Cresset Capital Management, a fast-growing wealth management firm headquartered in Chicago, hired a longtime partner from law firm DLA Piper to be its general counsel.
Bill Rudnick, a third-generation partner at DLA Piper, said Tuesday he joined Cresset, a client of his and the law firm's since the wealth manager started in 2017.
“In a way, the decision to leave the firm was a difficult one," Rudnick told WealthManagement.com. "This was a place where I have deep connections, deep relationships and pretty much a lifetime of memories.”
Rudnick began his career as summer associate at the law firm his grandfather founded and, through mergers and acquisitions, became part of what is today DLA Piper, a global law firm with lawyers in more than 40 countries.
Among other leadership roles at the law firm, Rudnick was the managing partner of DLA Piper's Chicago office and leader of its Strategic Planning and Real Estate Strategy Committees. He will remain in a senior counsel role with the law firm, which he said was supportive of his decision.
Rudnick is the latest high-profile professional to join Cresset. The firm also hired Michael Cole, the founder and president of U.S. Bank’s Ascent Private Capital Management, and several employees from Wells Fargo's Abbot Downing on its way to growing to more than 60 employees in less that two years.
“These are really talented people and they are doing something really special and I’m just happy to be a part of it,” he said.
Cresset Capital Management, which was co-founded by Avy Stein and Eric Becker (one of WealthManagement.com’s Ten to Watch in 2019), is one of the fastest-growing RIAs in the country and, as of November, had attracted more than $3 billion since its founding in June 2017.
