National law firm recruits Atlanta partners to open Midtown office

Saul Ewing, a national law firm with more than 450 lawyers, has opened an Atlanta office with local senior attorneys who say they were lured away from several of the city’s prominent law firms by the opportunity to build something from the ground up.

The new office, in Midtown’s Promenade Central building, starts with five partners and several support staff. It will quickly grow as Saul Ewing recruits more local talent, the firm’s managing partner, Jason St. John, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“This office will be comprised of Georgians and local folks who know the market,” he said. “We are committed to significant growth here.”

The full-service firm poached three top Atlanta lawyers from large global law firms Holland & Knight and Squire Patton Boggs, as well as Arnall Golden Gregory, a firm with more than 200 lawyers in Atlanta and Washington.

Saul Ewing’s expansion, announced Sept. 15, is part of steady growth in Atlanta’s legal market, fueled by the city’s robust economy.

The firm now has 18 offices nationwide, mostly in the Northeast. In the Southeast, its other offices are in South Florida. It has been three years since the firm last opened a new office, in California.

St. John, based in the firm’s Baltimore office, said Atlanta is an obvious place for the firm to be, considering, among other things, the needs of its clients. He said the firm has handled hundreds of client matters in Georgia, where some of the leading industries align with the firm’s strengths.

St. John, who has led the firm since 2022, said its Atlanta office will be full service, with attorneys and professionals in a range of practice areas.

Saul Ewing already had complex litigation partner Steven Reingold working remotely in Atlanta, where he relocated in 2022 from Boston. Reingold, approaching his 10-year anniversary at the firm, is now the managing partner of the new Atlanta office.

“I am so excited to see what we’re going to build,” he told the AJC. “I have great visions for this office. I think we all do.”

Reingold is joined in Atlanta by Patrick Tracey, a Saul Ewing partner who represents clients in the consumer financial services industry and has relocated from the firm’s Boston office. Tracey said the transition has been seamless.

The three other founding partners of the Atlanta office are local lawyers who left their respective firms in the city.

Saul Ewing's Atlanta staff includes (back row, from left) office managing partner Steven Reingold, office manager Janette Lischner, partners Patrick Tracey and Peter Hall, and (bottom row, left) receptionist Ashley Gresham. They were joined at the office opening this month by Jason St. John, the firm's managing partner, and Leslie Gross, its director of communications. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Scott Rafshoon, who specializes in project finance involving public-private partnerships, moved from Squire Patton Boggs, where he spent almost seven years. He told the AJC this is the first time in his 30-year career in Atlanta that he gets to help launch an office and “grow something from the ground up.”

“That was the piece of it that drew me in,” he said. “Then I had to make sure it was a good fit for my practice. And it was a really good fit.”

Environmental law specialist Rebecca Davis, who has a litigation and transactional practice, left Arnall Golden Gregory, where she had spent several years.

And litigator Peter Hall joined Saul Ewing from Holland & Knight, where he spent six years. He also said the chance to help build Saul Ewing’s latest office was a major drawing card.