Powell Goldstein Expanding in North Carolina

Atlanta-based Powell Goldstein has opened a six-lawyer office in Charlotte, N.C., that includes four lawyers from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Among the four are partners Geoffrey Maibohm, a capital-markets lawyer, and Donnie Martin, a commercial real estate lawyer, the Charlotte Business Journal reports. The firm's capital-markets practice focuses on commercial mortgage-backed securities, which have not seen the same downturn as other mortgage securities.

Meanwhile, the Business Journal reported in a Dec. 21 story that Powell Goldstein is having casual merger discussions with Winston-Salem-based Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.