This week, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld will pick up seven lawyers in Dallas, with all coming from the Big D office of Haynes and Boone.
It’s a “done, done, done deal,” says Ken Menges (pictured), the partner-in-charge of Akin Gump’s Dallas office and the co-head of Akin Gump’s firmwide corporate practice.
Menges says these lawyers will join Akin Gump as partners by the end of this week: Marty Brimmage Jr., Garrett DeVries, Arnold Spencer, Sarah Teachout, A. Michael Warnecke, Thomas Yang and P. Matt Zmigrosky.
Telephone messages left for all seven lawyers at Haynes and Boone were not immediately returned. However, in a written statement, Haynes and Boone writes here: "We are saddened to see these colleagues, many of whom started their careers here at Haynes and Boone, leave. We wish them well and much success in their new firm."
Menges says he “reached out” to one of the lawyers about a possible lateral move, and it turned out that others were also interested in moving to Akin Gump. He says the lawyers are interested in practicing at a firm with Akin Gump’s “expertise” and geographic reach. Their practices also fit well with some practice areas Akin Gump has on its expansion list, such as Spencer’s white-collar crime defense practice, Teachout’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act expertise, and Yang and Zmigrosky’s private equity mergers-and-acquisitions practice.
According to a press release from Akin Gump, DeVries is a corporate securities lawyer, Warnecke does antitrust and commercial litigation and Brimmage does commercial and bankruptcy litigation.
Menges declines to discuss any clients the new lawyers will bring to Akin Gump.
He says more lateral hires in Texas are in the works. “We continue to look very much at the Texas market in general, Dallas specifically,” he says.
— Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Photo credit: Gittings
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