© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(June 1) – McDermott Will & Emery announced today that it has more than doubled its Dallas office by adding two teams of M&A and technology and outsourcing lawyers from K&L Gates.
Wilson Chu leads the M&A team, which has significant experience in cross-border M&A transactions across the Asia-Pacific region and Western Europe. He is joined by partners Soren Lindstrom and Greg Hidalgo.
Jason Krieser and Shawn Helms will lead McDermott’s new U.S. technology and outsourcing practice. They are joined by partner David Guedry.
Chu says McDermott was a “Goldilocks fit.
“We were happy where we were, but with so many firms calling, we felt we owed it to ourselves to take a look,” he said. “Once McDermott enters a market, it is committed to being a key player in that market.”
Helms added that the opportunity to help launch and shape an office was attractive.
“McDermott is a law firm built on specialty practices,” he said. “A technology and outsourcing group is not something a lot of firms have, but McDermott felt it was strategic for them.
“They are looking for us to be the catalyst of this practice.”
Dallas is where outsourcing was born, Helms says, and it continues to be a hub for outsourcing needs and expertise. He and his team recently worked on an IP outsourcing deal for Nokia worth more than $1 billion that spanned nine months and took him to Munich and Helsinki.
He says the complexity of outsourcing deals is going up as is the number of competitors because there are more market entrants than ever before.
“At some level, everyone knows how to do a deal,” Chu adds. “But not everyone knows how to do an outsourcing deal. There are good synergies between our two groups.”
The firm’s big splash in Dallas today – which may include up to 15 lawyers – follows the recent
additions of three tax controversy partners led by M. Toddy Welty in April.
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