Latham & Watkins launched its Boston office a little more than a year ago with just seven lateral attorneys. After Tuesday’s addition of former Goodwin Procter litigation partners Kenneth Parsigian, Gwyn Williams, and William “B.J.” Trach, the office’s lawyer head count has swelled to 27.
Parsigian—whose practice focuses on product liability matters and class actions and whom Latham is installing as the chair of its Boston litigation department—brings with him two key clients: Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, and Altria spinoff Philip Morris International. He has served as lead counsel for the tobacco industry giants in dozens of mass tort and RICO suits going back more than a decade. Last year, sibling publication The Am Law Litigation Daily named Parsigian a Litigator of the Week for successfully defending Philip Morris USA in what began as a multibillion-dollar lawsuit brought by the City of St. Louis and dozens of hospitals against multiple tobacco companies over the cost of treating patients with smoking-related illnesses. (Parsigian is not the only Latham litigator with Philip Morris ties. Washington, D.C., litigation partner Allen Gardner recently won a pair of jury verdicts on behalf of Philip Morris USA in California state court in Los Angeles, according to his Latham bio.)
