Moye White announced Tuesday it has added seven new attorneys in January. The lateral hires include four real estate attorneys who joined from Burns Figa & Will and two new hires from Foundry Legal focused on early-stage company transactions.
Joining Moye White’s real estate practice are partners Matt Dillman and Merc Pittinos and associates Georginne Dudash and Nikki Roberts, formerly of Burns Figa & Will. Dillman, who was head of that firm’s real estate practice group, said all of his clients have migrated with his team to Moye White. They include some large Colorado landlords such as Unico Properties, DPC Companies, Prime West and M&J Wilkow.
Tom List, managing partner at Moye White, said the impetus behind the growth in the firm’s real estate practice was twofold. “First of all, our real estate group, as it was comprised before the recent additions, was extremely busy during the course of the last several years, frankly, and we have been in the market to enhance the strength of our team,” List said.
“On top of that, our relationship with Matt and his team from Burns Figa goes back a couple of years,” he said. “And we had been in some preliminary discussions during the course of the last several years about perhaps joining forces at some time in the future.”
Dillman said, “Merc and I are incredibly grateful to Burns Figa & Will for the 20 years that we spent there, the friendships that we made and the ability to grow our practices.” He added his team came to Moye White because of its strong platform, regional presence and the opportunity to attract larger clients.
Pittinos, whose practice focuses on real estate disputes and litigation, said his team was motivated to make the move in part because their clients had needs that were broader than they had been able to provide.
“The benefit of moving to Moye White is that they have a fabulous trial practice and a growing and really robust real estate practice,” Pittinos said. “It’s a great opportunity to be part of both of those sections here and helps us to better serve our clients.”
Moye White also lured partner Larkin Reynolds and associate Ezra Kramer over from Foundry Legal, a Denver firm founded by Reynolds. Her practice blends commercial and technology transactions for emerging companies with data privacy compliance and breach response.
“Coming to Moye White was, for me and my small firm, an opportunity to expand our privacy, data security and technology practice, and basically offer our existing clients a broader array of skills for all of their business needs,” Reynolds said.
A number of early-stage companies in industries such as aerospace, entertainment and agriculture will be moving to Moye White from Foundry Legal, Reynolds said, as will several of the financial and health care services firms she advises on privacy and data security.
The firm’s first hire this month was associate Niki Vinod Schwab, who joined Moye White from a small Denver firm and advises on a range of commercial transactions.
The first month of the year has seen rapid growth for the 60-attorney firm, which added a total of nine attorneys in all of 2019.
But while Moye White is growing, the sudden spike isn’t part of a wild expansion plan.
“We’re pretty opportunistic in terms of responding and reacting to opportunities, particularly when it relates to groups of attorneys or practice areas,” List said.
He said a lot of the hires in the past year were in the firm’s trial section, reflecting what he called “positive growth” in that area. “Our trial folks are incredibly busy, handling and going to trial on multiple matters,” he said. “We need the reinforcements to support that practice.”
He said the addition of Dillman, Pittinos and their team was “more strategic.” List and Dillman had been competitors but, as List said, “sometimes it’s better to team up than compete.”
“We feel we can compete with anybody in town now,” List said of the beefed-up practice group.
— Jessica Folker