11 Miles & Stockbridge attorneys opening local office for SC firm

A day after Miles & Stockbridge named new leadership, 11 of the firm’s attorneys announced they are leaving to open the Baltimore office of South Carolina-based Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.

The new office on 100 S. Charles St. will include a litigation team led by Michael A. Brown and a corporate group with Timothy A. Hodge, who will serve as office managing partner.

Hodge said the timing of this announcement is not connected to yesterday’s news from Miles & Stockbridge about its new leadership.

“Miles & Stockbridge is a fine group of lawyers and an outstanding firm, and I’m sure we will work with them in the future on matters,” Hodge said in a statement. “All of us are committed to ensuring that clients receive the highest levels of representation throughout this transition.”

On Wednesday, Joseph W. Hovermill, the new president and CEO of Miles & Stockbridge, on Wednesday identified lateral movements in law firms as a challenge in the industry. His second day in the new role, he got a taste of that challenge.

“This is the exact thing we were talking about. Unfortunately everyone’s trying to track laterals,” Hovermill said.

Miles & Stockbridge, which has 168 attorneys in Baltimore, has also taken advantage of similar movement, with lateral hires coming into the firm’s Baltimore and Washington offices recently. Overall, Hovermill said, Nelson Mullins’ arrival is a positive thing for the city.

“I think it’s exciting for Baltimore City, as a firm that has a lot of lawyers in the city, that a firm like Nelson Mullins is interested in starting an office here. They’re a great group of folks, and we wish them well,” Hovermill said.

The new Baltimore office will strengthen Nelson Mullins’ key practice areas, including product liability, in the automotive, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. The corporate attorneys will work with the firm’s middle-market mergers & acquisitions practice, the firm said.

This will be the 18th office for Nelson Mullins, which has offices along the East Coast, from Boston to Florida, and offices in Denver and Los Angeles.

“When we open an office, we want to make sure we have the right people whose practices are a strategic fit for our firm, and that is certainly the case with this group of high-caliber attorneys,” said Nelson Mullins Managing Partner Jim Lehman in a news release.

The first few attorneys at the new Nelson Mullins office will start Monday, but attorneys will be trickling in after they wrap up pending matters at Miles & Stockbridge. The attorneys will be joining the firm as partners.

Brown, who leads a team of veteran trial lawyers, said he has worked well with partners at Nelson Mullins in the past.

“Over the last decade, their litigation practice has grown into a top-tier department working on bet-the-company matters for clients, and I am quite pleased to join such a strong firm with a national litigation infrastructure. I’m sure my clients will benefit from the resources that will be available to us.”

Hovermill said it’s too early to tell how many clients will follow the departing attorneys but has some conservative estimates. He said the departure won’t be a “material” issue for the firm in those practice areas but will definitely be an adjustment.

“On the corporate side, obviously anytime you lose folks there’s a morale hit and you have to regroup and look at things,” Hovermill said.

Nancy W. Greene, Miles & Stockbridge’s new chairman, said her primary concern is making sure people know the firm is still committed to its diversity initiative. Brown was chairman of the firm’s diversity committee and former chairman and CEO John Frisch also made it a priority.

“We’re really committed to our diverse lawyers. We’re really focusing on them and making sure they still feel the love,” Greene said.

The following attorneys are joining  Nelson Mullins in Baltimore:

LITIGATION: Michael A. Brown, Deborah St. Lawrence Thompson, Michael E. Blumenfeld, Matthew S. Sturtz, Michael J. Halaiko, Leianne S. McEvoy, Timothy M. Hurley, Katherine A. Lawler and Matthew R. Schroll

CORPORATE: Timothy A. Hodge, Jr. and Colleen Pleasant Kline