Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada departed from its traditional legal services by announcing Monday the creation of a new economic development arm called VisionFirst Advisors.

Tallahassee, Florida-based VisionFirst will be led by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour as chairman and former Florida Secretary of Commerce Gray Swoope as president and CEO. The move marks the firm's second foray outside of legal services. In 2011, it created Butler Snow Advisory, which provides consulting services for acquisitions, financing and other strategic areas.

Butler Snow is not the only firm to look beyond its traditional business model for additional revenue streams. In January, DLA Piper announced the formation of CyberTrak, which provides clients with cybersecurity information for the countries they do business in, The Am Law Daily previously reported.