Seth E. Darmstadter
Michael C. Kasdin
Los Angeles-based, full-service law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP opened a Chicago office June 1 at 200 S. Wacker Drive.
It’s the firm’s sixth office in the U.S., following three other offices in California and one in New York City.
Michelman hired Michael C. Kasdin as the Chicago office’s managing partner. He started with the firm at the beginning of May, making the move from Dentons. He worked from the New York office to prepare for the opening.
Kasdin was hired to build out the transactional regulatory practice of the firm; he focused on insurance/reinsurance at Dentons, where nearly 80 percent of his practice was advising on regulated transactions, he said.
Seth E. Darmstadter, who joined Michelman from K&L Gates LLP, will head the Chicago firm alongside Kasdin as a partner. He practices representing high-growth, emerging technology companies and advising entrepreneurs across a number of industries.
“I wanted to hire him (Darmstadter) when I was at Dentons, and it didn’t work out,” Kasdin said. “He was one of my first calls when I made the move here.”
Kasdin and Darmstadter are currently the only two attorneys at the Chicago office.
The partners plan to hire more entrepreneurial attorneys throughout the rest of the year, but Kasdin expects the most significant growth will happen in 2017 — after partners coming from other firms are able to receive their annual distributions.
“We’re a nationwide firm and our offices are fully integrated, so there’s no reason I can’t use lawyers in California or New York,” Kasdin said. “But we really want to be a full-service firm in Chicago on a standalone basis; we want clients to be able to come in the door and have a full suite of litigation.”
Michelman & Robinson was founded in Los Angeles in 1999 by Sanford L. Michelman and Mark B. Robinson — two young attorneys who defected from other firms. Michelman has grown to 79 attorneys in total across its six offices.
The opening of Michelman’s Chicago office follows recent hires elsewhere in the firm, including a team of intellectual property attorneys from K&L Gates to the firm’s Orange County office as well as a group of commercial, corporate, employment and real estate attorneys from the New York firm of Vandenberg & Feliu LLP to its New York office in late May.
“The firm made the collective decision to expand its national footprint years ago,” Kasdin said. “All of these acquisitions happening at the same time is a fortuitous aspect of that strategy.”