Norton Rose Fullbright opens office in Chicago
It continues to grow its Midwest presence following the expansion of its Minneapolis office
Norton Rose Fullbright opens office in Chicago
It continues to grow its Midwest presence following the expansion of its Minneapolis office
Norton Rose Fulbright, the second-largest law firm in the US and one of the largest in the world, will open an office in Chicago.
An 11-lawyer team joining from K&L Gates, DLA Piper and Polsinelli, will spearhead the launch. The lawyers have expertise across technology transactions, intellectual property, projects and employment laws. They include Partners Andrew Cripe, Daniel Farris, Sameer Ghaznavi, Christopher Hines and Joe McClendon and Senior Counsel Mary Kathryn Curry.
Jeff Cody, the US Managing Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright's said, "Opening in Chicago, the country's third-largest legal market, is a natural progression of our strategic growth plan in the US and beyond. We start with a highly regarded and diverse team of lawyers anchored by Daniel, Christopher, Joe, Sameer, Andy and Kathryn. It gives us a strong foundation as we continue to recruit top-flight talent."
Gina Shishima, the chief strategy and operations partner at Norton Rose Fulbright said, "Chicago is a hot spot for innovation and we are eager to serve the city's thriving business community across a host of practices in the transformative sectors."
While employment lawyer Cripe joins after almost a decade at Polsinelli, where he was a shareholder and practice group leader, Curry also joins from Polsinelli, where she spent seven years having previously been a judicial clerk in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Farris, Hines and McClendon had worked with K&L Gates for over three years, specializing in technology, privacy and data security. Prior to that, they worked at Polsinelli and Fox Rothschild. Farris was chair of the technology practice at Fox. Ghaznavi, who worked as a counsel with DLA Piper for four years, was earlier a counsel at Chapman and Culter and worked in-house at AEP Energy.
Other lawyers joining the team are Francesca Cardillo (Senior Associate), Erica Cook, Alex Katsulis, Nidhi Narielwala and Meghan Tierney (Associates), and Janet Ross and Alyson Schmidt-Iverson (Paralegals).
The Chicago office is the firm's 12th in the US and 53rd worldwide. To expand its Minneapolis office, it recently hired a team from the boutique trial law firm Blackwell Burke.