Thirty of Beirne, Maynard and Parsons’ trial lawyers have joined Florida-based firm Akerman, which has recently opened new offices in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and New Orleans.
The 10 attorneys who have started Parsons, McEntire, McCleary and Clark include David Clark, Roger McCleary, Kristen McDanald, Sawnie McEntire, Brandon Montminy, Jeffrey Parsons, Robert Rosenm Sarah Sparling, Ryan Starbird and David Walton.
“Starting Parsons, McEntire, McCleary and Clark PLLC allows us to best serve our clients’ needs and follow our vision for law firm management and direction,” McCleary, vice chairman and shareholder in the firm, told the Southeast Texas Record.
Parsons, McEntire, McCleary and Clark’s new practice will focus on trials, arbitrations, appeals and dispute resolution nationwide and in all forums, McCleary said.
McCleary said that after the dissolution of Beirne, Maynard and Parsons, other law firms recruited the firm’s attorneys.
“As a group we were determined to start our own firm,” McCleary said.
He said that the 10 attorneys that started the new boutique firm notified their former partners they would be leaving earlier this year.
“Our name shareholders were committed to starting our own law firm before Akerman was in the picture,” McCleary said of the firm that recruited 30 of his former co-workers.
He said Parsons, McEntire, McCleary and Clark has an incredible stable of experienced lawyers as well as young talent with excellent relationships and histories of successful case handling.
“We have a deep, extremely supportive client base and a nimble, focused organization. Naturally this combination makes it easy to be optimistic about our future and really fun to go to work every day,” McCleary said.
At Akerman, 21 partners, three of counsel and six associates have joined the firm.
Several of the 30 new attorneys will be located in Houston. Martin Beirne, Brit Brown, top executives at their former firm, will be based in Akerman’s Houston office as well as attorneys N. Terry Adams, Brian Bagley, Benjamin Escobar, Scott Marrs, Andrew McGill, Edward Murphy, Joseph Nixon, David Pluchinsky, James Rogers and W. Bruce Stanfill.
Trey Trainor, a partner, will work out of Akerman’s Austin. Dayna Blair, Lori Hanson, Laurence Kurth and Matthew Wymer will work in San Antonio and Thomas Louis Collletta, Patrick Johnson, Benjamin Slater and Brent Wyatt will work in New Orleans.
Akerman is a top 100 law firm in the United States with about 650 employees including 350 litigators in 24 offices across the country including Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas, Louisiana and the District of Columbia. The firm deals with middle market mergers and acquisitions within the financial and real estate sectors.