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Attorneys Mick Hoffman and Steve Rasmussen Featured in the Portland Business Journal

1.13.2012

New year brings personnel changes at big law firms 
Portland Business Journal
Date: Friday, January 6, 2012, 3:00am PST

The beginning of the new year has been marked by a number of prominent attorneys changing law firms.
Most dramatically, Stoel Rives LLP beefed up its Portland labor and employment practice group by adding three Barran Liebman LLP attorneys to its partner roster. Brenda Baumgart, Todd Hanchett and Karen O’Connor, joined Stoel Rives on Jan. 1.

Stoel Rives is the city’s largest law firm, according to the Business Journal’s Book of Lists. It has 156 local lawyers.

Smith Freed & Eberhard PC also announced Wednesday that Mick Hoffman and Stephen Rasmussen would join the firm as partners. Both come from Hoffman Hart & Wagner LLP, where Hoffman was a founding partner.

The moves cap a busy week in which at least five firms promoted attorneys:

• Davis Wright Tremaine LLP promoted litigator Bill Miner to partner.
• Gregory Powell became chairman of Tonkon Torp LLP’s financial services practice group.
• Landye Bennett Blumstein LLP announced associates Jason Wright and Jennifer Gates will become partners.
• Daniel Webert and Justin Leonard, experts in construction and bankruptcy, respectively, were named Ball Janik LLP partners.
• Stoel Rives also promoted associates Sean Gay, Eric Kodesh and Geoffrey Tichenor to partner roles.

Victor Kisch, a partner in Stoel Rives’ labor and employment group, isn’t sure why so many firms are making personnel moves.

He said Stoel is adding lawyers to help clients face more employment issues. Stoel’s Portland labor and employment lawyer roster has grown from 11 last year to 15 today.

“It’s a hot area of the law. It’s growing, and it has been for years,” Kisch said. “There have been a lot of laws enacted over the last 10 years, like the Family Medical Leave Act. The disability act and the civil rights act are always being amended.”

Paula Barran, Barran Liebman’s managing partner, said her firm will replace the departed attorneys. She also plans to expand the firm’s 17-lawyer base. Most of the departed attorneys’ business will remain on Barran’s books.

“We’ll miss our friends who’ve left, but they have the chance to work at Stoel Rives, which is a great firm,” Barran said. “This is part of a cycle. We train people well, and you go into that figuring that other places will want to recruit them. Most of the folks here came from other firms.”

Full version of the article can be found on the Portland Business Journal’s website 

— Contributed by Andy Giegerich and and Matthew Kish.

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