Chicago law firms expand in Charlotte
Headline News
In 1998, Chicago law firm Mayer Brown established an office in Charlotte to be close to that city's bankers. A decade later, its local rivals are trying to muscle in on what has become a lucrative financial-services center.
Winston & Strawn became the latest to jump into the heated Charlotte legal market, announcing Wednesday that it hired away six partners from one of the city's leading firms, Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman. The Chicago-based law firm anticipates that it will add up to a dozen more lawyers from Kennedy Covington, said Thomas Fitzgerald, Winston & Strawn's managing partner.
Charlotte's banking giants, Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp., have turned this drowsy Sunbelt city into a financial powerhouse second only to New York. Chicago once competed for such financial stature when it was home to two of the nation's biggest banks, Continental and First Chicago.
But pro-small-bank laws in Illinois placed so many restrictions on big institutions that expansion became difficult and resulted in today's fragmented Chicago banking market. Consolidation may be on its way, though, after Bank of America acquired LaSalle Bank last year.
In fact, Bank of America's growing presence in Chicago was one of the factors that led Winston & Strawn to target Charlotte for expansion, Fitzgerald said. The firm counts both Charlotte banks as clients in its corporate finance and lending practice but wanted to deepen those ties.
"We believe that our existing relationship with those clients will be enhanced with these individuals," Fitzgerald said. "This was an opportunity to bring additional depth and strength to our lending practice."
To build a stronger business relationship with the Charlotte banks, it helps to have lawyers in the city, said Jay Monge, a partner at Mayer Brown, who relocated to Charlotte from New York in 1999. The year before, Mayer Brown had acquired a boutique tax practice in Charlotte that did a lot of work for Bank of America's predecessor, NationsBank. (In 1998, NationsBank acquired San Francisco's BankAmerica, which had earlier purchased Continental.)
Katten Muchin Rosenman followed Mayer Brown to Charlotte, opening an office in 1999. There was little expansion to Charlotte after that, as Chicago firms looked overseas at the beginning of the decade. Some firms are also reluctant to move to Charlotte because the lawyers there generally charge lower rates than those in Chicago.
But the growth of the Charlotte banks has powered the city's economy, spurring demand for legal services in other areas such as real estate and litigation. Other financial institutions also have sprung up to service the banks, further diversifying Charlotte's financial-services industry.
"For multioffice firms that aspire to have a significant financial practice, Charlotte is a critical element," Monge said.
Indeed, last year three national law firms, including Chicago's Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, opened offices in Charlotte. The others were Atlanta's King & Spalding and New York-based Dewey Ballantine, now Dewey & LeBoeuf.
"It's been a very good legal market for us," said Elliott Portnoy, chairman of Sonnenschein, which recently added a group of litigators in Charlotte.
Winston & Strawn becomes the second national firm to move into Charlotte in 2008, following Atlanta's Powell Goldstein. The moves send a strong signal that the demand for financial-services lawyers in Charlotte has not abated, even with the cloudier outlook for the financial-services industry brought on by the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market.
"This short-term turbulence is not going to affect our ability to build a long-term office," Fitzgerald said.
The more firms that move to Charlotte, the more it helps dispel any lingering notion among lawyers of Charlotte as a sleepy backwater, Monge said. To any naysayers, he likes to boast that Charlotte, unlike Chicago, has a Dean & DeLuca gourmet food store. More than one.
Related listings
-
Fla. Law Firm Accuses Ex-Associate of Stealing Clients
Headline News 01/03/2008The West Palm Beach, Fla., law firm of Rosenthal & Levy is suing a former associate and his new law firm, claiming he is trying to steal clients. Rosenthal & Levy filed the suit in Palm Beach Circuit Court against former associate Andrew Fris...
-
Deloitte to settle Delphi investor suit for $38 mln
Headline News 12/28/2007Deloitte & Touche LLP has agreed to pay $38.25 million to settle an investor lawsuit over alleged accounting improprieties at bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp plaintiffs' lawyers said on Thursday.The case in U.S. District Court in Detroit st...
-
IRS Manager Nabbed in D.C.Tax Scandal
Headline News 12/22/2007A Washington, D.C., tax corruption case that has resulted in tens of millions of dollars being stolen from D.C. government coffers now allegedly involves an IRS manager who is said to have been involved in the fraud scheme. Robert Steven and his wife...
Is Now the Time to Really Call a Special Education Lawyer?
IDEA, FAPE, CHILD FIND and IEPs: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees all children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). FAPE starts with a school’s responsibility to identify that a child has a disability (Child Find) and create an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to suit the needs of the child.
Forte Law Group is one of only a very few law firms within the state of Connecticut that is dedicated to exclusively representing families and children with special needs.
Parents need to be persistent, dedicated and above all else aware of the many services and accommodations that their child is entitled to under the law. As early as this point within your child’s special education, many parents will often find themselves in the situation asking, “is now the time to really call a special education lawyer?” Here are a few things to consider when asking yourself that question.