Do they have an airline bankruptcy practice !
K&L Gates sent out a press release Tuesday saying… that it has opened offices in Moscow and Tokyo, becoming the first Pittsburgh-based law firm to enter Russia and Japan, and Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter Kalis said it isn?t stopping at 35 offices.
?I?d be very disappointed if we don?t open additional offices in 2010,? Kalis said. ?We view growth as a way of life at this law firm. Our markets are globalizing and consolidating and we, as a partnership, concluded we have to participate actively in the globalization and consolidation.?
The law firm, Pittsburgh?s largest, added three sites last year, and cleared the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time.
Kalis said the newest offices enable the firm to enter nations and parts of the world that are strategically important to K&L Gates? global clientele.
?They were conspicuous omission within our global platform and we understood that some time ago,? Kalis said.
He would not identify cities where K&L sees other gaps but said there are ?strategic venues in the U.S., and in Europe and Asia and in South America where we hope to be able to address those omissions as well.?
The Tokyo office will focus initially on corporate and international finance, mergers and acquisitions, banking private equity, licensing and distribution arrangements and general corporate and employment law areas. Two lawyers, J. Ryan Dwyer III and Takahiro Kawaguchi, were hired for the office . K&L Gates now has six offices in Asia.
The Moscow office includes corporate partners Robert Langer and William Reichert, counsel Marina Lebedeva and three associates. The team is experienced in structuring business arrangements and accessing capital markets. The Moscow office will work with domestic and international companies in areas including general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions ,joint ventures and strategic alliances, private equity, capital markets and securities transactions, banking, real estate, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology,
?Both offices have a charter to grow,? Kalis said, but would not provide specifics.
On the home front, K&L Gates expects to move into a new offices in Downtown Pittsburgh in One Oliver Plaza, a few blocks from its present home in the Henry W. Oliver Building, during the first quarter. The date has not been disclosed publicly, ?only internally and it?s a little fluid,? Kalis said.
But he said the move is on track and progressing ?extraordinarily well.? The firm?s name was placed on the building last year. Some 237 of its nearly 2,000 lawyers are based in Pittsburgh; total employment in Pittsburgh is 646.
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2010/01/18/daily14.html
