Dechert closed its Chicago office in 2024. In January it opened again, for a disputes group. That is the hire we would start with.

Mike Poulos brought more than twenty lawyers from McDermott Will & Schulte. He joins Dechert as vice chair. The practice is complex litigation, with accounting defence in it, and class action, labour and employment, and IP around it. An office that could not justify itself two years ago is being reopened because this group is expected to. We have not seen a Chicago launch this year built so squarely on disputes. Simpson Thacher’s August opening, five Kirkland private-equity partners led by Ryan Harris, is the one people have talked about. Different practice. Same pressure on the local firms, who now have another New York platform in the city with a rate card and, for the moment, no disputes bench of its own.

Quinn Emanuel added Sean Suber on 21 September, from Winston Taylor. Trial and appellate, class-action defence, product, mass tort, consumer. Law.com read it against those August openings and said the competition for Chicago litigators was picking up while the national lateral market was being called near a peak. That feels right from where we sit. The partner calls we are getting are not for a general commercial lawyer to fill a gap. They are for someone who has stood up in a class or a product case, or for an accounting-liability partner whose clients will move with them. IP comes up where the person can actually speak to software or life sciences. A CV of supporting roles on other people’s trials is not what these offices are paying for.

The associate side has been busy for longer than the headlines. Lateral Link had 1,023 lawyers joining Am Law 200 and leading midsize firms in Chicago in 2025, roughly a quarter up, and 222 in the first quarter of this year. Commercial litigation and IP, including AI and life sciences, were still among the open seats. Dorsey opened in November 2025 with commercial litigation in the mix. Akin’s opening the month before was funds and infrastructure, not disputes, and is part of the same inbound set.

Our view, from the mandates in front of us, is that Chicago hiring through the first half of 2027 splits in two. Corporate and funds will stay noisy because of Simpson Thacher,

and because anyone who lost a private-equity partner to that group will try to replace them, usually with people who already sit together. Disputes is the quieter search, and it is following the same shape. Dechert did not reopen Chicago for one trial lawyer. A new office cannot send a Chicago case to New York forever, and a partner without a small team does not fix that. We expect the next disputes hires to be a partner plus two or three, not another group of twenty: class and product, accounting liability, and IP litigation with a life-sciences or software file. Associates follow once that group is in, mostly at three to six years. Kirkland, Sidley, Winston and Jenner will hold the people they rate. They will not hold every team that gets an offer. That is where the incoming firms are hiring.