A New Era Begins
Attorneys settle in at new firms, as others brace for more change
By DOUGLAS S. MALAN
Many of the lawyers who had been employed by Tyler Cooper arrived at work last Monday and settled into familiar desks in Hartford. But that was about the only thing that was normal about their week.
The 24 attorneys were now working for the Providence-based firm of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, which had moved into Tyler Cooper’s old offices in the CityPlace building. They were greeted by signs – some temporary – bearing the new firm’s name.
There were new business cards and letterhead to be ordered. There were 20 or so Hinckley, Allen partners, who had traveled from Boston and Providence, to meet and socialize with. There was plenty of shop talk, as new Hinckley, Allen attorneys inherited cases from other members of the firm, or discussed possible collaborations.
“That sort of thing is already happening,” said Thomas Marrion, a corporate and business law partner who arrived from Tyler Cooper. “We’re certainly looking forward to doing what we’ve been doing.”
Managing Partner Michael P. DeFanti, who is based in Providence, said the new lawyers and staff members have integrated “very quickly” and other former Tyler Cooper lawyers spent part of last week in the Boston and Providence offices.
“Everyone is excited and it’s been a lot of fun,” DeFanti said. “It’s going better than we could have reasonably expected.”
It was hardly the only place in the state’s legal community where rapid change was taking place. Richmond, Va.-based LeClairRyan picked up nine attorneys from Tyler Cooper in New Haven and opened its first Connecticut office last week in Tyler Cooper’s old space on Long Wharf Drive. The Virginia firm, which has more than 300 attorneys on both coasts, could be on the verge of a rapid expansion in Connecticut.
“I would not be surprised if that’s going to happen,” said Richard W. “Deke” Bowerman, who runs LeClairRyan’s New Haven office after coming over from Tyler Cooper. “I think two significant firms are coming to Connecticut,” he said, referring to Hinckley, Allen.
At the same time, one significant firm disappeared from the Connecticut landscape.
Last week, after the announcements that Hinckley, Allen and LeClairRyan would open Connecticut offices staffed by former Tyler Cooper attorneys, there was speculation that at least a small staff would remain at Tyler Cooper for a few months to wrap up loose ends. But the end seems to have come much more quickly.
Last week, the files for Tyler Cooper, which traced its New Haven roots to 1847, were transferred to former partner William H. Champlin III, who is now a partner with Hinckley, Allen in Hartford.
“It’s a sad day in the annals of New Haven law practice,” said Robert C. Leitze, an attorney one floor above Tyler Cooper’s former offices in New Haven.
A Long Wait
Though LeClairRyan has more attorneys overall, Hinckley, Allen, & Snyder currently has the bigger Connecticut presence. It’s a presence the 102-year-old firm, which now has 150 attorneys, has been seeking for many years.
In 1987, the firm acquired a 25-lawyer construction and real estate boutique in Boston and became known as Hinckley, Allen, Snyder & Comen. The Boston office went on to represent many of the large contractors involved in that city’s Big Dig tunnel project.
At the same time it moved into Boston, Hinckley, Allen announced its interest in the major cities of New England, including Hartford, according to a story in the National Law Journal, a sister publication of the Law Tribune.
Talk of a Hartford office fired up again in 1991 when Fleet/Norstar Financial Group, the predecessor to what became FleetBoston Financial Corp., took over Bank of New England, which had a presence in Hartford.
Fleet was a client of Hinckley, Allen’s, which prompted then managing partner Michael A. Silverman to tell the Law Tribune in 1991: “We’d like to think that we’re a regional firm, and obviously that region includes Connecticut.”
But a Rhode Island rival, a firm then known as Edwards & Angell, beat Hinckley, Allen to the punch and opened its own Hartford office. On and off over the next 17 years, Hinckley, Allen engaged in talks with Connecticut firms, but the deals always fell through, according to observers in the state’s legal community.
It finally found a good match in Tyler Cooper. Hinckley, Allen is known for its real estate practice, corporate and healthcare law, and litigation. But it was not as strong in bankruptcy and financial services practices, areas where Tyler Cooper has excelled. Hinckley, Allen plucked nearly all of Tyler Cooper’s business and financial services lawyers, along with commercial litigators and employment lawyers.
Beyond the practice of law, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder has become known as one of the more charitable law firms. In 2006, the firm celebrated its centennial by donating $100,000 to 12 charities in the three cities – including Concord, N.H. – where it had offices rather than throw an elaborate party for itself. “It made more sense to do something a little more rewarding to the community, which has supported us throughout the past 100 years,” partner Paul A. Silver told the Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly.
For the past few years, the firm’s Providence office has been recognized as one of the best places to work by the Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and the Wellness Council of America. The firm offers yoga classes at work, massages at one’s desk and in-house exercise programs to employees.
“There’s a payoff in terms of morale,” Megan McCormack, the firm’s human resources director told the Providence Business News earlier this year. “Healthy employees are happy employees.”
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder also was recognized for its generous medical benefits plan and a 401(k) plan in which the firm pays in 7.5 percent of a lawyer’s salary after two years of employment.
Further Expansion?
Hinckley, Allen’s entry into Connecticut might be an indication of similar activity in the near future involving firms of Tyler Cooper’s size (about 60 lawyers). Or, depending on whom you talk to, it could be a largely ho-hum event with no echoes.
“I have a wait-and-see attitude” about the impact of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder’s arrival, said Elizabeth J. Stewart, incoming managing partner of Murtha Cullina.
Connecticut-based legal consultant Peter Giuliani said he actually expected a busier summer in terms of similar law firm movement in the state.
“What’s puzzling is that large Connecticut firms haven’t made strategic moves outside of Connecticut or inside of Connecticut, and that we haven’t seen activity like the Day Pitney connection” of 2006, he said.
He noted that there are “several firms considering a pan-New England strategy,” which would entail offices from Portland, Maine, to southwestern Connecticut. Hinckley, Allen executives have indicated that the firm is interested in expanding into southwestern Connecticut.
A desirable acquisition target in Connecticut would have 60 to 90 lawyers, a handful of marquee clients to which the firm is primary counsel and a strong presence in Fairfield County, Giuliani said.
LeClairRyan already is in the general vicinity in terms of location.
LeClairRyan picked up prominent Tyler Cooper lawyers in corporate law and litigation. With the strength of LeClairRyan’s resources and similarity in the firms’ culture, Bowerman, the new head of the New Haven office, said the firm “is like Tyler Cooper on steroids…We could probably do any type of transaction now, and that wasn’t always the case with Tyler Cooper.”•
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