Apparently, their mothers aren’t the only ones who still love Jenkens & Gilchrist lawyers… The Virginia-based law firm of Hunton & Williams does. A lot.
As previously reported, Jenkens found itself under fire amid questions linked to its tax-shelter practice. The firm eventually agreed that it would be subject to a substantial penalty (though as many of you pointed out, they are probably going to declare bankruptcy and not pay), offered up its key partners to the IRS (although nobody’s naming names, most folks’ money is on the trio of Paul M. Daugerdas, leader of the firm’s tax shelter practice, and Erwin Mayer and Donna Guerin) and eventually agreed to shutter its offices worldwide. The latter was almost a certainty anyway since the firm had been so crippled by the initial investigation.
But like the Phoenix, Jenkens is going to rise again, it seems, this time with a different name. Hunton & William has gobbled up nearly 100 lawyers from the now-defunct Jenkens. The push has, according to Hunton’s press release, resulted in the firm’s expansion to nearly 1000 lawyers worldwide and now allows them to tout that they are one of the “largest non-Texas based law firms in Dallas.”
And while it appears that Hunton just went lawyer pickin’, the “new” firm in Texas really looks more like the result of a merger than an acquisition. Jenkens partner Chet Fenimore has been named the new managing partner of Hunton’s Austin office and Patrick Mitchell, who had been the chairman of Dallas-based Jenkens, is the new managing partner of the Dallas office of Hunton. In fact, the former Hunton managing partner in Dallas, William Stephen Boyd, has announced that he will return to his litigation practice full time. Hmm. In the legal world, not really viewed as a step up.
Even more mind-boggling is the new make-up of the Dallas office. Hunton’s Dallas office now has 157 lawyers – after adding 87 from Jenkens (that’s right, more than doubling their office). In fact, only 20 of the remaining Jenkens lawyers at the Dallas office did not jump to Hunton. The fledging Houston Hunton office gained one attorney and the Austin office picked up five.
So far, no one is saying which clients are following the masses from Jenkens to Hunton but I have to think not many – unless there are one or two partners that have such excellent relationships with former clients that they’re coming with. It’s a little dicey and decidedly uncool to follow the trail of a now-defunct law firm. Having a law firm with partners being investigated by the federal government is just soooo ten years ago.
