The downtown office of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP has shored up its labor and employment practice since first adding the local group in July.

The Cincinnati-based firm in March brought in a four-attorney team to the location, joining the three attorneys brought in last year to get the Los Angeles labor and employment group off the ground. That group by itself has effectively doubled the size of the L.A. office, which first opened in 2018.

Partner Rachel McClintock has led this group since being hired in July.

“They brought us on to really make the L.A. presence more robust and establish an L.A. labor and employment practice that they really hadn’t had before,” she said. “We’ve been rapidly growing. This latest addition was really to round out the group.”

The new team includes partner of counsel Olivia Perry and associates Briana Kutinsky, Emily White and Saige Shaw.

McClintock and Perry previously worked together at downtown mainstay Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, making this a reunion for the two. McClintock was part of the short-lived Lewis Brisbois spinoff firm Barber Ranen and was brought on at Dinsmore as that startup fizzled, while Perry joined from Sacramento-based Novus Law Firm.

While Dinsmore’s labor team already included seasoned litigators, Perry brings with her a background in advisory, investigative and counseling services for business clients.

“In talking with Rachel, she was happy with Dinsmore, and it sounded like there was not a dedicated person focusing on (my) type of work,” she said. “It sounded like they could use someone who was not so focused on litigation but other employment work.”

McClintock said she expects continued growth for the firm’s West Coast labor group.

“L&E across the state is so robust in so many ways that we’re going to continue to grow. It’s a hot button for employers,” she said. “Laws are constantly changing. California is a difficult place to be for employers. We are only going to see ourselves expand here.”