Pillsbury swoops on Vinson & Elkins team

Pillsbury Winthrop has kick-started its new Houston office by taking on a team of lawyers from Vinson & Elkins.
Pillsbury, which is currently defending an embarrassing $45m (£28m) defamation suit brought by former partner Frode Jensen, has taken on three partners and two associates from Vinson & Elkins.
The new recruits will be joined by Jerry Ross, co-head of Pillsbury’s energy group, and real estate partner Laura Hannusch. Both are relocating from the firm’s San Francisco base.
The new office is part of Pillsbury’s aggressive expansion drive, which also includes bumping up its New York practice by recruiting employment lawyer Kenneth Taber and white collar crime specialist Maria Galenos from Salans.
The firm is continuing to grow despite making a small number of cutbacks and introducing a salary freeze.