People & Practices: Sept. 18, 2023

Johnson to lead Robins Kaplan business litigation

National trial law firm Robins Kaplan LLP has announced that partner Brendan Johnson has been named chair of its National Business Litigation Group. Johnson, a longtime Robins Kaplan partner and co-chair of the Government and Internal Investigations Group, replaces Jason Pfeiffer in the role.

“Brendan is an incisive strategist, a fearless advocate, and a widely admired leader,” said Ronald Schutz, chair of the firm’s Executive Board. “All of those qualities—and more—make him the ideal person to lead our Business Litigation Group forward.”

Johnson joined Robins Kaplan in 2015, after serving as the U.S. attorney for the District of South Dakota, a role in which he also held a seat on the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and chaired the Department of Justice’s Native American Issues Subcommittee. As U.S. attorney, he conducted groundbreaking prosecutions of cases involving human trafficking and violence against Native American women. At Robins Kaplan, he has represented a range of business and policy interests, while drawing on his prosecutorial experience as co-chair of the firm’s Government and Internal Investigations Group. He will continue in that role.

Johnson will continue his active trial practice while serving in the new role. In the past six months, he has led trial teams from South Dakota to San Francisco, securing a recent multimillion-dollar jury verdict. Although he has offices in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Minneapolis, , his litigation practice now has him spending most of his time on the road trying high-stakes litigation matters throughout the United States.

The Business Litigation Group that Johnson now leads includes more than 100 attorneys across all seven of Robins Kaplan’s offices.

“Excellence is the standard at Robins Kaplan. We have successfully tried some of the most significant cases in the United States, and that isn’t going to change,” said Johnson, who maintains offices in Minneapolis and Sioux Falls. “That history will be a guide as we continue to aggressively represent our clients in high-stakes litigation.”

Koerselman joins Maslon real estate group

Maslon LLP, a Minneapolis-based provider of legal counsel to businesses in Minnesota and nationwide, has added Jeffrey Koerselman to the firm’s real estate group.

Koerselman has two decades of experience in “complex real estate transactions,” with clients that include real estate developers, investors, government agencies and lenders, according to a press release.

He specializes in transactions involving state and federal tax credits, including low-income housing tax credits, historic rehabilitation tax credits, and new markets tax credits for projects located across the country, the company said.

Koerselman is “frequently called upon to offer guidance on real estate financing related issues involving conventional debt, tax credit syndication, tax-exempt bonds, tax increment financing, and a variety of affordable housing loan and grant programs administered by federal, state, and local governments,” the release states.

“He also has significant experience in the areas of partnership taxation, state and local taxation, the formation and structuring of different entities, environmental matters, and other general corporate and real estate matters.”

People & Practices is an edited compilation of news releases submitted by law firms and other organizations. Minnesota Lawyer welcomes submissions at [email protected].