Washington-headquartered Global 100 law firm Arnold & Porter has become the latest to launch in Houston with the hire of a four-strong litigation team from Hogan Lovells.
Thad Dameris, the former managing partner of Hogan Lovells’ Houston office, has left the transatlantic firm alongside litigation partners Trevor Jefferies, Christopher Odell and David Weiner, leaving a remaining partnership of six.
Legacy Hogan & Hartson partner Dameris will now head the Arnold & Porter Houston office, while Odell and Jefferies join as counsel and partner respectively. Weiner, a former attorney for the office of legal counsel in the US Department of Justice, will be based in Arnold & Porter’s Washington D.C office as a partner.
Houston has been a recent target for a number of Global 100 law firms including Dentons, which in September announced its 16th US office and 79th globally in the capital. Legacy Norton Rose, meanwhile, long understood to have been looking at opportunities in Houston, achieved that ambition via its merger with Houston-founded leading energy firm Fulbright & Jaworski, which went live on 1 June 2013.
Arnold & Porter chairman Tom Milch said there are ‘significant opportunities to build in Houston based on our existing strengths and our experience in the region. We are targeting growth of practices in Houston that help us continue to provide sophisticated service to clients, in the energy sector and elsewhere, in the most cost-effective way possible.’
Arnold & Porter also this month hired the former general counsel of the Air Force, Charles Blanchard, who joined the firm as a partner in its government contracts and national security practice on 6 January. Blanchard joins the firm to provide strategic guidance to its defence clients, particularly in relation to major weapon systems procurement and acquisition, enforcement, classified programmes and cyber security.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
