By Mark Curriden and Brooks Igo
(Feb. 1) – The run on the bank of lawyers at Andrews Kurth Kenyon is continuing this week as three more law firms – Haynes and Boone, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Shearman & Sterling – add to the list of law firms raiding the 115-year-old Houston corporate legal practice.
DLA Piper made it official today that three AKK partners have joined its Dallas office today.
In all, more than 60 lawyers are expected to depart AKK – some starting today and others over the next four weeks. The departures have complicated efforts by AKK and Virginia-based Hunton & Williams to merge their law firms.
The hemorrhaging of AKK legal talent has gotten so significant that leaders at Hunton & Williams have now developed a list of key AKK lawyers who must remain at AKK if the merger is to go forward, according to lawyers involved in the discussions.
“Andrews Kurth is a great law firm with some truly great lawyers and it is sad to see what is happening,” says an AKK lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The fact that this is happening so quickly tells you just how fragile corporate law firms are.”
Here is the latest:
- Between 20 and 25 lawyers in AKK’s public finance practice in Houston are expected to jump to Orrick, which opened an office in Houston in 2016 and now has 42 lawyers.
- About a half-dozen lawyers in AKK’s Woodlands office are moving their corporate practices to Haynes and Boone. The group is led by AKK corporate and securities partner Bill McDonald, whose bio was deleted this week from the AKK website.
- About 17 AKK lawyers in Austin, including office managing partner J. Matthew Lyons, are expected to open the first Texas office of Shearman & Sterling at the end of February. Lyons, a corporate M&A and securities partner, is being joined at Shearman by corporate partners Alan Bickerstaff and Carmelo Gordian and complex commercial litigation partner David Whittlesey.
- DLA Piper officially announced Thursday that three AKK lawyers, including labor and employment partners Marc Katz and Isabel Crosby and litigation partner Rob Hoffman, have joined the firm’s Dallas office. Katz will lead the Dallas office. Another seven AKK lawyers are expected to join DLA in the next week. In addition, sources say that 18 lawyers from other law firms in Dallas, including Dentons partner Mike Moore, are expected to join the new team at DLA Piper next week.
- At the end of February, Katten Muchin is expected to publicly announce that it has lured a dozen AKK lawyers, including prominent M&A partner Mark Solomon, to start its Dallas office.
As a result of Lyons’ decision, Hunton became concerned that too many AKK partners with solid books of business were bailing and developed a “must stay list” of AKK lawyers that needed to remain with the combined firms if the merger talks were to continue.
Lawyers with knowledge of the Hunton-AKK merger talks say that the two firms are likely to have their partnerships vote on the proposal within the next few weeks.
Even with the departures, the AKK-Hunton merger would instantly make Hunton one of the largest law firms by headcount operating in Texas.
DLA Piper’s announcement Thursday is the first time that any law firm has publicly discussed any of the new departures from AKK.
“The addition of Marc, Rob and Isabel is a significant boost to our Dallas capabilities and signals our commitment to growing the office and our overall platform in Texas, which also includes Austin and Houston,” John Gilluly, DLA’s Texas regional managing partner, said in a written statement. “The addition of this stellar team and their extensive litigation and counseling experience will allow us to better serve our clients based in and doing business in Texas, as well as across the country and around the world.”