Jenner & Block has hired a team of five mass torts lawyers in Chicago from Mayer Brown.

The group is led by partners Richard Bulger and Daniel Ring, who will co-chair Jenner’s mass torts and product liability practice alongside current Jenner partners Dean Panos and Joanna Wright. 

The incoming team, which also includes partner Priya Desai and special counsel Tyler Alfermann and Daniel Rottenberg, has acted for American manufacturing conglomerate 3M across the US in cases relating to PFAS, or “forever chemicals”. 

Jenner said the team’s hire meant it could handle all stages of complex multi-jurisdictional litigation, from pre-complaint investigation to global resolution.

“This is a transformational moment for companies as they seek a full complement of problem solvers to take on the ever-increasing range of complex, high-stakes legal challenges they face,” said Jenner co-managing partners Ishan Bhabha and Randy Mehrberg. “Adding leaders of Rich and Dan’s calibre, along with their team, builds on our foundation and expands Jenner & Block’s ability to fully serve clients at the highest levels in mass tort and product liability litigation.”

Bulger has joined after more than 27 years at Mayer Brown. His practice includes regulatory compliance and transactional environmental work, experience Jenner said made him “uniquely positioned to advise clients on the intersection of environmental law and mass tort exposure”.

Meanwhile, Ring has spent the past 30 years at Mayer Brown, where he co-led the product liability and mass torts practice. He is lead counsel for 3M in one of the most significant multidistrict litigation cases in the US, with more than 19,000 personal injury cases, property damage and remediation claims, class actions and Attorney General actions.

“We wish our former colleagues well,” a Mayer Brown spokesman said in a statement.

Kirkland & Ellis has also been investing in its mass torts practice this year, hiring a 13-partner team across the US in May from King & Spalding and adding a five-partner team from Skadden in January led by renowned trial lawyer Allison Brown.