The new firm, Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna, said a number of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, hedge funds and private equity firms, are following the group to their new home. The group's historical clients include American Airlines, CBS, Pfizer, Verizon and the Carlyle Group.

With business surging thanks to disputes over pandemic-related claims, Cohen said she expects the new firm's head count to grow to between 30 and 40 lawyers in the next three months. A number of lawyers, many of whom have ties to her and her partners from previous firms, have already made commitments but are waiting for bonuses to be paid.

"My tendency is to go back to the people I worked with when I was a lot younger," Cohen said. "I find those are the best people, those that I trust the most on a substantive level."

She also expects the firm to eventually expand to Southern California, noting that her team has both substantial clients in the state as well as a number of attorneys who are interested in coming aboard.

Cohen also anticipates a move into other niche areas, where—like insurance recovery—most large law firms are conflicted out.

"Our competition is very small compared to, say, an IP practice because most firms represent insurance companies," she said. "We picked a great niche where we could grow significantly without a lot of competition."

Cohen said that she'd been interested in building her own firm for years, noting that the recent death of a longtime mentor who'd encouraged her entrepreneurial inclinations impelled her to take the leap, as did the wider dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic.

"COVID for a lot of us has been a time for self-reflection," she said, adding that the crisis has also caused her group's business base to swell. "The thing that had stopped me was that it was logistically daunting."

That hurdle was eased when Cohen partnered with Audrey Wilson, who had worked as an operational executive at Dickstein Shapiro with her and her partners. Wilson is chief operating officer of the new firm.

"I thought it was going to be more stressful, but it's been terrific," Cohen said about getting the firm off the ground.

Most of the five additional partners, one counsel and two associates were also been part of Cohen's team prior to the move to McKool Smith. The one exception is partner Meredith Elkins, who had been based in McKool's Dallas office. She began working with the group in a trial on behalf of TIAA-CREF and later relocated to New York.

Cohen anticipates that one wider consequence of the pandemic will be other senior female litigators following in her path and establishing their own firms.

"Women who have significant books of business have a lot of choices and economic power," she said, pointing to Andrea Mitchell and Robbie Kaplan. Combine that with the fact that the pandemic has made it clear that lawyers can operate in a pared-down fashion without big firm resources, and clients' active pursuit of women who can run major matters, and there's incentives for more women to step out on their own.

"I understand as well as anyone the impetus and excitement about creating one's own firm. It's what we did 30 years ago," McKool Smith founder and chairman Mike McKool said in a statement. "I'm sure Robin and her team will have success, and we at McKool Smith wish them the best."