Blank Rome Launches Second Office in Texas with Six New Partners

Blank Rome Launches Second Office in Texas with Six New Partners

Blank Rome LLP has opened a new office in Dallas, being the firm’s 15th office and second in Texas—with the addition of six partners.

Steven R. Block and Jason S. Luter will serve as Dallas office Co-Chairs and members of the corporate, M&A, and securities group, as partners from Block & McNeill and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath respectively.

Block having more than 40 years’ legal experience in corporate and securities law, majorly focuses his practice on M&A, corporate governance, corporate contracts, hedge funds, project finance and private equity. Before founding Block & McNeill in 2007 he practiced for a number of years at Boston-based firm Fish & Richardson.

Luter actively advises clients on corporate ownership succession planning transactions involving employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), including seller-financed and leveraged and non-leveraged buyouts, and provides ongoing legal counsel to ESOP-owned companies. He practiced at Faegre Drinker for almost five years before joining Blank Rome and before that was a partner at Foley Lardner.

Finance partners Mark Harris and Michael Thimmig are also joining for the launch from Alston & Bird.

Mark specialises in structured finance and securitization transactions alongside general corporate transactions, while Thimmig advises clients on structured finance, fintech, mortgage banking and secured lending transactions. Before joining Alston & Bird they were partners at legacy firm Andrews Kurth Kenyon and Perkins Coie respectively.

Real estate partner Justin Mapes, who has moved over from Locke Lord was also the deputy general counsel at Highgate Hotels before joining Locke Lord. He focuses his practice on real estate and commercial transactions, with an emphasis on the financing, acquisition, development and disposition of commercial real estate property.

Completing the new arrivals is corporate partner Christopher McNeill, who has joined from Block & McNeill alongside an associate – representing all of that firm’s lawyers – a paralegal and an office coordinator.

McNeill works with clients at all stages of the corporate life cycle, including entity formation, corporate restructuring, securities financing and M&A. He was an Associate at Fish & Richardson before founding Block & McNeill.

Grant Palmer, Blank Rome’s Chair and Managing Partner said, “Dallas is a thriving business community and we are thrilled to open an office here. Establishing an office in Dallas has been a strategic priority of our firm for some time to better serve our clients who are based in or do business in Dallas and North Texas. We have been committed to entering the market with a team of leading attorneys who not only have exceptional experience but also fit together as a cohesive and collaborative team. We are excited about Blank Rome’s future in Dallas and are looking forward to continued growth.”

Partner Cassandra Mott, who Co-chairs the Houston office alongside Susan Bickley, said, “We are very excited to welcome the new Dallas team to the firm. They are a tremendous group of attorneys and their experience aligns with our strengths and complements our strong transactional and litigation teams in Houston.”

The new additions brand’s Blank Rome to be the third largest group. Since the beginning of May, the firm has also hired a group of nine litigators from Akerman in New York and a nine strong group of international trade attorneys and legal experts from McDermott Will & Emery in Washington, DC.