Insurance litigation boutique Pasich LLP folded operations last week as a majority contingent of its attorneys jumped to a local McGuireWoods LLP outpost.
An 11-attorney team – led by Pasich LLP founders Kirk Pasich and Shaun Crosner – lateraled to the Century City office of McGuireWoods. There they will bolster the firm’s international insurance recovery practice, with Pasich becoming co-lead of the group.
The move was unusually quick, with the idea being broached in mid-June.
“They’ve always been on my radar screen in terms of, if they made a big effort here in California in terms of insurance recovery, I’d listen,” Pasich said. “Less than six weeks later, we’re here. They got it done. They moved mountains.”
It helped that Mikaela Whitman, another of Pasich LLP’s founders who moved to McGuireWoods in January, was part of the recruiting pitch. Pasich added that mutual clients between the two firms strongly encouraged the move once they learned it was in the works.
“It was unusual in my experience to get that kind of endorsement,” he said. “From my perspective, it was a great thing.”
The move represents a 23% jump in local headcount, vaulting McGuireWoods about 30 spots to being around the 60th largest local law operation in terms of attorneys. This includes the firm’s downtown office, which opened in 2015.
“This group represents a significant expansion of our client service capabilities on the West Coast,” said Alice Youngbar, the firm’s Los Angeles managing partner, in a statement.
Pasich LLP was formed in 2017 and was based in Westwood. It also had offices in Manhattan Beach and New York City.
Its two New York attorneys joined Blank Rome LLP. Its Manhattan Beach partner, Jacquelyn Heitman, joined homebuilding client Seeno Homes in Concord as general counsel. Another partner, Nathan Davis, formed the Law Offices of Nathan M. Davis in Santa Monica.
Also joining McGuireWoods are Michael Gehrt, Craig Hirsch, Christopher Pasich, Sandra Smith Thayer, Pamela Woods, Daria Clecicov, Eliza Logan, Noelle Malindzak and Caitlin Oswald.
Kirk Pasich noted that many partners and supporting staff go back to when he started off as an attorney with Paul Hastings LLP in 1980. He added that it was a testament to the McGuireWoods operation that much of that team effectively merged with the larger firm when it didn’t need a new home.
“Our group’s been together a long time, and we like each other. That was one of the most important things for us,” he said. “We didn’t have to do this. It would require a special opportunity for us to do this.”
