Reed Smith officially announced on Monday its entrance into the Dallas legal market through lateral hires from three firms.
Reed Smith’s 29th office launches with 16 attorneys – eight of them partners – from Perkins Coie, Bryan Cave and Bracewell. The firm said more lawyers and staff will be joining in “the coming weeks.”
The announcement comes nearly a week after officials at Bracewell and Perkins Coie confirmed with The Texas Lawbook that it was losing some of its lawyers to Reed Smith.
The partners include corporate lawyers Bobby Majumder, Ryan Preston and Lynwood (Lyn) Reinhardt and commercial litigator Mark Johansen from Perkins Coie; commercial litigator Brian Mitchell and real estate lawyer Al Kyle from Bracewell; and financial industry litigators Keith Aurzada and Michael Cooley from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.
Also joining are counsel Jay Krystinik and Bradley Purcell and associate Lindsey Robin from Bryan Cave; associates Brooke Dorris, Katherine Geddes, Steve Smith and Jared Wood from Perkins Coie; and associate Austin Whitmore from Bracewell.
A spokesman for Reed Smith said the firm will temporarily office in the Saint Ann Court building of Dallas’ Harwood District until it moves to its permanent location in 2020.
The group joining Reed Smith have collectively advised clients in hundreds of disputes and on transactions worth several billions of dollars in the finance, healthcare, transportation, real estate, retail energy and natural resources and technology sectors.
Majumder and Mitchell will serve as co-managing partners of the Reed Smith Dallas office. Majumder, who led Perkins Coie’s India practice group, will do the same at Reed Smith.
“What attracted me to Reed Smith can be summed up in four simple words: local roots, global reach,” Majumder said in a statement. “Inasmuch as I was impressed by Reed Smith’s global platform and potential for me to serve our clients in and beyond Dallas and Texas, I was equally impressed with the firm’s insistence that the office is launched by lawyers who are from Texas, have roots in the Dallas-Fort Worth region and have longstanding ties in the community. For Dallas- and Texas-based clients, that local connection is highly valued.”
“Our clients, many of whom are based in Texas, are increasingly expanding their businesses on a national and global scale; therefore, the ability to serve them across geographies is paramount,” Mitchell said. “As a litigator, it was important to me that I join a firm with a deep bench of trial lawyers that has a proven track record of representations in complex commercial disputes, as well as significant victories on behalf of clients in a number of different industries. Reed Smith not only met those criteria; it exceeded them at every level. I also look forward to introducing my existing clients, as well as prospective clients, to the full scope and breadth of transactional experience that Reed Smith has to offer, which I know will be well-received.”