With regional business continuing to boom, the nation’s largest firms are launching new offices left and right in the hope of snatching up some valued market share. To that end, yet another Biglaw firm recently decided that if you want to be taken seriously in 2026, you need a Boston zip code — and you need it yesterday.
According to the American Lawyer, Reed Smith is opening a new office in Boston that’s going to be staffed with a group of laterals pulled from seven (yes, seven!) different Am Law 50 firms. Because if you’re going to plant a flag in one of the most competitive legal markets in the country, you might as well do it with a full-on talent raid instead of a slow build.
The incoming team spans multiple practice areas — think finance and transactional work — giving the firm an instant, full-service presence rather than a tentative toe-dip into the market. It’s a familiar playbook: grab a prebuilt team with portable business and let them hit the ground billing. Here are some additional details on the attorneys who will be working there:
Regulatory partner Grant Butler joins from K&L Gates, fund formation and PE partners Claudette Druehl and Omar Hemady joins from White & Case, M&A partner Matthew Hacker joins from Goodwin, finance partner Ian Hohmeister joins from Morrison & Foerster and employment litigator and transaction attorney James Nicholas joins from McDermott.
Additionally, Kevin Sullivan, former co-chair of Weil’s private equity practice, is joining Reed Smith as a senior strategic adviser to its PE practice.
The group of attorneys also included K&L Gates associate Anastassia Korin, Kirkland & Ellis senior associate Austin McCarthy, White & Case associate Aric Jain, White & Case foreign legal consultant Maud Fillon and Morrison Foerster associate Matt Baker.
“Boston is a hub for the key practices where we are looking to grow, private equity, finance, fund formation, and it makes sense for us to be in a market where there’s so much talent servicing clients in those areas,” said Julie Hardin, Reed Smith Americas managing partner. “We expect to have more good news in the coming weeks and months.”
If this all feels a little déjà vu, that’s because it is. Boston has been on a Biglaw hot streak, with firms tripping over themselves to launch there, lured by elite talent, a strong life sciences sector, and plenty of high-end work to go around. In other words, yet another major firm has decided that Boston isn’t just “nice to have” — it’s table stakes.
Reed Smith isn’t exactly new to the expansion game, either. The firm has more than 1,500 lawyers globally and has been aggressively growing through lateral hiring and new office launches in recent years, with Boston being its fourth new office announcement in a little more than a year.
The bottom line is that Boston continues to be Biglaw’s favorite new hub, and Reed Smith just showed up with a seven-firm shopping spree.
Reed Smith Taps Lawyers from 7 Am Law 50 Firms for New Boston Launch [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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