March 3, 2011 6:36 PM

Locke Lord Snags 12 Lawyers for Sacramento Office

Posted by Brian Baxter

After two decades in Sacramento, Bullivant Houser Bailey is closing its office in California's capital city, with the bulk of its lawyers there leaving for Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, according to a report by sibling publication The Recorder.

M. Taylor Florence, the former chairman of Bullivant's board, told The Recorder earlier this week that the destination of his Sacramento-based team would be announced on Thursday. That's when Locke Lord issued a press release touting its new hires.

Joining Florence at Locke Lord in Sacramento are partners Christopher Bakes, Scott Bartel, Regina Schroder, Daveed Schwartz, Eric Stiff, John Yung, and Daniel Eng, who will work out of the firm's San Francisco office. Also joining the firm as senior counsel are Deborah Seo and associates Shauna Correia, Krista Dunzweiler, Kelly Gaide, and Ryan Oliver.

Bartel was chair of Bullivant's corporate finance and international transactions practice, Schroder chaired the firm's tax practice management group, and Schwartz headed Bullivant's antitrust and trade regulation practice. Stiff served as partner-in-charge of Bullivant's Sacramento office.

As noted by The Recorder, Sacramento was Bullivant's first foray into California when the firm opened there in 1992, according to a cached version of the firm's Web site. Bullivant merged with Sacramento shop Bartel Eng & Schroder in 2005, which brought aboard many of the attorneys now leaving for Locke Lord.

Bullivant issued a press release late Thursday announcing the Sacramento office change. Beth Skillern, who serves as president and general counsel of Bullivant, says that the firm decided to close the office in January. "Discussions among our shareholders, including the Sacramento shareholders, about a transition of the Sacramento lawyers to another firm began in early January 2011," she says. "The office officially ceased operating as a Bullivant office on February 28."

Bullivant, which is based in Portland, Ore., is a business and litigation firm with 100 lawyers. The firm also has offices in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver.

Last month Bullivant lost well-regarded Portland partner Stephen English to Perkins Coie. English had worked closely with the firm on several matters over the years, according to the Portland Business Journal, which helped the high-profile litigator in his decision to leave the firm where he practiced the past 27 years.

Locke Lord is a 650-lawyer firm formed out of a September 2007 merger between Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp and Chicago-based Lord, Bissell & Brook. According to the latest Am Law 100 financial data, Locke Lord's gross revenue was flat in 2010 at $396.4 million, while average profits per partner were $978,000.

Locke Lord has 11 offices in the U.S. with overseas locations in Hong Kong and London. The firm's current Sacramento office previously consisted of only partner Gail Schubert and senior counsel Carl Gardner before the new hires.

 

Contact Brian Baxter at [email protected]

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