CHICAGO - Prominent bond attorney Robert Star is leaving Chicago-based Katten Muchin & Zavis early next year to join the new Chicago office of the Omaha-based firm of Kutak Rock, becoming the third Katten lawyer to make the switch.
Already at Kutak Rock Illinois, which opened in July, are former Katten lawyers Jerry Wallack, who heads the office, and Kevin Barney.
Lewis Greenbaum, head of Katten's public finance unit, said he was sorry to lose Star, but he stressed that the moves to Kutak did not mean that Katten will have a decreased presence in public finance.
"We're doing what we've always done," said Greenbaum. "We have $800 million worth of deals that will close in the first quarter of the year." Greenbaum noted that Katten has 14 public finance lawyers, and the unit plans to add one or two additional attorneys early next year.
Veteran bond attorney Raymond Fricke left Katten to join Ungaretti & Harris in October, 1999.
When the Chicago office opened this summer, Kutak senior partner John Wagner commented that Katten's emphasis is more on corporate law, and that Kutak is attractive to bond attorneys because its main emphasis is public finance.
Katten Muchin had ranked 87th nationally in public finance in 1999, compared to 34th in 1998, according to Thomson Financial Securities Data. The firm rose to 47th in the year to date. The ranking is due in part to major local issues in which Star was involved. It is unclear whether any of those issuers, who have long-standing relationships with Katten Muchin, would move their work over to Kutak.
But Greenbaum said that national rankings are misleading, since they do not measure such factors as secondary market work, tax advice, and reinvestment of bond proceeds. The statistics also vary from year to year, and do not consider issue size, Greenbaum said. "We're doing large issues," Greenbaum noted.
Star, Wallack, and Barney had come to Katten in 1987 from the disbanded firm of Borge and Pitt. Greenbaum noted that there was logic to Star joining Wallack at Kutak, since they had worked together for so many years.
Other attorneys at the new Kutak Rock office include Brendan M. Cournane, Dennis L. Holsapple, and Raymond S. McGaugh. Cournane had also previously worked at Borge and Pitt.
