Left to right: William Anthony and Kevin Lauri of Jackson Lewis.

Workplace-focused Am Law 100 firm Jackson Lewis has named a pair of principals in Albany and New York City to take over the leadership of the firm at the start of 2019. 

Albany-based William Anthony and New York City-based Kevin Lauri will take over for current chairman Vincent Cino on Jan. 1. Cino, who became chairman in 2012, will return to his litigation practice.

“He's done an incredible job building our infrastructure and growing our technology,” Lauri said of Cino's tenure.

Anthony highlighted Cino's work building a more formal practice group structure, while also expanding the firm's attorney development program. The pair seek to build on that program during their own tenure.

“The goal is continuing Vinny's program to make sure we're at the forefront and have the best workplace lawyers in the country,” Lauri said.

The two attorneys first worked together nearly 20 years ago through their relationship with Pfizer, and have since collaborated on Jackson Lewis' compensation committee and board of directors.

“There probably hasn't been a week, apart from vacation, that we haven't been in close contact with each other since 2001,” Lauri said.

He added that the firm has a long history of management by two lawyers, either by co-chairs sharing equal billing or a deputy chair working closely with the chair.

Looking forward, Anthony said the firm faces the challenge of harnessing its more than 850 attorneys across 57 offices to deliver consistency in communications and services.

The pair is also well aware of the increased competition to provide labor and employment services, not just by other law firms, but by newly formed alternative legal service providers as well as the Big Four accounting firms. They both said the threat from the accounting giants has yet to materialize.

“I think we are anticipating it more than experiencing it right now,” Lauri said. “I haven't felt it directly yet.”

Lauri joined Jackson Lewis in 1995 and served as the New York City office's managing principal from 2009 until this month. During that period, the number of attorneys in the office grew by over 70 percent, and its profitability increased by 90 percent. Earlier he served as that office's marketing coordinator, and he also serves as the firm's relationship manager for multiple Fortune 50 companies, tasked with overseeing the efficacy and quality of hundreds of litigation matters across the country. He started his legal career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Anthony came straight to Jackson Lewis from law school in 1989, moving from San Francisco to Morristown, New Jersey, and later Hartford, where he led that office for eight years and saw it double. He has been in Albany since 2012. Anthony founded and led the firm's class actions and complex litigation practice group, overseeing a significant increase in the size of its class action practice.