International law firm expands Boise office and establishes new Chicago firm

Two new partners in Boise and three in Chicago are helping one law firm increase its ability to serve clients in the trust and estate planning, litigation and other areas of practice.

Dorsey & Whitney, established in 1912 and with offices across the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, recently established a 22nd location in Chicago with five attorneys and expanded its Boise location with two new partners.

The international firm represents companies from different industries, including banking and financial institutions, development and infrastructure, energy and natural resources, agribusiness, health care and others.

In Boise, Deborah Dunn and Bruce Pinegar have joined the firm as partners. Dunn has ties to the Chicago location, “practicing for 16 years at the city’s largest law firm, where she met Domingo [Such] and Lucy [Park], and she works closely with the Chicago team.”

Dunn advises high-net-worth families and family offices, owners of closely held businesses, and she drafts complex estate plans.

Pinegar “regularly drafts and implements wealth transfer transactions, such as grantor-retained annuity trusts, sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and gifts to generation-skipping dynasty trusts.” He was formerly a partner of Perkins Coie.

“The team of Domingo Such, Lucy Park, Debbie Dunn, Mitch Meneau and Bruce Pinegar is an international powerhouse in supporting family offices and trust and estate clients. Jose Lopez and Geof Vance are leading litigators both nationally and internationally,” said Peter Nelson, managing partner at Dorsey & Whitney. “Opening an office in Chicago is an exciting development for Dorsey. These seven partners have been friends and colleagues for decades, and I cannot imagine a better group of partners to establish our Chicago presence and expand our Boise office.”

The firm plans to hire more attorneys for its Chicago practice, which is consistent with its growth strategies it stated. In recent years, it established the Boise office along with offices in Dallas and Phoenix.

“Dorsey has long had a top-rated trust and estate practice, centered in our Minneapolis and Seattle offices,” Nelson added. “This team of five personal planning partners adds several new dimensions to Dorsey’s practice, in particular the strength of the family office practice, and we are confident that Dorsey’s existing platform will be of great benefit to the group’s client base. In addition to their work supporting family office clients in a variety of contested matters and litigation roles, Jose and Geof are outstanding additions to Dorsey’s commercial litigation, securities litigation and enforcement, and government investigations teams.”