The law firm of Hogan Lovells LLP is planning to open a new office in Minneapolis, where two lawyers will be rejoining the firm after sharing the lead duties with the legal department at UnitedHealth Group, according to Bloomberg.
UnitedHealth Group’s Optum was led by corporate lawyer Christopher J. Walsh. He served as the company’s executive vice president and general counsel and as the chief legal officer of Optum, which is a health-services business.
At UnitedHealth Group, Mitchell E. Zamoff worked as the executive vice president and general counsel as well as the executive vice president and chief legal officer for UnithedHealthcare, the health-benefits business for the company.
Zamoff took care of government and internal investigations, compliance and regulatory issues and litigation. Walsh was in charge of reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets and employment, according to the law firm. The two were in charge of the company’s legal department during the health-care reform debate and the eventual passing of the Affordable Care Act.
Walsh worked for the Denver office of predecessor law firm Hogan & Hartson from the year of 2000 to 2007. He will be joining the corporate practice group for Hogan Lovells. Zamoff worked in the Washington office as a partner and is the former director of the litigation practice group and deputy chairman of the law firm’s white-collar and government investment group.
Norm Coleman, who is currently working in the firm’s Washington office, will be added to the Minneapolis office. Coleman served as a senator from 2003 to 2009 from Minnesota.
“We are focused on Minneapolis because it is a dynamic market, and home to more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies as well as several of our largest clients,” the firm said in an e- mail. “While we don’t yet have an office in the city, we are exploring space and expect to secure a more permanent location in the coming months.”
There are over 2,400 lawyers working in 40 offices for the law firm of Hogan Lovells.
In other law firm news, SNR Denton LLP’s former litigation partner Tony L. Richardson, has been appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Richardson was sworn into the court on December 31.
Richardson worked in the Los Angeles office of SNR Denton as a litigation and arbitration partner. Richardson worked in private practice for over 25 years after he clerked for U.S. District Judge David W. Williams. SNR Denton is joining Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain to form Denton, which will employ more than 2,500 lawyers in 79 locations across 52 countries.