13 more partners leave Boies Schiller; what BigLaw firm are they joining?
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Thirteen partners at Boies Schiller Flexner in California are joining King & Spalding, to be followed by two more who will make the leap later.
King & Spalding announced the addition of the 13 lawyers in a press release Thursday.
Twelve of the lawyers are from Los Angeles, and one is from San Francisco. Most of the lawyers are from Caldwell Leslie & Proctor, a litigation boutique acquired by Boies Schiller in 2017, report Law.com and Bloomberg Law.
Two more Los Angeles partners are expected to leave Boies Schiller for King & Spalding at a later time, a firm spokesperson told Law360 and Bloomberg Law. One of them is Caldwell Leslie co-founder Christopher Caldwell.
More than 30 of Boies Schiller’s 150 partners have left since the beginning of the year, according to Law.com.
The group of lawyers moving to King & Spalding includes “some of California’s most formidable and honored litigators,” King & Spalding said in the press release.
The new hires include Boies Schiller’s San Francisco administrative partner, Quyen Ta, who has experience in international arbitration and consumer class actions; Michael Leslie, a Caldwell Leslie co-founder with expertise in complex environmental litigation; and David Willingham, co-managing partner of Boies Schiller’s Los Angeles office who routinely leads internal investigations.
Natasha Harrison and Nick Gravante became co-managing partners of Boies Schiller in December 2019.
Gravante released a statement to Law360 and Bloomberg Law that noted a transition of leadership from Boies Schiller’s founders to the next generation. “Building on what we have achieved as a preeminent litigation firm, the transition involves reshaping, refocusing and resizing the firm,” he said in the statement cited by Law360.
“This is a period of great uncertainty for the whole world,” Gravante said. “What is not uncertain, however, is that the California legal market, and our Los Angeles and San Francisco offices specifically, will remain integral parts of the firm’s geographical and strategic footprint.”
