A team of seven litigators from Winstead has left to launch the Houston office of Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton, the Dallas-based firm announced on Wednesday.
The group includes six partners – Jay Brown, Stephen Wedemeyer, Bruce Wilkin, Hilary Borow, Matthew Foytlin and Amparo Guerra – and associate Cameron Dernick. The new office will also include Derek Flynn, who was already practicing at Shackelford in The Woodlands.
“We have been working toward this opening for some time but needed to bring in the right group of attorneys with a focus that complemented what we are already doing,” John Shackelford said in a statement.
Shackelford – which has offices in Dallas, Frisco, Fort Worth, Austin and Nashville – enhances its property and casualty insurance and commercial litigation expertise with the lateral group coup.
“We have clients all over the country, but they all consider us their Texas attorneys,” Wedemeyer, who is the former chair of Winstead’s insurance and reinsurance litigation practice group, said in a statement. “Shackelford is that same kind of firm – Texas roots with a national reach.”
This isn’t the first time Shackelford has lured attorneys from Winstead. In 2017, the firm hired Dallas litigator and historian Talmage Boston.
The new additions grow Shackelford’s total headcount to 64 lawyers, which is an 11% increase.
Shackelford says the plan is to continue to build out the new Houston office. He is meeting with a recruiter there this week to look at more lateral candidates.
“It always begins with the people. I’m not looking for any particular practice area. They first have to be good, quality people. Second, they have to be good attorneys. The next thing is does it work economically for them and for us,” he says.