National US law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough has added a six-lawyer litigation team from boutique London Fischer to open a new office in Los Angeles.  

The office will be in downtown Los Angeles and the firm’s second in the city after its base in Torrance, which focuses on the automotive industry.  

The team from London Fischer has joined Nelson Mullin’s 150-lawyer product liability team, with partners Keith Ameele and Pete Mularczyk moving over in Los Angeles alongside a pair of senior associates and partner Erika Muse and of counsel Madelyn Iulo joining in New York.  

“We are excited to welcome this group of experienced litigators to our litigation practice and the firm’s new office in Los Angeles,” said Nelson Mullins managing partner Jim Lehman. “This group will bring additional depth to our products liability practice and expand our breadth on both coasts.”

The incoming partners joined London Fischer early last year from defence law firm Foley Mansfield.  

Ameele led London Fischer’s Los Angeles office and brings more than two decades of litigation experience to Nelson Mullins. He focuses on high-stakes products liability, complex mass torts, premises liability and commercial litigation, while Mularczyk is a former federal and state prosecutor who defends clients in matters involving commercial litigation, product liability and toxic torts and mass torts.  

Meantime Muse chaired the talc litigation group at Foley Mansfield and focuses her practice on complex litigation in state and federal courts. She serves as a dedicated advocate for national and international corporations working in industries including industrials, automotive and construction.

The team’s arrival follows Nelson Mullins boosting its litigation bench with the hire of new partners Robin Nunn from Linklaters in New York and Washington DC and Jennifer Park in Chicago from Foley & Lardner. Nunn focuses on regulatory, enforcement and complex civil litigation matters, while Park’s practice covers commercial litigation matters, including securities and healthcare litigation.  

Columbia, South Carolina-based Nelson Mullins has grown headcount 3% in the past year to just north of 1,000 lawyers and pulled in revenue of $792.0m in 2023 according to data from the American Lawyer, placing it 65th on the Am Law 200 rankings. Profit per equity partner stood at $1.67m.  

The new Los Angeles office will be the firm’s 32nd in the US, most of which are on the Eastern Seaboard and in the Southeast, including nine across Florida the firm added in 2018 through its merger with local powerhouse Broad and Cassel.  

Other law firms have been boosting their litigation benches in Los Angeles recently. Earlier this month Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo added partner Siegmund Gutman and a counsel in the city from Proskauer Rose as part of a 10-strong life sciences patent litigation team that also joined in Boston and New York.  

Meantime in February Paul Weiss made its first litigation hire for its recently-launched Los Angeles office when it secured Dechert’s mass tort co-head, Kimberly Branscome.  

And late last year Willkie Farr & Gallagher hired Google’s former litigation counsel, Michael Rome, in Los Angeles and San Francisco as a member of its investigations and enforcement practice.