Miles & Stockbridge Opens New Office with Highly-Regarded Litigation Team Formerly from LeClairRyan

Miles & Stockbridge, a leading business law firm with more than 230 lawyers in the mid-Atlantic region, announced that it is opening an office in Richmond, Virginia. The office will be built around a deeply experienced litigation team from Richmond-based LeClairRyan.

The team will be led by prominent trial lawyer Thomas M. Wolf. Honored in The Best Lawyers in America^©2020 in Richmond for preeminence in commercial litigation, construction law and construction litigation, Wolf has won several multi-million-dollar jury verdicts, including one in excess of $100 million; been first chair in billion-dollar construction cases; served as lead counsel in complex litigation in 25 states; and won landmark cases involving corporate governance and the First Amendment. He is an adjunct professor of Construction Law at the University of Richmond School of Law; past president of the International Alliance of Law Firms; and served on Governor Tim Kaine’s Transition Committee and on the Board of Commissioners of the Virginia Port Authority.

Joining Wolf as a principal is Gretchen C. Byrd. Three other lawyers are joining from LeClairRyan: Joseph M. Rainsbury as counsel, Kenneth T. Stout as an associate and Jason F. Goldsmith as a law graduate.

The team also will include John “Jack” MacDonald Robb III, who is joining as a principal. Robb is a former LeClairRyan partner who has spent the last two years as chief operating officer and chief legal officer of HMR Funding LLC in Richmond. Two more Richmond lawyers and a law graduate are expected to join as well.

In addition, Carl R. Schwertz will now reside in the firm’s new Richmond office. A Richmond litigator, Schwertz joined the Miles & Stockbridge Tysons office nine years ago after serving as managing director of Duane, Hauck & Gnapp, P.C. Schwertz focuses his practice on products liability and mass torts and has tried more than 200 cases to verdict in his career.

The office will be located downtown in the SunTrust Center while the location of permanent space is confirmed, designed and built out to accommodate this group and additional anticipated growth.

“We are thrilled to be building our first office in Richmond around this highly-regarded team of lawyers for whom Richmond has been their home base,” said Nancy W. Greene, chairman of Miles & Stockbridge. “They join us from a unique situation, and we are well positioned to support their transition and that of their clients. We have been working on a Richmond expansion for some time as a natural next step for our practices, our mid-Atlantic footprint, and our value proposition. In Greater D.C., we are recruiting lateral lawyers whose practices are being priced out of the market, and we think Richmond is well suited for our model as well.”

Lawyers in the Richmond office will cover the full breadth of business litigation needs, while also bringing a focus on commercial matters, construction, real estate land use and zoning, products liability and mass torts, corporate governance, financial services, intellectual property, and international law. They join a team of more than 120 litigators across the firm.

“Miles & Stockbridge is a perfect fit for our team—the sophistication and expertise of a big firm, with the small-firm collegiality and professional dedication I have come to love in the practice of law,” said Thomas M. Wolf, who will lead the Richmond office.

Miles & Stockbridge’s commitment to the mid-Atlantic region is longstanding. Founded in Baltimore in 1932, the firm has four offices across Maryland and offices in Washington, D.C. and Tysons, Virginia, in addition to the new Richmond office.

“We are elated that the next step in our firm’s expansion is taking place in Virginia,” said Jeffrey S. Poretz, managing principal of Miles & Stockbridge’s Tysons office. “This Richmond team brings experience and practices that are very well matched to our firm’s work in the region and across the country, and we look forward to working together.”

About Miles & Stockbridge in Greater D.C.

Miles & Stockbridge has worked in the Greater Washington area for decades. It has more than 70 lawyers in its Washington, D.C., Tysons, Virginia and Rockville, Maryland offices. Since January 2018, the firm has added 19 lateral lawyers in Greater D.C. In total, more than 230 Miles & Stockbridge lawyers work in these offices and three others in Baltimore, Frederick and Easton, Maryland.

Miles & Stockbridge opened its Washington, D.C. office at 1801 K Street NW in February 2012. Sixteen months later, the firm doubled its footprint with a move to 1667 K Street and doubled its space again in 2015 with its move to 1500 K Street. In April 2019, the D.C. office moved to 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, a newly renovated, Class-A office building at the Metro Center stop.

The D.C. office focuses on financial services, public finance, real estate development, construction, environmental, nonprofit, government contracts, intellectual property, and manufacturing industries. Additionally, specific lawyer strengths in international family law and international child abduction matters, energy, education, and consumer product safety have been a good fit in the region.

The Tysons office provides representation in the areas of corporate, securities, intellectual property, civil litigation, bankruptcy and creditors rights, commercial transactions, real estate and government contracts to a variety of international, national and local clients, from sole proprietorships and growing technology companies to Fortune 100 companies.