After close to 65 years, Dickstein Shapiro is "no longer engaged in the practice of law."
The firm's website gives you the above message. More than 100 of the remaining Dickstein lawyers have joined Blank Rome (13 in New York, 93 in DC), announced Blank Rome on Thursday. The acquisition grows Blank Rome by about 20% to 620 lawyers and is the largest transaction in the firm's 70 years. This comes after a possible merger deal between Dickstein and Bryan Cave fell apart late last year.
A few years ago, Dickstein had more than 300 lawyers. Before yesterday, it was down to fewer than 130.
Former Dickstein chairman Jim Kelly (above) will head Blank Rome's DC office. Blank Rome assumed the lease on Dickstein's office at 1825 Eye St and is planning to move its existing 50 DC lawyers from the Watergate complex into Dickstein's space. This addition triples the size of its presence in DC. Blank Rome, which opened in DC in 1998 through a merger, was founded in Philadelphia.
The Dickstein partners joining Blank Rome have an average of more than 20 years with Dickstein, according to a statement from Blank Rome chairman Alan Hoffman.
A slew of departures preceded Dickstein's dissolution. Exits within the last month have included DC managing partner Richard Leveridge (to Adams Holcomb), corporate attorney Neil Lefkowitz (to Loeb & Loeb), criminal defense attorney Biz Van Gelder (to Cozen, which also picked up a 10-person State AG practice from Dickstein in 2015), five antitrust lawyers headed by James Robertson Martin (to open an office for Zelle), and a nine-partner corporate group in Stamford, Connecticut (to open a Stamford office of Holland & Knight headed by Evan Seideman).
Blank Rome is creating two new practices with the addition of the Dickstein lawyers: government contracts, headed by David Nadler, and insurance coverage, headed by Jim Murray (right, with former Dickstein lawyer Kirk Pasich, who left with nine others to launch an insurance practice at Liner last year).
Established Blank Rome practices growing include intellectual property (which will be co-headed by Dickstein's Jeffrey Sherwood), litigation, and corporate and finance.
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