In the largest legal split in the Sacramento region in more than ten years, ten health care lawyers will leave McDonough Holland & Allen PC – the second-largest local law firm in Sacramento – for the Sacramento office of DLA Piper.
Four secretaries and three paralegals are expected to follow.
The people leaving McDonough are health care litigators with expertise in managed care, headed by Steve Goff. This includes all the lawyers in the health care litigation section except Richard Brandt, McDonough managing partner Ed Quinn confirmed Thursday morning.
To assist in building a health care practice nationwide, DLA Piper hired former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office late last year. In December, the firm brought Daschle and Goff together.
“Tom Daschle is a guy who can get me involved in the health care debate at a much higher level than I ever could before,” Goff said. “I really like it here (at McDonough) but figured if I don’t take the leap, I probably won’t get the opportunity again.”
The Sacramento office of DLA Piper has been looking for the right group to help expand the local office for some time, managing partner Gilles Attia said.
“Steve and Marcia (Augsburger) and their team are a great fit for us,” Attia said. “Health care is a very important issue in our economy today and an area of great interest for us.”
DLA Piper became one of the largest legal service providers in the world in 2005 through a merger of unprecedented scope in the legal sector. DLA Piper has 3,500 lawyers in 67 offices in 29 countries. Clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies.