UK insurance law firm Kennedys has added a veteran commercial litigator from US firm White and Williams to open in Wilmington, Delaware.

Marc Casarino has come aboard to lead the launch of the office, the firm’s eighth in the US and 43rd globally, after more than two decades at White and Williams.

Kennedys’ senior US partner, Christopher Carroll, attributed the firm’s latest expansion to growing client need and the importance of the Delaware courts, with US senior partner Meg Catalano pointing to Casarino’s “impressive track record in growing a practice in this field”.

Casarino joined White and Williams, which has more than 200 lawyers across 10 US offices and another in Tianjin, back in 1999 and managed a broad commercial litigation practice there as a partner.

He advises clients on Delaware commercial and business entity law, corporate governance, stockholder rights, partnership conflicts, employment issues and commercial real estate transactions, and is experienced in corporate restructuring, reorganisation and bankruptcy matters. He brings first-chair trial experience before all of the Delaware state and federal courts to his new firm, as well as in handling appeals to the Delaware Supreme Court and Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  

The Delaware office will initially house Casarino and two associates who have moved over from White & Williams with him, with a firm spokesperson saying the office will grow as needed ‘to accommodate Kennedys’ expanding client relationships.’

‘Over Marc’s more than two decades of litigating business disputes and insurance coverage matters he has developed a strong client following among insurance carriers and other commercial enterprises. The Kennedys’ platform will allow Marc to further develop business opportunities within and beyond Delaware,’ the firm said.

Casarino said he was “delighted to join Kennedys at such an exciting time,” adding that he already knows a number of his new colleagues having worked for them as Delaware counsel.

The Delaware launch follows Kennedys adding four partners from US firm Hinshaw & Culbertson to open its seventh US office in San Francisco 18 months ago.

In the interim the London-based firm, which last July posted record revenue of £264m for the 2020/21 financial year, has added offices around the globe including in October 2020 in Tel Aviv when it signed up four-partner boutique Zelichov Ben-Dan & Co. Last May the firm also hired a team of insurance lawyers from Clyde & Co to launch in Perth and in June relocated insurance, construction and disputes partner Jamie Kellick from Dubai to open its second office in the Middle East in Oman.

More recently the firm hired leading UK data specialist Antonio Acuña MBE for the newly-created role of head of data strategy, as part of a bid to improve its use of data for business intelligence purposes.

Kennedys also became one of a number of international law firms to announce it was closing its office in Moscow in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the firm’s senior partner, Nick Thomas, saying it had been winding down its small Moscow arm since last year as it was “uncomfortable with the direction the country was taking”.

Other UK firms to signal the closure of their Moscow shops include Norton Rose Fulbright and Linklaters, which have 50 and 70 lawyers in the city respectively, while CMS said it had put its office there ‘under critical review’. Swedish firm Mannheimer Swartling also said last week it had relocated all of its Swedish lawyers based in Moscow ahead of plans to exit the Russian legal market altogether.