Robinson & Cole Makes Bold Expansion Move
Construction practice boosted as Hartford firm absorbs more than 30 lawyers from disbanding Thelen
By THOMAS B. SCHEFFEY and DOUGLAS S. MALAN
In a major expansion at a time of widespread financial uncertainty, Hartford-based Robinson & Cole will absorb more than 30 lawyers from the Hartford and New York offices of the dissolving Thelen firm.
Thelen’s strong core of construction lawyers and technology specialists are expected to bolster Robinson & Cole’s existing practices, said managing partner Eric Daniels. The move makes Robinson & Cole a 225-attorney firm and also adds heft to its real estate, employment, intellectual property and finance practice groups.
“It’s a smart move and good pick-up,” said Connecticut-based law firm consultant Peter Giuliani. But he said he does not think the expansion turns Robinson & Cole into a challenger for Day Pitney’s status as the leading law firm in the state.
Daniels said the additions will also allow Robinson & Cole to expand its presence in New York City, where about 10 attorneys currently practice commercial litigation, employment and real estate. Daniels noted that a strategic plan developed in 2001 called for the firm to strengthen its New York office, beef up its construction practice, and add to intellectual property and technology law capacity. “This acquisition helps us accomplish many of our key objectives,” Daniels said.
All but one of the Hartford-based Thelen partners are making the move, according to Robinson & Cole officials. Norman Roos, who managed Thelen’s Hartford office, is among those switching firms. In a written statement, Roos said he is “delighted.”
Nine construction lawyers from Halloran & Sage moved in 2004 to the Hartford office of national firm Brown, Raysman, Millstein & Felder, which subsequently merged with San Francisco-based Thelen. The former Halloran & Sage construction lawyers moving again include Dennis C. Cavanaugh, Gregory R. Faulkner and Martin A. Onorato.
Brian J. Donnell, who is part of Thelen’s construction practice, is the lone Hartford-based Thelen partner who was not announced as part of the deal. New York-based partner Andrew Kramer, who maintains a real estate practice, also is joining Robinson & Cole as one of nine Thelen partners making the move.
The real estate and construction practice includes lawyers who are licensed to practice in Massachusetts, which will help Robinson & Cole’s Boston office, said Daniels.
Asked why his firm would add more than 30 lawyers during difficult financial times when other firms are cutting back, Daniels replied that the firm has very little debt and thought that it was well-positioned for a strategic expansion.
“We saw that the economy’s going to have some short-term challenges,” said Daniels, “but you have to look at these things from a firm-wide perspective. One of the things that the construction lawyers at Thelen told us is that this is a cyclical practice. They’re not anticipating that 2009 will be a slow time for them; 2008 was not. We’re not doing this anticipating that we’re going to add unproductive lawyers.”
Merger Talks
Daniels said Robinson & Cole was in talks with the Hartford Thelen office in September, “when the game plan at Thelen was the active pursuit of a merger.” Happily, he said “we were into those discussions before the nature of the beast changed, and what they were really confronted with was dissolution as opposed to merger…
“Even with that, we were left with a month to put the deal together, a very aggressive time frame,” Daniels added. “I thought that it would be a shame to not be able to take advantage of an opportunity that offered a lot of strategic value, simply because it would be difficult to put together in the time frame allowed.”
The time frame is so aggressive that Robinson & Cole doesn’t have a permanent space for the new lawyers. The firm is in the process of renovating an additional floor at its current location at 280 Trumbull Street. Until it’s ready, Daniels said, the new hires will work out of some temporary “swing space” he hopes the building’s landlord will provide.
Thelen’s partnership voted on Nov. 4 to dissolve the firm by Dec. 1. The firm said the dissolution was hastened by a rash of lawyer defections since the 2006 merger of California-based Thelen Reid and New York-based Brown Raysman Milstein Felder & Steiner. Before the announcement, more than 100 attorneys had left the firm, including name partners Peter Brown, Jeffrey Steiner and Richard Raysman.
The defections breached a partner departure covenant in the firm’s credit agreement with its bank. That triggered an all-out scramble for jobs. “At this point, it is every group for themselves and not a coordinated top-down plan,” San Francisco-based Thelen spokesman Kevin Livingston said last week. “Thelen really doesn’t exist anymore.”
This is the second time in the last few months that Robinson & Cole picked up attorneys from a foundering firm. In September, it bolstered its environmental practice by hiring Ronald Zdrojeski and David Greene, both partners, from Dewey & LeBoeuf, which plans to close the Hartford office in early 2009.
Earlier this month, 90 former Thelen lawyers on both the associate and partner levels joined Nixon Peabody’s Silicon Valley office. Last week, the Washington, D.C,.-based litigation firm Howrey announced that it was adding to its 750-lawyer ranks by nabbing more than 40 lawyers from Thelen’s construction practice, including Thelen’s former chairman, Stephen O’Neal.
Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith also stepped in last week and grabbed 14 ex-Thelen lawyers for its renewable energy practice, adding to Reed Smith’s lineup of more than 1,500 attorneys. Those attorneys will be spread across Reed Smith offices in San Francisco, New York and New Jersey.•
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