Jeffrey Steiner and seven corporate and finance partners have jumped from Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner to DLA Piper, writes the National Law Journal.

Steiner is the third name partner to defect from the ailing law firm in recent months, with Richard Raysman leaving the law firm earlier this month, following the departure in June of Peter Brown.

In 2006, San Francisco's Thelen Reid & Priest merged with New York's Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner to give the merged law firm a bicoastal presence.

Also earlier this month, four energy and project finance partners decamped to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The seven partners moving with Steiner to DLA Piper are Marc Friedman; Jason Goldstein; R. Kenneth MacCallum; Robert Mower; Rand Peppas; Robert Unger; and Scott Weinberg.

Except for Mower and Friedman, who will practice from DLA's London location, all will join the law firm's New York office. They are expected to start in September. Steiner will become co-chairman of DLA Piper's US finance group.

The news of Steiner's move on Monday (25 August) was followed by a press release from Thelen Reid, announcing that it was shortening its legal name to Thelen, effective Sept. 9.

"The name change... will better reflect the firm's 80-year history as one of the world's premier law firms," the press release stated. The release did not mention the departure of the name partners. The firm said that the name change was part of last year's decision to implement a new "Thelen" logo for purposes of branding and marketing.

Steiner was chairman of Thelen Reid's real estate practice and co-chairman of its business and finance practice. He represents investment banks and institutional lenders in structured finance transactions, with an emphasis on real estate. The group of attorneys also focuses on workouts and restructuring.

Thelen Reid was not immediately available for comment.

More US news, comment and analysis