After helping found the firm eight years ago, Moez Kaba has been made managing partner of downtown-based Hueston Hennigan LLP and is now tasked with launching the firm’s New York office.
The 41-year-old Kaba replaces Brian Hennigan as the firm’s sole managing partner and will work with founding partner John Hueston in kickstarting the firm’s East Coast footprint. The new office, which officially opened on Jan. 19, is located in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan.
“Our hope is to organically grow the office,” Kaba said. “We already have a number of clients on the East Coast or who have a huge East Coast footprint. My expectation is we’ll continue growing the New York office the same way we grow the L.A. office, which is by hiring great people every year and following the opportunities they bring to us.”
Hueston Hennigan was formed in 2015 by an offshoot group of attorneys from Irell & Manella who sought to create the go-to litigation firm for complex business issues. Kaba, who graduated from Columbia Law School after earning a degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University, said the firm treats each case as if it will go to trial and takes on a variety of cases as litigants or defendants.
The firm also seeks out special public interest clients, such as the Navajo Nation, as part of its portfolio of advocacy. Kaba, who boasts a perfect trial record, also has sought pro bono work advocating for immigration rights, LGBTQ equality and the victims of anti-Muslim discrimination. The firm notes that these issues align with Kaba as an openly gay Pakistani-American.
“Moez is widely respected as a creative, forceful and exceptional trial lawyer,” Hueston said in a statement. “He has been co-lead counsel in the firm’s most important matters, helping guide us to achieving historic — and often landmark — results for our clients. There is no one better suited to lead our firm into the future.”
The American-born Kaba’s parents immigrated to Chicago from Karachi, Pakistan, in 1978. He became the first in his family to go to college, a moment punctuated when the entire family piled into his father’s taxicab and made the drive from Chicago to Ithaca, New York.
“I’d come from a working-class family, a family that believed that America is the best place to be, and it’s the only place in the world we thought you could come with nothing and the next generation can have access to everything,” Kaba said. “There was a really strong ethic of working hard and getting an education, something (my dad) was never really able to get for himself. That ultimately led me to try to do well in school and led my way to Cornell for undergrad.”
The move to New York was natural for Hueston Hennigan, which already takes on cases throughout the United States. The office opened with six new associate hires and one senior associate who transferred from Los Angeles.
“We’ve always had a national practice,” Kaba said. “The cases we handle are all over the country. Now having a national presence to match our national practice is really thrilling for all of us.”
