June 2, 2008 4:41 PM

King & Spalding Hires Health Care Group from Vinson & Elkins

Posted by Nate Raymond

King & Spalding picked up six Vinson & Elkins health care partners Monday as part of a strategic effort to bolster its expertise in the industry.

The partners, along with one counsel and six associates, join King & Spalding's Washington, D.C., and Houston offices. The moves help strengthen what today is the highest-ranked health care legal practice in the country.

Making the move in Washington, D.C,. are Dennis Barry, Christopher Keough, and Joseph Lynch. In Houston, King & Spalding welcomes Gary Eiland, Dennis Dunn, and Nancy C. LeGros.

Last year King & Spalding made its health care and pharmaceutical practice a key part of the firm's growth strategy and has since set about expanding the group. It hired Kim Roeder and Sara Kay Wheeler from Powell Goldstein in November, and medical device specialist Seth Lundy from Fulbright & Jaworski in March.

"We are interested in growing in these areas and trying to be as good as we can be in this part of the economy," says Glen Reed, chair of the firm's health care industry group.

Barry, a member of the incoming group, says he began negotiations with King & Spalding last year. The group was in part attracted to King & Spalding because of specialties lacking at Vinson & Elkins. "It enabled us to work with an FDA practice, which we've been trying to do for years, and we now have that opportunity," he says.

The move, Barry says, is unrelated to Vinson & Elkins's own strategic reorganization, which the firm announced in April. Hoping to capitalize on its success in the energy sector, V&E is bolstering its Middle East and New York offices with an eye toward litigation and M&A.

"The departing group of health care specialists are fine lawyers and remain good friends," Vinson & Elkins managing partner Joseph Dilg said in a statement. "We wish them well."

King & Spalding posted $615.5 million in revenue for 2007, up 5.7 percent. Profits per partner grew to $1.4 million, up 6.9 percent.

Vinson & Elkins posted $596.1 million in revenue last year, up 12 percent from the year prior. Profits per partner hit $1.2 million, up 6 percent.

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