Perkins Coie Starts New Chapter in Firm Leadership

Seattle, Wash/Washington, D.C. (January 1, 2015) ‑ Perkins Coie announced today that John Devaney, age 57, has officially assumed the role of Firmwide Managing Partner at the 1,000-lawyer firm, a position to which he was appointed in July 2014.  John succeeds Bob Giles, who has served as the firm’s Firmwide Managing Partner since 1986 and announced three years ago his plans to step down at the end of 2014.  Prior to being named Firmwide Managing Partner, John was a member of the firm’s Executive and Management Committees and served from 2005-2010 as Office Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

John’s strategy and leadership priorities for 2015 include focusing on three significant areas: excellence and innovation in delivering legal services, broader partnering with clients, and continuing the firm’s sound fiscal management.

About John Devaney

A native New Yorker, John moved to Washington, D.C., in 1980 to attend law school and, later, to work for the U.S. Department of Justice.  John joined Perkins Coie in 1988 and focuses his practice on the areas of commercial litigation, political law litigation and communications law.  He obtained his B.A., magna cum laude, from Boston College in 1979 and his J.D. from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in 1983, where he was an editor of the Catholic University Law Review.  Following law school, John clerked for the Honorable George Gallagher, the Honorable Hubert Pair, the Honorable Gerard Reilly and the Honorable J. Walter Yeagley, District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, John was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked in the Civil Rights Division. 

Over the years, John has represented clients in dozens of proceedings before state and federal courts, as well as administrative agencies throughout the country.  He also has represented clients in many appellate proceedings, including appeals before the U.S. courts of appeals and administrative appeals before U.S. district courts.  Some of John’s most notable matters include trials and appeals on behalf of telecommunications clients involving novel issues relating to the implementation and interpretation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  John also has been the lead trial lawyer in cases involving complex commercial disputes and, more recently, in matters with national implications relating to enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act.

John and his wife, Deborah Reagan, have raised their three children in the nation’s capital.  In addition to conducting his practice and maintaining an active management role at Perkins Coie, John pursued his passion for baseball by serving as a Little League coach for 15 years.  John is also the co-founder of the Washington Lawyers’ Foundation for Children’s Hospital, which focuses on enlisting financial support from D.C. law firms for the Hospital’s Critical Care Unit.

Perkins Coie is a leading international law firm that is known for providing high-value, strategic solutions and extraordinary client service on matters vital to our clients’ success. With more than 1,200 lawyers in offices across the United States and Asia, we provide a full array of corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including many of the world’s most innovative companies and industry leaders as well as public and not-for-profit organizations.

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