Lathrop Gage Adds Chicago Office
Firm Continues Expansion Into Major U.S. Markets
KANSAS CITY, Mo. and CHICAGO (July 17, 2009) – Lathrop Gage LLP has expanded to Chicago, CEO Joel Voran announced today.
“Chicago has been a part of the firm’s strategic planning for some time – our vision is to expand into the nation’s key business centers,” Voran said. “With a base of operations in Missouri, Lathrop Gage offers Midwest value to clients across the country, and now more than ever, that resonates in the marketplace.”
This marks the 11th location for Lathrop Gage and its second addition in 2009; in January, a merger with a trial boutique in Los Angeles took Lathrop Gage coast to coast. Since 2004, the firm has added offices in New York, Denver and Clayton, Mo. Lathrop Gage now is the only Kansas City-based law firm with offices in each of the country’s three largest cities.
Leading the office is Blaine Kimrey, a high-profile commercial litigator and trial lawyer who most recently was a partner with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago. He will be joined by Bryan Clark, a former Sonnenschein associate, and one or more attorneys who will move from the Lathrop Gage Kansas City office. Additional aggressive recruiting plans are under way. The office is located at 30 S. Wacker Dr. in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Building.
Opening the office marks a homecoming of sorts for Kimrey: Before moving to Chicago in 2003 to join Winston & Strawn LLP, he spent his first five years as a lawyer at Lathrop Gage’s Kansas City headquarters.
“I am very excited about this opportunity. Having worked at Winston & Strawn for three years and Sonnenschein for three years, I am familiar with the Chicago legal marketplace, and Lathrop Gage is a perfect fit, particularly in these challenging economic times,” Kimrey said. “ I first learned how to be a lawyer at Lathrop in Kansas City and know that some of the best lawyers I have ever encountered at any firm are at Lathrop. Because of its conservative economics and rate structure, Lathrop offers a combination of value and quality to clients that cannot be touched by large Chicago-based firms. Lathrop is a value proposition that cannot be ignored by in-house counsel, business executives, and boards of directors.”
Kimrey has a broad range of direct and class-action commercial litigation experience, including intellectual property, media, entertainment, insurance, banking, civil rights, telecommunications, internal investigations, and mass catastrophes and torts. A former journalist, he defends traditional media and Internet clients in litigation across the country.
He was recognized as a “Future Star in Illinois” by Benchmark Litigation 2009 and was named one of Chicago Law Bulletin’s “40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch” in 2008. His clients have included Macmillan Publishers, Barbara Ehrenreich, MySpace, Yahoo, AXIS PRO (formerly Media/Professional Insurance), Epic Advertising, Selling Source, and Vision Lab Telecommunications.
Kimrey's primary practice will be business litigation, with a secondary emphasis on intellectual property litigation. The Lathrop Gage intellectual property practice is one of the largest Midwest-based IP groups, with nearly 60 attorneys in California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and New York. Clients include NBC Universal, AXIS PRO, Hallmark Cards, Payless ShoeSource and BlueScope Steel.
Members of the firm’s IP practice have been named among the “World’s Leading Trademark Practitioners” by Managing Intellectual Property magazine and are perennially recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers and other industry organizations. In June, the firm was named a “Top Trademark Law Firm” by CSC Trademark Insider, which lists the most active trademark practices nationwide.
“IP has been a main driver of growth for Lathrop Gage in the past decade,” Voran said. “It’s exciting to bolster that practice even further with an incredibly talented and entrepreneurial attorney – and former colleague – in a new market.”
About Lathrop Gage:
A full-service law firm, Lathrop Gage LLP has almost 300 attorneys in 11 offices nationwide – from Los Angeles to New York. In 2009, Chambers USA ranked Lathrop Gage’s corporate, environmental, intellectual property, litigation, real estate and labor and employment teams among the best in the Midwest. For more information, visit www.lathropgage.com.