A Deeper Dive Into Don Verrilli's Move To Munger Tolles & Olson
Why is Munger making this move, and what are the firm's future plans?
Donald B. Verrilli, Jr.
Paging former U.S. solicitors general: if you’re thinking of making a move into Biglaw, now is the time.
Just a few weeks after former SG Paul Clement announced that he (and all of his colleagues at Bancroft) will be moving to Kirkland & Ellis, the most recent Senate-confirmed SG, Donald Verrilli, revealed that he’s joining Munger Tolles & Olson. Together with two lawyers he has worked closely with in the past — Michael DeSanctis, former managing partner of Jenner & Block’s D.C. office, and Chad Golder, former deputy associate attorney general — Verrilli will launch MTO’s new Washington outpost.
For the past 25 years, Munger Tolles & Olson has had just two offices (Los Angeles and San Francisco), so opening in D.C. represents something new for the firm. Yesterday I spoke with name partner Ronald L. Olson about why the firm is making this move.
“For any number of years we’ve toyed with the idea of having a Washington office, and through the years we have been approached by a number of firms to make some kind of arrangement,” Olson said. “We always came to a pretty quick negative decision for a whole range of reasons.”
“What’s different about this is that we believe we have identified the right people to make this happen,” he explained. “Don, Michael, and Chad have the kind of values that we share, and they’ll integrate into our culture very well.”
In terms of how the move came together, Olson said that when Munger learned that Verrilli might be available, the firm reached out (directly; it did not use a recruiter). Through a series of discussions, it became clear to Olson and his partners that Verrilli has “the Munger Tolles & Olson DNA — absolutely dedicated to his clients, with a drive for excellence and a demonstrated commitment to public service.”
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Former Jenner & Block partner Michael DeSanctis — who said he’s “super-excited” about working again with Verrilli and about moving to Munger, “a jersey I’m really proud to wear” — recalled when Olson and Verrilli first met.
“I had been talking with Don about his post-SG plans,” said DeSanctis, who was mentored by Verrilli in his pre-SG career at Jenner. “Coming back to Jenner was always the leading candidate. But as soon as Ron and Don met — I was there — magic happened. They took an instant liking to each other and realized how much they think the same way.”
Launching a D.C. office is a new venture for Munger, but it does not reflect any shift in the firm’s strategy of staying relatively small by Biglaw standards. “This is not Munger Tolles deciding we want to spread across the country,” Olson said. “This is all about getting the right people.”
Having just a few offices helps Munger preserve its tight-knit culture. Ron Olson noted how the firm hosts lunches three to four days a week, where lawyers from different departments come together to talk about an issue or an outside speaker makes a presentation. These lunches help Munger’s lawyers — at around 200 attorneys, the firm is intimate by Biglaw standards — get to know each other better. (The firm bridges the Los Angeles/San Francisco divide at these lunches using videoconferencing technology.)
When MTO opened its San Francisco office in 1991, it was a “reluctant” entrant into the market, according to Olson. After identifying some talented lawyers in the Bay Area, it tried to convince them to move to L.A.; when that didn’t happen, Munger opened its S.F. office. It has grown that office to around 40 lawyers today, and it has fully integrated them with their colleagues in Los Angeles.
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How large will the D.C. office get? Munger does not have any particular estimate or target for headcount in Washington.
“There is no five-year plan,” Olson said. “Our plan is to hire the best, expecting they will get the best results, and over time that will result in the best clients with the most complex problems. We’re not going to go out in Washington and say we need a full regulatory practice and pick up this lateral hire or that one. We’re going to hire outstanding talent, on a very deliberate basis, which will translate into real value for our clients, no matter where their problem is. This will make our value proposition even more compelling.”
Although Munger Tolles & Olson has historically attracted many former U.S. Supreme Court clerks — such as former MTO partners Michelle Friedland, John Owens, and Paul Watford, all now judges on the Ninth Circuit — it hasn’t had a huge Supreme Court practice. Will that change under Don Verrilli?
“I would expect it to, with someone of Don’s experience and stature,” Olson said. “We have had Supreme Court arguments before, but it hasn’t been a big practice for us. We look forward to growing the practice under Don and supporting him any way we can with talented lawyers from our other offices.”
“I’m very proud of the firm in general, and I’m very proud of this latest move with Don and Michael and Chad,” Olson concluded. “I’m anxious to start pulling them into helping our clients solve problems from around the country. When a client needs lawyers for its toughest problems, we want to be at the top of that client’s list.”
California Law Firm Hires Former Solicitor General for Washington, D.C., Office [Wall Street Journal]
Obama’s former Supreme Court lawyer, Don Verrilli, joins L.A. law firm [Los Angeles Times]
Former Solicitor General Don Verrilli Joins Munger Tolles to Open DC Office [Munger Tolles & Olson (press release)]
Earlier: Former Solicitor General Don Verrilli To Head Up D.C. Office For Surprising Biglaw Firm
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
