Dorsey Opens Chicago Office Anchored by Family Office and Litigation Teams
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9:04 AM on Monday, November 3
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 3, 2025--
International law firm Dorsey & Whitney announced today it has opened an office in Chicago, Illinois, the firm’s 22nd location. In connection with opening its newest office, Dorsey has added five partners in Chicago and two partners in Boise, Idaho. The group consists of lawyers internationally recognized for practices in family office and trust & estate planning law as well as commercial litigation, securities litigation, and government investigations. The group of partners includes family office and trust & estate planning attorneys Domingo P. Such, Lucy K. Park, and Mitch Meneau in Chicago and Deborah V. Dunn and Bruce Pinegar in Boise, plus securities litigation, enforcement, and government investigations attorneys Jose A. Lopez and Geoffrey A. Vance in Chicago.
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Dorsey & Whitney opened an office in Chicago, the firm’s 22nd location. In connection with opening its newest office, Dorsey has added five partners in Chicago and two partners in Boise, Idaho.
“The team of Domingo Such, Lucy Park, Debbie Dunn, Mitch Meneau, and Bruce Pinegar is an international powerhouse in supporting family offices and trust & estate clients. Jose Lopez and Geof Vance are leading litigators both nationally and internationally,” said Peter Nelson, Dorsey’s Managing Partner. “Opening an office in Chicago is an exciting development for Dorsey. These seven partners have been friends and colleagues for decades, and I cannot imagine a better group of partners to establish our Chicago presence and expand our Boise office.”
Consistent with its successful growth strategies implemented in new offices in Dallas, Phoenix, and Boise in recent years, Dorsey plans to hire additional attorneys for its new Chicago office soon, aiming to build a full-service presence in the nation’s third-largest legal market and economic and cultural capital of the Midwest.
Nelson added, “Dorsey has long had a top-rated trust & estate practice, centered in our Minneapolis and Seattle offices. This team of five personal planning partners adds several new dimensions to Dorsey’s practice, in particular the strength of the family office practice, and we are confident that Dorsey’s existing platform will be of great benefit to the group’s client base. In addition to their work supporting family office clients in a variety of contested matters and litigation roles, Jose and Geof are outstanding additions to Dorsey’s commercial litigation, securities litigation and enforcement, and government investigations teams. They will be instrumental in furthering the business interests of family office and trust & estate clients, while also leading their own civil and government litigation practices.”
Dorsey’s platform of offerings includes the Dorsey & Whitney Trust Company (DWTC), which provides essential services to many of Dorsey’s existing family office and estate planning clients. DWTC is chartered in the State of South Dakota.
About the Family Office and Trust & Estate Team
Domingo Such (Chicago) is the new Chair of Dorsey’s Family Office practice group. Domingo advises public and private businesses and single and multifamily offices (including trustees and trust companies), serving as general counsel and driving their legal strategy in significant and complex matters. Among his many accolades, Domingo is ranked in Chambers Global High Net Worth Guide for Private Wealth and Family Offices & Fund Structuring, Best Lawyers, and Super Lawyers. In addition to his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Domingo holds an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. He is extremely active in bar organizations and civic organizations in the Chicagoland area and nationally.
Lucy Park (Chicago) counsels high-net-worth individuals, traditional and nontraditional families, family offices, and family-owned businesses on wealth preservation and transfer, family investment vehicles, charitable giving, and multigenerational and business succession planning. Her clients also include C-level executives, entertainers, athletes, entrepreneurs, and investors. Lucy advises fiduciaries and beneficiaries on the administration of trusts and decedents' estates, probate, and pre- and post-mortem planning. She also assists clients with premarital and pre- and post-divorce planning, asset protection, and international tax planning. She is ranked in Chambers High Net Worth Guide for Private Wealth Law in Illinois and is active in the community, including as a Board member of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
Mitch Meneau (Chicago) counsels his clients in both the tax and non-tax aspects of estate planning, with a specific focus on estate planning strategies to efficiently minimize taxes through the creation of trusts, business entities, and charitable organizations, as well as the use of gifts, sales, and other wealth-transfer strategies. He has experience preparing federal and state income tax, estate tax, and gift tax returns and drafting a wide variety of estate planning documents, including wills, powers of attorney, revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, gift trusts, GRATs, QPRTs, and freeze and investment partnerships. Mitch is a certified public accountant.
Deborah Dunn (Boise) began her career in Chicago, practicing for 16 years at the city’s largest law firm, where she met Domingo and Lucy, and she works closely with the Chicago team. Debbie advises high-net-worth families, family offices, and owners of closely held businesses. She drafts sophisticated estate plans, often centered around complex trust structures, represents clients in complex estate and gift tax audits, and advises executors in will contests and disputes with beneficiaries. She also counsels trustees on trust and estate administration, as well as beneficiaries on rights and claims. Her many honors include rankings in Chambers USA, Best Lawyers, and Super Lawyers.
Bruce Pinegar (Boise) is experienced in the preparation of all manner of estate planning documents, including wills, revocable trusts, and powers of attorney. He regularly drafts and implements wealth transfer transactions, such as grantor-retained annuity trusts, sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and gifts to generation-skipping dynasty trusts. He advises and assists trustees with respect to administering trusts and, when necessary, modifying trust terms through judicial and nonjudicial processes. Additionally, Bruce advises executors in the estate administration process, prepares and files estate and gift tax returns, and assists with estate and gift tax audits. Bruce was named “Best-in-State, Idaho – Trust & Estate” by Forbes in 2025.
“Our team has a very specialized practice requiring complementary practices and support, and Dorsey provides everything we need to continue to help our clients thrive,” said Domingo Such, Partner in Dorsey’s Chicago office. “Dorsey’s reputation among family office and trust and estate clients is stellar, and we are ecstatic over the prospect of serving our client base from the Dorsey platform.”
About the Litigation and Government Investigations Team
Jose Lopez (Chicago) is Dorsey’s new Chicago Office Chair. Jose advises companies, officers, directors, and trustees in complicated securities litigation and enforcement matters involving both federal and state regulators, as well as in civil litigation matters. Jose works closely with family office and trust and estate clients, advising on fiduciary litigation and family office securities issues. Jose is a former senior enforcement attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a former assistant state’s attorney in Cook County. Jose is ranked in Chambers USA for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, as well as Super Lawyers and other respected rankings services.
Geoffrey Vance (Chicago) has built an impressive record defending global corporations and resolving complex, bet-the-company disputes. With more than 30 cases argued to verdict, Geof's experience spans a wide range of litigation from contested food and consumer product liability cases to intricate trust and estate battles spanning continents to billion-dollar medical device controversies. Industry-leading legal tech company Relativity named him in its founding class of "Al Visionaries" as an early adopter of litigation technology and for his advancement of Al in the practice of law, and Geof is also a founding member of the recently-launched Legal Data Intelligence model designed to empower the legal industry with a vocabulary, framework, and best practices to manage legal data and accelerate the dispensation of legal advice and pursuit of justice. A U.S. Navy veteran who proudly served during the First Gulf War, Geof is ranked in Chambers USA “Leading Business Lawyers” in E-Discovery and Information Governance and is listed in Super Lawyers, among his many honors.
Jose Lopez, Dorsey’s new Chicago Office Head, said, “It is exciting to spearhead a securities litigation and government regulatory practice for Dorsey in Chicago with Geof while also supporting the family office team together. Dorsey’s national and international footprint is an excellent fit for all of us, and we are excited to bring new dimensions to the firm’s outstanding dispute resolution capabilities and introduce Dorsey’s top-notch brand to the City of Chicago.”
Clients have relied on Dorsey as a valued business partner since 1912. With locations across the United States and in Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, Dorsey provides results-oriented, grounded counsel for its clients' legal and business needs. Dorsey represents a number of the world's most successful companies from a wide range of industries, including banking & financial institutions; development & infrastructure; energy & natural resources; food, beverage & agribusiness; healthcare & life sciences; and technology.
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KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA ILLINOIS IDAHO
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SOURCE: Dorsey & Whitney LLP
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PUB: 11/03/2025 10:04 AM/DISC: 11/03/2025 10:04 AM
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251103907226/en
