Munck Wilson Mandala has acquired the women-owned litigation boutique Okon Hannagan.
The Dallas-based law firm adds two seasoned litigators – Melanie Okon and Susan Hannagan – as partners through the combination. Associate Sarika Patel and corporate counsel Stephanie Elovitz, who will also serve as the firm’s director of recruiting, provide extra depth.
“We are always looking to pick up talent,” says managing partner Bill Munck. “[Okon and Hannagan] are big additions to our complex litigation and labor and employment practice groups.”
Okon, who founded her firm in 2016 after practicing and becoming a name partner at the women-owned law firm Estes Okon Thorne & Carr, became more familiar with Munck Wilson through her friendship with Amanda Greenspon and Okon Hannagan’s sponsorship of the S.H.E. Summit in Dallas.
Okon says she has been impressed with the firm’s efforts to attract and retain female and diverse attorneys. Munck Wilson is a major supporter of the S.H.E. Summit and was instrumental to bringing it to Dallas.
Munck says the firm’s involvement in the event also played a key role in recruiting Jenny Martinez to the firm last fall.
In addition to being attracted to the firm’s commitment to diversity, Okon noted that Munck Wilson simply offers her clients a better platform.
“We were wanting to attract larger and more complex cases,” she says.
A Baylor Law graduate, Okon focuses her commercial litigation practice on representing clients – from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses – in the energy and industrial services sectors. She is a former in-house lawyer at Energy Future Holdings who started her career as a clerk for Governor Greg Abbott when he was an associate justice on the Texas Supreme Court.
Hannagan worked with Okon at Estes Okon Thorne & Carr before the two launched their own firm. She received her law degree from Texas Tech and focuses her practice on employment disputes.