Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editor
Dechert has fired the opening shot of 2026’s lateral wars, lifting a 20‑plus partner team – including a top‑ranked complex litigation and accounting defense squad – from McDermott and using it as the launchpad for new offices in Chicago, Dallas and a disputes outpost in Houston.
Dechert has brought in more than 20 lateral partners across litigation, corporate and securities, IP and employment from McDermott Will & Schulte, anchored by a preeminent U.S. complex litigation practice and a Chambers Band 1 accounting defense team.
The group is led by Chicago trial and strategy heavyweight law star Mike Poulos, (pictured) formerly partner in charge of global strategy and an executive committee member at McDermott, who becomes Dechert’s vice chair and global head of strategy.
The partners will sit in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and in newly opened or soon‑to‑open offices in Chicago and Dallas, with Houston launching around a separate but coordinated lateral hire.
Dechert has effectively acquired a ready‑made leadership brain trust, installing Poulos not only as a rainmaker but as the firm’s strategic architect. That is a notable evolution from the classic “star partner” hire towards something closer to a law‑firm M&A play.
Offices: back into Chicago, into Texas – again
Dechert is re‑entering Chicago to host Poulos and other members of the litigation team, having previously closed its Chicago office in 2024 after a strategic review that also saw exits from Beijing and Hong Kong.
Dallas will house a growing corporate and M&A offering, anchored by Joanna Lin and senior counsel Wilson Chu, who quietly joined earlier in January to launch the office and focus on complex deals and governance work.
In Houston, Dechert is opening with first‑chair trial lawyer Jim Wetwiska, a veteran of energy and technology disputes and commercial transactions, who joins from Akin Gump.
The quirk here for strategy‑minded lawyers is that Dechert closed Chicago less than two years ago, only to reopen with a significantly upgraded litigation and strategy platform.
It’s an unusually rapid U‑turn, underscoring how quickly market assumptions about physical presence can change when the right team becomes available, something partnership boards and managing partners elsewhere will note when they consider retreating from, or re‑entering, higher‑cost markets.
Practice mix: complex litigation, accounting defense, IP and employment
The incoming cohort includes a leading U.S. complex litigation group with a strong class actions profile, plus a Chambers Band 1 accounting defense practice.
Trial lawyer Bill Donovan will chair Dechert’s class action practice from Los Angeles, building out a national defense bench at a time when securities, consumer and tech‑related class actions remain a core revenue driver for Big Law litigators.
Seth Friedman and Tim Hoeffner will co‑chair the new accounting defense practice, an area where audit firms and gatekeepers continue to face aggressive enforcement and civil exposure.
On the employment front, Rachel Cowen joins as co‑chair of the labor and employment practice alongside Nicolle Jacoby and Philippe Thomas, positioning Dechert to offer a true “board‑room risk” package that spans securities, investigations, employment and class actions.
IP partner Christina Martini will co‑chair the firm’s intellectual property practice with current chair Kassie Helm, reinforcing a cross‑sector litigation and transactions offering in tech, life sciences and brand‑driven industries.
For in‑house counsel and GCs, this kind of bundled risk capability is the real selling point: complex litigation, accounting defense, employment and IP all under a single, trial‑tested roof. For competing firms, it is a reminder that “lateral group” now increasingly means “sector‑aligned product build,” not just extra hands.
Authoritative directory context: Chambers ranks Dechert and McDermott across multiple U.S. litigation and investigations categories, with Dechert holding Band 1 status in several areas, including white‑collar and financial services‑related work in key markets. (Chambers guide: https://chambers.com)[5]
Leadership bench
Co‑chair Mark Thierfelder described the arrivals as a “marquee group” that will deepen litigation, corporate, IP and labor capability while maintaining a sector‑focused approach to client work.
Co‑chair Dave Forti linked the move explicitly to Dechert’s two‑year strategic plan and “significantly improved performance,” framing the hires as the next phase of a disciplined growth agenda rather than opportunistic poaching.
Poulos has flagged his role as global head of strategy as central to the move, citing alignment with leadership on disciplined growth and use of the Dechert platform to scale both existing and new practices.
These hires sit alongside a series of recent leadership‑flavoured additions:
- Veteran trial lawyer and former First Deputy Mayor of New York City, Randy Mastro, joined as co‑chair of the securities and complex litigation team in New York, bringing a blend of high‑stakes commercial and public‑sector experience.
- Former SEC lawyer David Marcinkus has joined the financial services group in Washington, D.C. to focus on business development companies and closed‑end funds, boosting Dechert’s permanent capital and private credit work.
- London‑based corporate partner Jarlath Pratt strengthens private capital and sovereign wealth capabilities on the other side of the Atlantic.
The interesting angle for lawfuel readers is how Dechert is fusing political, regulatory and strategy credentials at the top of its disputes and corporate platform—Mastro from City Hall, Marcinkus from the SEC, Poulos from a rival’s executive committee—suggesting that the competition for leadership talent is now as fierce as the fight for marquee clients.
What this signals for law firms
For law‑firm partners and leaders the Dechert–McDermott move offers several takeaways that travel well beyond U.S. borders:
- Group moves are becoming de facto market‑entry deals: Instead of planting a flag with one or two partners, Dechert is using a sizable, cohesive team to justify re‑entry into Chicago and expansion across Texas. That model is increasingly visible among global firms targeting Asia‑Pacific, and it recalibrates expectations about what a “serious” launch looks like.
- Strategy roles are becoming client‑visible: Elevating Poulos into a formal “global head of strategy” role signals to clients that strategy is not just an internal management exercise but part of the firm’s external value proposition. Expect more firms to start naming, and marketing, similar roles.
- Litigation remains the engine room: The heart of this play is high‑end complex litigation—class actions, securities and accounting defense—work that offers annuity‑style revenue in volatile markets. For firms in smaller jurisdictions, the parallel might be competition, financial services enforcement or representative actions work, where scale and specialist reputations command premium pricing.
- Talent volatility is the new normal: The Dechert deal comes against a backdrop of other sizeable group moves in the U.S. market, including 19 lawyers joining Womble Bond Dickinson and 16 joining Spencer Fane from a collapsing regional firm. In a world where lateral teams can move as a block, succession and retention planning becomes a core risk issue, not just an HR concern.
For law marketers and BD teams, this is also a masterclass in narrative. Dechert is selling not just size, but a coherent story—sector focus, leadership depth, improved financials and a disciplined U.S. footprint rationalised and then rebuilt around stronger teams.
That is precisely the kind of joined‑up messaging that differentiates a genuine strategic push from a headline‑driven hiring spree.
