Shook Hardy loses part of its tobacco practice

Part of Shook Hardy & Bacon’s famed tobacco practice is moving to a different law firm.

Hughes Hubbard & Reed, a New York-based firm, will open a Kansas City office to assume Shook’s defense work for Lorillard Tobacco.

Kansas City-based Shook retains Philip Morris USA, the industry’s dominant tobacco company best known for its Marlboro brand.

Industry insiders said the move reflected tobacco companies’ desire to be represented exclusively by their outside law firms rather than have a firm also represent an industry rival.

Lorillard and Philip Morris recently have taken different stances on how to respond to tighter regulatory controls by the Food and Drug Administration.

Eight Shook lawyers — six partners and two of counsel to the firm — will move to the Hughes firm, effective Jan. 1.

Hughes will open in the 2345 Grand Blvd. building, about a block from the Shook office tower at Crown Center.

Shook managing partner John Murphy said 17 or 18 staff members also would make the move. The firm did not name the lawyers who will follow the Lorillard business.

It will take until about June 30 for Shook to completely wind down all of its Lorillard work, Murphy said.

The move of Lorillard, which makes Kent, Newport and other cigarette brands, was first reported online by Am Law Daily.

Murphy said Shook had been successful at trial in representing Philip Morris in “significantly more cases” than Lorillard. He declined to compare or quantify the size of the business that Shook did with the two tobacco giants.

Shook’s size and reputation have grown over the years partly because of its products liability litigation work for tobacco companies.

This will be the first Midwest expansion for the Hughes firm, which also has offices in Los Angeles; Miami; Washington, D.C.; Paris; and Tokyo. It has about 300 lawyers in all.