensation guarantees – range from white-collar criminal defense and complex commercial litigation to mergers and acquisitions and tax law.
“The people we’ve assembled are leaders and go-to lawyers for corporate clients,” Winston Managing Partner Tom Fitzgerald told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview. “It is really an all-star cast. This announcement is a very bold statement about Winston and our view about Dallas.”
The firm is expected to hire another 20 associates over the next three months as part of its Dallas launch.
Legal industry analysts say it is one of the largest law office openings in Texas by a national firm
“There’s never been an office opening like this in terms of numbers and quality of talent,” Melsheimer, who is leaving Fish & Richardson after 17 years, told The Lawbook in an interview Sunday night. “It’s unheard of.”
Melsheimer will be co-managing partner of the Dallas office, along with Bryan Goolsby, who started the real estate investment trusts practice group at Locke Lord in 1991. He was Locke Lord’s managing partner from 2001 to 2006.
The North Texas lawyers joining Goolsby and Melsheimer include:
- Fish & Richardson partners Steve Stodghill, Brett Johnson, Scott Thomas, Taj Clayton, and John Sanders, Jr.;
- Jones Day partner and former U.S. Attorney Matt Orwig, who will lead Winston’s litigation and government investigations practices in Dallas;
- Jones Day partners Shawn Cleveland, who defended Enron Chairman Ken Lay against federal securities violations, and Basheer Ghorayeb, who also specializes in white-collar criminal defense;
- Norton Rose Fulbright corporate M&A law partner Tom Hughes;
- Locke Lord tax law partner Andrew Betaque;
- Locke Lord partners Billie Ellis, Todd Thorson and Matt Stockstill, who specialize in representing private equity firms in transactional matters;
- Locke Lord corporate finance partner Kenneth Betts;
- Locke Lord corporate transactional partner David Lange;
- Greenberg Traurig M&A partner Christina Tate;
- Squire Patton Boggs business transactions partner Jeff Cole;
- K&L Gates banking and asset finance partner Jordan Klein; and
- Chip Gage, a partner at Miller Egan who specializes complex domestic and cross-border financial transactions.
Goolsby says that the firm has leased the 17th floor at Saint Ann’s luxury office complex at 2501 North Harwood in Uptown.
“We are looking for additional office space that will house about 45 lawyers,” Goolsby says.
Winston has about 800 lawyers in 18 offices worldwide. In March 2011, the firm opened its Houston office, which now has more than 40 lawyers, including John Strasburger, Paula Hinton, John Keville, Melanie Gray and Lydia Protopapas.
Fitzgerald says Winston “started looking” at Dallas 13 months ago “because it is an important business market for several of our current clients.” He says the firm has additional prospective clients that want “lawyers to be there on the ground.”
To seek possible lateral candidates, Winston hired elite Houston legal recruiter Clint Johnson of Johnson/Downie to lead its efforts to bring together its new team.
“We’ve gotten close to Clint over the past couple years and he knows our firm pretty well, which means he can explain to potential lateral hires our philosophy,” Fitzgerald says.
Some of the 23 partners were released by their old law firms last week, while others are still waiting to receive waivers by their current law firms from the partnership agreements, which require they stay from 30 to 90 days from the announcement date of their departure.
Sources say that Winston agreed to a minimum compensation guarantee for several of the 23 partners. The guarantee ranges from $2 million to $3 million per year for two to three years, which nearly doubles the annual compensation of some involved.
“Initial guarantees show that we are serious about this move and about being in Dallas,” says Fitzgerald, who declined to address specific amounts. “My experience is that guarantees are not that important. Plus, we do not have extended guarantee periods.”
Billie Ellis was the first Locke Lord partner who met with Fitzgerald over breakfast at the suggestion of Clint Johnston.
“I could see that Winston & Strawn was doing it right,” Ellis said. “The firm had a very specific and targeted approach to establishing an impactful and long-term presence in Dallas. They weren’t just chasing revenues but instead were looking for quality lawyers and quality people.
“The lawyers and their practices had to fit a specific profile to be invited to join the firm,” he said.
Winston actually has a long history in Texas. Chicago partner and former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, who is a legendary trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, spent a couple years living at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Texarkana while he represented Philip Morris when then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales sued the cigarettes makers for fraudulently marketing its products in the state.
The Texas Lawbook first reported on Jan. 18 that Winston planned to open an office in Dallas. We will continue to update our readers as new facts become available.