Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
Four Mayer Brown insurance attorneys are joining Willkie Farr & Gallagher in San Francisco and New York, including the co-head of Mayer Brown's U.S. insurance regulatory and enforcement group.
Kara Baysinger, who is based in San Francisco, will work in a similar role at her new firm as co-head of Willkie's insurance regulatory group, alongside New York partner Allison Tam. The hires come just two days after Law.com reported that Morrison & Foerster office leader Brett Miller plans to leave his firm to join Willkie along with two other bankruptcy partners.
Joining Baysinger are two other Mayer Brown partners, San Francisco and Los Angeles-based Stephanie Duchene and New York-based Matthew Gaul. Mayer Brown associate David Heales will join Gaul in New York as partner.
The team advises on regulatory, compliance and investigation matters as well as transactional matters for insurance companies. Before joining Mayer Brown in 2019, Baysinger spent 10 months as a legal executive at insurance company NORCAL Group and spent more than 20 years at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (which was acquired by Dentons in 2010).
In a statement, Baysinger pointed to Willkie's growth on the West Coast as an "ideal complement" to the group's practice.
"The Willkie platform will allow us to offer a very wide range of services and solutions to our clients, enabling us to continue to play a role in their continued success and growth," Baysinger said in a statement.
Last year, Willkie advised on several major deals for insurance clients. The firm counseled Zurich Insurance Group and its subsidiary Farmers Group in the $3.94 billion acquisition of MetLife's property and casualty business; Allstate in the $4 billion acquisition of National General Holdings Corp.; and New York Life Insurance in a $800 million debt issuance.
The firm also performed well financially in 2020. Gross revenue jumped 13.6%, from $868 million to $986 million. Revenue per lawyer grew 4%, from $1.25 million to $1.30 million. Profits per equity partner increased by 10.9% from $3.17 million to $3.52 million.
Willkie first broke into the Silicon Valley market in 2018, when it opened a Palo Alto, California, office. A year later, the firm opened in San Francisco with two litigators from Keker, Van Nest & Peters.
On top of the Mayer Brown practice leader and Morrison & Foerster office leader, Willkie last month hired away Jonathan Patchen, former co-chair of Baker Botts' tech litigation practice in San Francisco, in March.
Asked about the group departure, a Mayer Brown spokesperson said, "We wish them well."
Dylan Jackson
Dylan Jackson writes about the business of law and race. He can be reached at [email protected] or 305-347-6677. On Twitter @DylanBJackson