Lowenstein Sandler managing partner Gary Wingens in a backyard meeting.

In the last several weeks, Lowenstein Sandler managing partner Gary Wingens has started inviting potential new partners to his Livingston, New Jersey, backyard.

His firm is one of a number of those that have been actively pursuing laterals throughout the coronavirus pandemic. While for several months, conversations had unfolded purely virtually,  the decreasing rates of infection in many parts of the country have allowed some new forms of person-to-person contact.

"They stay far away, and we take the masks off," Wingens said.

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo managing partner Bob Bodian hasn't had one of these meetings yet, but he's comfortable with his partners getting to know their future colleagues this way.

"Each brought their own cocktails," he said of one such meeting. "It was self-serve."

Granted, these confabulations depend on firms having the wherewithal and desire to take on the costs and risks of adding new partners in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And skyrocketing rates of COVID-19 infection in other parts of the country have left the timing of any recovery shrouded in uncertainty.

While some firms are feeling the pinch from declining demand, others are in a position to profit by looking opportunistically at talent that may be coming available.

"We have seen a category of firms that not only vowed to continue partner hiring but have doubled down on their strategic plans," Garrison & Sisson recruiter Dan Binstock said. "The leadership at these firms usually view obstacles as opportunities, and a thoughtful, but glass-half-full mindset is extremely compelling to lateral partners, especially in this current market."

And the decisions being made now are likely to have lasting effects that continue once a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is developed and business in the U.S. returns to some degree of normalcy.

"I think we're going to learn a lot about what they're made of, in terms of just how well run they are to begin with and how ambitious and aggressive they are in terms of improving their position in the market or maintaining it," Chicago-based recruiter Kay Hoppe said of firms in the current moment.

Several firms that have already signaled their ambitions with a series of big hires are drawing on lessons taken nearly a dozen years ago from the Great Recession.

Cozen O'Connor has hired aggressively for both transactional work and class action litigation, adding 25 attorneys, including eight shareholders since March 1. The firm pounced similarly in 2009, bringing on nearly 70 attorneys from crumbling Wolf Block.

"That was the worst economy of our lifetime," said executive chairman and CEO Michael Heller. "We were willing to make that investment, and it's paid off. We take that similar philosophy now when other firms are looking to tighten belts."

That included a bet on real estate, where work was not in high demand in the midst of the financial crisis.

"When no one wanted to touch real estate, [Cozen O'Connor] did touch real estate," Binstock said. "For years, they were benefiting from that."

Haynes & Boone, which has added 11 new partners and a total of 39 attorneys since the start of 2020, shows a similar history of opportunism. In 2009, the firm was able to consummate the acquisition of IP boutique MacPherson, Kwok, Chen & Heid following a four-year courtship, establishing a presence in California for the first time. The following year, it took just four weeks to seal the deal with a six-partner group of Paul Hastings partners in New York in which the firm long held interest.

That pattern repeated itself with the pair of life sciences partners Haynes & Boone brought on from McDermott Will & Emery to lead a new San Francisco office in April. Managing partner Tim Powers had met in person with the potential hires a week before the pandemic-related lockdowns began, and the firm had no trouble sealing the deal virtually.

"We've stuck with the plans that we've had, and we've been able to maximize those," Powers said. "Any time there is a market disruption and you are a beacon of stability within that disruption, you can show that stability."

Sound finances are critical, too. Haynes & Boone had its best first quarter in the firm's history, according to Powers, who added that the firm, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, was already looking to grow moving into 2020.

Mintz, which announced the hire of a former Boies Schiller & Flexner partner Monday, had the benefit of closing its fiscal year March 31. According to Bodian, the firm beat its budget for equity partner profits by 25%. That allowed the firm to increase hold backs while keeping distributions above what would have been expected at budget. This follows a five-year spell where the firm is up 50% in both profits and revenues.

"We sort of hit the pandemic running," said Bodian, who promised several more announcements in the coming weeks.

Wingens, whose firm added a new head of life sciences transactions in late April, views the current moment as the start of a brand new economic cycle. That means a focus not just on the "practice of the moment," but those expected to grow in coming years, like privacy and cybersecurity, investment management and technology.

"We're trying to figure out where that proverbial puck is going, rather than where we are today in this somewhat surreal work world," he said. 

That doesn't mean that the firm isn't looking to add bankruptcy attorneys, who are in demand practically everywhere. Wingens said that's also a goal, but that with 10% of the firm's head count in restructuring, it's already on sound footing.

Likewise, Haynes & Boone is targeting health care, IP and fund formation, among other areas.

"We're looking, for the long term, at what can build a great firm," Powers said.

Based in Dallas, where coronavirus cases are now surging, neither Powers nor his partners in the Texas-based firm have returned to live interviews since the start of the pandemic.

But in regions where the pandemic has peaked earlier, attorneys with transferable business operating out of struggling firms will likely have multiple opportunities to put on smart casual attire and a mask for meetings on park benches, outside cafes, or in someone's backyard.

"Personally, I feel there's some angst because I shouldn't offer the person coffee or food," Wingens said. "Aside from that, it's actually very pleasant, and the weather has been nice, so it works well."

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