Five Lawyers Leave Wilke Fleury to Launch New Firm

Groups of lawyers breaking off from their parent law firms to form new business entities is something that we hear of quite frequently. However, in this case, it makes news because this is the first time in its 90-year history that Sacramento’s oldest law firm is witnessing such an event.

Five lawyers have left Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney, LLP together and opened their new law firm, Kennaday, Leavitt & Daponde PC this week at 500 Capitol Mall, Suite 2260. Besides the founding partners, Kelli Kennaday, Curtis Leavitt and Michael Daponde, other lawyers from Wilke Fleury include Kelly Ryan and Troy Szabo. Other lawyers who have joined the new law firm include Eunice Majam-Simpson, who left Nossaman LLP to join as senior counsel, and Nicole Moore who joined as an associate.

Ron Lamb, the managing partner of Wilke Fleury said the departure of the lawyer group “won’t mean a significant change… They decided they wanted to go in a different direction.” He added, “We still maintain a health care practice that’s unrivaled for depth and breadth in the region.” Wilke Fleury has 26 attorneys, and focuses its practice on real estate, insurance, bankruptcy, and healthcare. The firm handles issues in almost all aspects of health care practice including malpractice defense, regulatory compliance and employment litigation.

The group that broke off from Wilke Fleury is focused on health care and employment law, and the attorneys decided to go their own way to cash in on the huge changes in health care law and regulations ushered in by the Affordable Care Act.

Leavitt said to the media, “The ACA is a lifetime employment act for health care attorneys … If we are ever to do our own thing, the time is now.”

Summary:

Sacramento’s oldest law firm, Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney, LLP witnesses for the very first time in its 90-year history, a five lawyer group to quit together and launch a new law firm ‘Kennaday, Leavitt & Daponde PC.’ The group that broke off from Wilke Fleury was focused on health care and employment law. They have chosen to walk out to cash in on the huge opportunities opened up in health care under the Affordable Care Act, which Leavitt says, “is a lifetime employment act for health care attorneys.”