Wake Up Call: Quinn Makes a New Go at Opening Dallas Office

In today’s column, Cleary is starting a legal tech incubator subsidiary, headed by a former Epiq executive based in Canada; an international litigation funding trade association hired a former top DOJ lawyer as general counsel; Jenner & Block settled the multi-million dollar rent dispute it had with its Chicago landlord over office space unused because of the pandemic.

• Leading off, Quinn Emanuel is opening a Dallas-Fort Worth office with a recently hired Texas lawyer and a partner relocated from New York, according to a report. The L.A.-headquartered firm, which has over 800 lawyers, got partner Will Thompson from Texas firm Burns Charest to open the office. The firm is also bringing partner Elinor Sutton, an intellectual property, telecommunications and energy litigator, down from New York. (Dallas Business Journal) Quinn, which has offices in Houston and Austin, becomes the latest of several Big Law firms to open in Dallas, drawn by the state’s booming energy, tech, and other markets. Quinn’s earlier plan to open in the city with a small group of Vinson & Elkins lawyers fizzled out in December 2019. (BLAW)
• Jenner & Block settled a multi-million dollar rent lawsuit with its Chicago landlord over office space in its headquarters that went unused because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The terms are confidential, but the two sides said Jenner will remain an anchor tenant in the building, a report says. (American Lawyer)
• Partners at U.K. Big Law firm Mishcon de Reya approved a plan to go public through a listing on the London Stock Exchange. (The Lawyer) (The Times of London)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• Morgan & Morgan, whose approximately 700 attorneys make it the biggest personal injury law firm in the U.S., opened an office in Washington. (National Law Journal)
• Some 300 lawyers are participating in the Paris criminal trial of 20 men accused in the 2015 Islamic State attacks in the city. Among unusual details about the trial, some lawyers for victims are sharing fees with lawyers for defendants. (Associated Press)
• Haynes Boone launched a new group to advise companies in the CBD and hemp industries; Manatt announced it is expanding and rebranding its health-care information service; Norton Rose Fulbright formed an alliance with a Turkish law firm. (NortonRoseFulbright.com)

Laterals, Moves, In-house

• Boies Schiller Flexner grabbed Reed Smith international arbitration and public law counsel Ben Love as a partner in New York and Washington. He has a particular focus on energy and natural resources; in France, Dentons hired former Justice Minister Jacques Toubon, 80, as a senior consultant in its sovereign wealth funds practice. (Les Echos) Clifford Chance re-hired private equity lawyer Benjamin de Blégiers as a partner and infrastructure practice co-leader in Paris. He arrives from Weil, where he was a corporate partner since leaving Clifford Chance in 2015; Willkie Farr & Gallagher said fund formation lawyer Tiana Rambatomanga is joining the firm as a partner in Paris. According to her LinkedIn profile, she arrives from Stephenson Harwood, for which she launched the Paris fund formation practice. (LinkedIn)
• Locke Lord got former U.S. Department of Health attorney Jeff Wurzburg, also a former Defense Department associate general counsel, as health-care senior counsel based in Austin, Texas, and Washington. He was recently at Norton Rose Fulbright; Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr hired the firm’s first ever chief talent officer, hiring away Robins Kaplan’s former chief talent & diversity officer, Chandra Kilgriff, for the job. She’s based in Minneapolis. (Saul.com)
• The International Legal Finance Association, a trade association launched last year by six of the largest litigation-finance firms, recruited former U.S. Justice Department senior lawyer Gary Barnett as executive director and general counsel; music rights management nonprofit Sound Exchange promoted deputy general counsel Tim Dadson to GC. The company’s chief legal officer, Colin Rushing, is set to leave at year’s end after 14 years in the role. Dadson’s earlier roles include in-house at the Washington Football Team and associate at two Big Law firms. Sound Exchange also promoted assistant GC Brieanne Jackson to fill Dadson’s former role. (MusicRow)

Technology

• Cleary Gottlieb is starting its own legal tech incubator, Cleary X, to be led by Canada-based lawyer Carla Swansburg, a former vice president and general manager of legal tech company Epiq. (Law.com International)