June 16, 2015 – Reed Smith LLP today announced the addition of Martin J. Bishop and four other members of his litigation team at Foley & Lardner to its U.S. Commercial Litigation practice in Chicago.

Bishop, Rebecca Hanson and Thomas Hardy join Reed Smith as partners; Meredith Shippee and Alexandra Lucas join the firm as associates.

“Marty and his experienced group of litigators will significantly expand our national managed care litigation team,” said Raymond A. Cardozo, chair of Reed Smith’s Litigation Department. “However, he also has a robust practice in the consumer financial services sector, which is a core practice for Reed Smith; adding his team to Reed Smith will be a great benefit to a broad range of the firm’s clients.”

Formerly firmwide vice chair of litigation and co-chair of Foley’s Consumer Financial Services Practice, Bishop is admitted to practice in Illinois, Florida and Texas, and has been recognized by Chambers and Partners USA for his national commercial litigation results.

“Reed Smith has exceptionally strong national managed care and commercial litigation capabilities, as well as a very strong and increasing presence in Texas, which is a key market for our group’s most significant and valued clients,” said Bishop. “Combining Reed Smith’s practice with ours will create a national litigation powerhouse in the managed care sector.”

An accomplished trial attorney, Bishop is also well-known for defending against consumer class actions, including those brought against financial institutions, which has long been a core practice at Reed Smith.

A 1999 graduate of Boston University Law School, he is the founder and a regular editor and contributor to the CFSL Bulletin, a blog focused on legal developments in consumer financial services litigation, and a member of the editorial board of Law360’s Privacy & Consumer Protection. Last year Bishop, with Hanson and Hardy, authored a treatise that provides an overview of federal laws governing unfair, deceptive and abusive acts in consumer financing titled, “Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices,” published by Bloomberg BNA’s Banking Practice Portfolio. Marty’s civic activities include having served as president and a member of the board of HotHouse, a jazz club in the South Loop that became one of Chicago’s most storied and diverse cultural arts centers, and as a board member of the Lawyers for the Creative Arts.

Hanson, formerly senior counsel at Foley, received her B.A. from Macalester College and a Master’s degree from Georgetown University before earning her J.D., with honors, in 2006 from the University of Chicago Law School. Her practice focuses on complex general commercial litigation, class actions, health care and ERISA litigation, consumer financial services litigation, and trade secrets claims. She was named an Illinois Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2014 and 2015. Prior to attending law school, Hanson served as an Afghanistan analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency. Following 9/11, she was invited by the President’s Envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq to serve as the associate director for Afghanistan, Islamic Outreach, and Southwest Asia Initiatives at the National Security Council at the White House. During that time she traveled extensively in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, and took part in negotiations with heads of state and other leaders regarding United States post-9/11 foreign policy.

Hardy, also formerly senior counsel at Foley, received his B.A. from Washington University, St. Louis and graduated from the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in 2007. His experience includes litigating creditor’s rights cases in federal and state courts, as well as claims and defenses under the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Law, Interest Act, and Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act. He publishes often on topics related to financial services consumer class action litigation.

Shippee is a 2011 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. Her experience includes representing clients in a range of complex commercial litigation matters in health care, white collar defense, commercial foreclosure, and labor and employment matters, as well as litigating health care disputes in arbitration proceedings.

Lucas is a 2013 graduate of the University of Chicago School of Law and has complex commercial litigation experience.

“Marty and this team are already well-known to us,” said Michael LoVallo, Reed Smith’s Chicago Office Managing Partner. “In addition to achieving considerable litigation success, this team has earned a strong reputation for its community involvement and pro bono efforts in support of important civic causes, something that we place great value on at the firm.”

Reed Smith has more than 1,100 litigators in its offices throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, making it the fifth-largest litigation firm in the world, according to The Lawyer Global Litigation Top 50 2014. BTI Litigation Outlook 2015 ranked the firm as best-suited to lead litigation in six of eight practice areas, including Class Actions and Torts, Complex Commercial Litigation, Complex Employment Litigation, Routine Employment Litigation, Intellectual Property and Product Liability.

Clients of the firm’s Litigation practice include financial services firms, insurers, life science companies, health care providers, retailers, media companies, technology companies and entrepreneurs, energy companies, transport and logistics operators, communications companies, manufacturers, universities, nonprofits, real estate developers, and municipalities that rely on its experienced team to resolve their most complex and high-stakes matters.

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is a global relationship law firm with more than 1,800 lawyers in 26 offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1877, the firm represents leading international businesses, from Fortune 100 corporations to mid-market and emerging enterprises. Its lawyers provide litigation and other dispute resolution services in multi-jurisdictional and other high-stakes matters; deliver regulatory counsel; and execute the full range of strategic domestic and cross-border transactions. Reed Smith is a preeminent advisor to industries including financial services, life sciences, health care, advertising, entertainment and media, shipping and transport, energy and natural resources, real estate, manufacturing and technology, and education. For more information, visit reedsmith.com.

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