Michael Fitzgerald, the chairman of Milbank’s global securities, corporate and Latin American practice groups, has joined Dewey & LeBoeuf along with three partners and a team of associates — the latest high-profile lateral group to join Dewey this year.

Michael Fitzgerald, the chairman of the global securities, corporate and Latin American practice groups at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York, has joined Dewey & LeBoeuf along with three partners and a team of associates.

Dismantling a 90-lawyer law firm is a messy business, but firm leaders at Sacramento, Calif.’s McDonough Holland & Allen are hopeful that the firm can wind down its operations gracefully before its planned Sept. 1 dissolution.

Not only have the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves fueled legal work for litigators, land use and transactional attorneys alike, they have created movement in the lateral market as law firms look to build practices catering to the oil and gas industry’s interest in the reserves. One recent example of the spike in activity: Reed Smith, which has about a half-dozen lawyers, spread among three offices and numerous practice groups, focusing on Marcellus Shale-related work.

The Rodent describes how lawyers realized sometime in the 1990s that there was so much more to what they did than could be contained under the bland labels of the Corporate Department and Litigation Department, and thus practice groups were born, soon to be followed by turf wars.