The Brief:
HSF Kramer is targeting a Texas office within the next two years, eyeing the state's energy market.
Ten months post-merger, the firm has grown its US partnership from 110 to 120 and says recruits are easier to land than ever.
HSF Kramer is coming for Texas.
Firm chair and senior partner Rebecca Maslen-Stannage confirmed the firm is actively looking to open a Texas office, adding to its existing footprint in New York and Washington, DC.
The move makes sense on paper.
HSF has a strong energy practice in Australia, and Texas is the obvious complement.
All options are on the table, including a merger with a local firm or a greenfield office. Maslen-Stannage stopped short of a hard deadline, but said the firm is “focused on the next year or two” and looking to “progress this quickly.”
The firm is ten months into its merger between Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin. The combined firm hits 652 partners on 1 May, with its US count growing from 110 to 120 since the deal closed.
Maslen-Stannage says the merger has made hiring easier, not harder. “Partners who might not have wanted to join either firm in the past, they really see the logic of the two firms together. That’s really led to it being a really great class of partners that we've been able to recruit.”
Recent US additions include three Paul Hastings M&A partners in New York, antitrust partner David Pearl from Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, and ex-DOJ antitrust lawyer John Elias in Washington, DC.
The firm has also landed on a single remuneration model across all jurisdictions, blending performance and longevity.
Its first post-merger all-partner meeting lands later this year in Hong Kong.
Source: Law.com