Trial litigation boutique Murphy Rosen & Meylan LLP announced today that Vincent J. Davitt has joined the firm as a partner.  He is bringing with him senior litigation associates Anita Jain and Sharon Corda.  They were all formerly at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP’s Los Angeles office. 

According to Murphy Rosen’s managing partner, Paul Murphy, “When it comes to bringing in lateral partners, we have a very short list of people we are targeting.  Vince and his group were on that list.  As soon as we found out he was amenable to making a change, we jumped at it.” 

Davitt practiced at Dewey & LeBoeuf for nineteen years, the last twelve years as a partner.  He specializes in insurance, reinsurance and commercial disputes.  Among his recent accomplishments, Davitt secured a $49.7 recovery on a cross-complaint for his client, Argonaut Insurance Company, against the Los Angeles County MTA, in a case where the MTA was seeking over $100 million in compensatory damages and hundreds of millions more in bad faith and punitive damages.  Davitt also recently obtained a $10 million award on behalf of a Fortune 500 client in a commercial arbitration.

Legal recruiter Rick Kolodny, president of a leading partner placement firm The Portfolio Group, who was not involved in the move, had this to say:  “I think it’s a great move.  Murphy, Rosen & Meylan is a young, dynamic litigation boutique.  Davitt brings a strong insurance litigation practice with good institutional clients to the new firm.  In this economy, it’s nice to see firms like this really seizing the opportunity and taking advantage of the problems many of the big firms are now facing.  This firm fits Davitt very well and should give him the flexibility to really expand his practice.  It’s a classic win-win.”

Davitt and his group will be joining the firm immediately.  “It was a great two decades at Dewey & LeBoeuf, but it’s time for a change.  I am very excited about my new firm and the new opportunities it’s already creating for me.”  He indicated that he has started to call his clients and they are fully supportive of him move and he expects them to come with him. “My clients are happy, the firm is happy, and I am happy,” he added.