The Associate Pirate

Kudos to Cooley Godward for growing yet again in Boston today. They just wooed Donald K. Stern, the former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, to join their Boston office. Considering the firm has been in Boston for less than a year, and is already up to 30 lawyers — including VC/start-up heavyweight John Hession as “Partner in Charge,” as well as quite a few other former Testa folks — it looks like they’re getting pretty decent traction.

It’ll be interesting to see if other recent Boston entrants like Locke Lord can follow a similar trajectory.

Meanwhile, longtime Boston resident Hale & DorrWilmerHale has brought on Rachel Brand (the Assistant A.G. for Legal Policy) and Mark Nelson (Counsel for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations) in the firm’s Washington, DC office, beefing up the public policy and strategy practice, and prompting some interesting political speculation on Above The Law.