Martin J. Bishop
A group of five lawyers led by a former vice chair of Foley & Lardner LLP’s litigation department has joined Reed, Smith LLP’s fast-growing Chicago office.
Martin J. Bishop and his team primarily handle managed-care litigation, and their addition last week brings the total number of lawyers added to Reed, Smith’s local office to 28 since the beginning of 2014, said office managing partner Michael A. LoVallo.
During that time, the office has grown to more than 150 lawyers from 136, according to Chicago Lawyer magazine surveys.
The growth has often involved hiring groups of laterals rather than individual partners, a trending hiring strategy that is efficient and can help rainmakers hit the ground running but also comes with risks. Those include over-hiring, diluting the quality of the firm’s lawyers and creating “silos” of lawyers that don’t work with others, said Kay Hoppe, president of law firm consultancy Credentia Inc.
“There is no question the trend is to hire groups if you can,” Hoppe said. “It’s easier to get the numbers up and it, in some instances, secures the movement of the business. But there are so many times where a headhunter will tell me a firm took three people to get the one that they really wanted.”
Reed, Smith a year ago hired five partners from K&L Gates LLP, led by litigator David A. Rammelt, and three intellectual property partners from Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP in August.
Managed care refers to health insurance plans that involve contracts between insurers and health-care providers to provide care at reduced costs. Disputes arise between insurers and states, insurers and providers and insurers and their insured — often in the form of class-action lawsuits.
Bishop and his team are also known for a separate practice advising banks and financial institutions on consumer financial services litigation. Bishop was previously the chair of Foley’s consumer financial services practice.
Foley did not return an e-mail requesting comment.
Rebecca R. Hanson and Thomas C. Hardy also joined Reed, Smith as partners. They were previously senior counsel at Foley. Meredith A. Shippee and Alexandra M. Lucas were lateral associate hires.
Bishop said he was attracted to Reed, Smith because it already has a managed-care litigation practice, and he and the firm shared clients in that area.
The firm’s website lists seven partners in that practice, including three in Chicago: Kevin D. Tessier, Dan J. Hofmeister Jr. and David V. Goodsir.
He said the firm’s Houston office will also help service his existing clients, many of whom are facing lawsuits in Texas, which he said has “an active litigation bench” in the managed-care space.
“Working alongside and with those attorneys (at Reed, Smith), I think, will help us not only better serve our clients … but we would also expect ourselves to develop as lawyers in a better way by working with those folks,” Bishop said.
LoVallo said he first spoke with Bishop about two months ago. The hiring process can take up to a year, he said, but things moved quickly in this case because Bishop knew the firm’s lawyers, its managed-care litigation practice and its reputation in the financial services industry.
“There was a situation where Reed, Smith, for Marty’s practice, was ideal both because of shared clients and a commitment to the areas that Marty’s practice is mostly in,” LoVallo said.
Growing the Chicago office is a priority for Reed, Smith, he said. The office’s main litigation practices include insurance recovery representation for policyholders, product liability, managed care and intellectual property. It also has a private equity-focused transactional practice and wealth planning practice.
“We’re especially excited about adding groups,” LoVallo said.
“They come in with clients and work from day one. They have a familiar team to service the clients pretty seamlessly. There are fewer transitions, bumps or potential for breaks in service.”
LoVallo said the firm places a heavy emphasis on integrating new partners to avoid some of the risks associated with lateral hires.
The firm appoints “integration partners” on the practice and office level that introduce new lawyers to their colleagues so they will feel confident referring existing clients to new co-workers.
Bishop said the integration effort had been paying off, at least since he joined earlier this week. LoVallo’s discussion about the firm’s attention to the integration process was also a selling point, Bishop said.
“I never saw myself switching firms, and with the management positions I had with Foley, I had some insight into the lateral process,” Bishop said. “It was really important to me for my own sake and for the members of my own team that, whatever firm we ended up at, the firm was adept at integrating the new partners into the fabric of the firm.”