Latham Snags Co-Head of Goodwin’s Capital Markets Practice

Latham & Watkins is poised to pick up Rick Kline, co-chair of Goodwin Procter’s capital markets practice, in California, according to several sources with knowledge of the move.

Kline is also a partner in Goodwin’s technology practice in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. He specializes in corporate and securities law with a focus on capital markets transactions and public company representation.

Latham did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Kline could not be reached to comment on his move.

Kline joined Goodwin in 2011 from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and since has led on some of the most recent high-profile tech IPOs. He and his team represented JP Morgan as an underwriter in Lyft’s $2.6 billion IPO in 2019 and Morgan Stanley in Snap Inc.’s $3.4 billion IPO in 2017.

He also led the legal team handling Slack Technologies Inc.’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2019.

Latham advised Slack’s financial associate financial advisors on the Slack direct listing.

Kline has also represented public company clients like Atlassian, Control4, Guidewire Software, Health Catalyst, NetSuite, Okta, Opower, and The Trade Desk.

Kline’s move to Latham was brokered by Sabina Lippman, partner and co-founder of global legal recruitment firm Lippman Jungers Bala.

Latham, which recently named 33 new partners, and reportedly gave lawyers “pandemic” bonuses,has been adding to its ranks in recent months.

Last week the firm said it had added an up and coming sports partner from Proskauer Rose, Frank Saviano.

In August the firm hired Katharine Moir, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s West Coast tax practice leader, to its tax department in the Bay Area. Private equity partner Eric Schwartzman rejoined Latham in July from Cooley as a partner in its M&A and private equity practices in San Francisco and Menlo Park.

The firm also added Michael Bosworth, former deputy White House counsel, to its white-collar defense and investigations practice in New York over the summer.

Goodwin recently lost a duo of U.S. privacy and security lawyers to Dechert. It has also made additions, including in London, where the firm earlier the fall picked up a group of five private equity partners from Sidley Austin, as part of a push to build up that practice.

The Bay Area has always been a destination for some Big Law firms, but several have made new efforts to grow there recently. London-founded Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer opened an office in Silicon Valley in July, hiring five partners from Davis Polk & Wardwell, Latham & Watkins, Sidley Austin and Wilson Sonsini.

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison is reportedly looking to launch a new office in the tech-rich region, following its hires of star litigators Karen Dunn and Bill Isaacson from Boies Schiller Flexner in June.

Roy Strom contributed to this report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meghan Tribe in New York at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebekah Mintzer at [email protected]; Tom P. Taylor at [email protected]

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