Nixon Peabody, which late last year announced plans to double its size within five years, has begun making good on its big talk.

Nixon Peabody, which late last year announced plans to double its size within five years, has begun making good on its big talk.

Although the firm laid off 56 lawyers and support staff in February, more recently it has enjoyed a particularly dynamic spell.

In the past few weeks the firm has hired former US congressman Tom Reynolds as a senior strategic policy adviser along with his former chief of staff Sally Vastola.

Last week it announced it had created a new government relations and public policy practice off the back of Reynolds’ arrival.

Reynolds will help lead Nixon Peabody’s new group of lawyers and other advisers across its 17 offices while Richard Goldstein, a Washington DC-based partner and former congressional staff member, will head it.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that the government will be playing a pivotal role in our clients’ businesses in ways that we could not have imagined even months ago,” says Goldstein. “Tom’s track record and success in navigating the nation’s political landscape will enhance our new practice.”

Earlier this month Nixon Peabody appointed one of its recent hires, Greg O’Hara, as managing partner of its office in Silicon Valley.

But its moves this month are overshadowed by its hiring spree in March. Last month Nixon Peabody bucked the current market trend (and, indeed, its own) for layoffs by hiring Jonathan Redgrave, the former chair of litigation boutique Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner, along with his team.

The firm also hired six associates for its Rochester office, expanded its IP practice with the hire of partner Mark Halligan in Chicago from Lovells and boosted its government investigations and white collar defence practice with the addition of Edward O’Callaghan, a former assistant US attorney in New York.
Last month’s hires follow the bulk acquisition last year of more than 60 lawyers from dissolved firm Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner.

Internationally, Nixon Peabody also announced the launch of a South Asia practice in March, to be led by government investigations and white collar defence partner Anjali Chaturvedi.

The US firm has had a relatively low profile in Europe until recently. That changed last year when it raided the Paris office of Taylor Wessing for 25 lawyers including managing partner Arnaud de Senilhes.