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For a group of Big Law refugees who launched a boutique in Chicago last year, the secret to growth during the COVID-19 pandemic is fairly simple: offer cheaper billing rates than their former compatriots at Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin and Schiff Hardin.

Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres launched Dec. 1 with four founding partners and six other lawyers. Since then, the firm has added eight more lawyers to its ranks, including a new hire coming onboard in June. Those hires have some well-recognized Big Law names on their own resumes as well, such as Latham & Watkins, Reed Smith and Baker McKenzie.

The new firm is small enough that it doesn't have to rely on a metrics-heavy approach to billing, said Patrick Croke, one of the firm's name partners and a former Sidley partner. Croke said he and his colleagues don't like billing a client for every single matter.

"I think it is difficult when your billing rate has four digits in it to always be doing the best thing you can for your client, because you know that extra thing you're going to do may be beyond the budget you've set out, or go beyond what your client might think is necessary, but is in fact prudent," Croke said. "You lose a cohort of clients who can't afford to pay those rates."

Croke estimated that his firm's rates are "roughly half of what they would be charging at their old firms."

Croke Fairchild handles a variety of corporate transactional work, including fund formation, finance and credit transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate and public company representation. The firm also has lawyers who handle government affairs, intellectual property, litigation and real estate matters.

Although centered in Chicago, the firm also has offices in Milwaukee and Lake Forest, a Chicagoland suburb north of the Windy City. When Illinois and Wisconsin issued stay-at-home orders in mid-March, Croke Fairchild was able to transition easily into working remotely, said name partner Jessica Fairchild.

"For us, it's been fairly seamless. We were already somewhat virtual—not everyone was coming into the office every day," Fairchild said.

Also a former Sidley partner, Fairchild spent her final years at that firm as general counsel of the committee that spearheaded Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid. Soon after the International Olympics Committee rejected Chicago's bid in October 2009, Fairchild left Sidley to start her own firm, Fairchild Law Offices.

Fairchild's boutique added lawyers over time and combined with Morgan Legal Group to become Fairchild Morgan Law in November 2018. A year later, that firm became Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres.

"When the bid ended, I had this inflection point of 'What do I do now?' I had this great experience, which opened my eyes to [the idea that] maybe I could practice law in a different environment," Fairchild said.

Fairchild said the new boutique has stayed fairly busy during the pandemic. Croke said he believes the firm's philosophy—that its lawyers should be trusted advisors to their clients—is leading to the growth Croke Fairchild has seen in both revenue and head count.

"We have revenues in January that I had not expected to hit until the end of the year," Croke said. The firm hasn't had to reduce salaries and staffing like many of its larger competitors during the pandemic, Fairchild added, noting that its lower overhead allows it to be "lean and flexible" in the current environment.

Croke said the firm cannot hire fast enough: "We really need more capacity in terms of lawyers, and that's being driven by the revenue."

Croke and Fairchild did not indicate there was a limit to their growth, but they were clear that they don't want to transform their new venture into another Big Law firm. "No one left to recreate what we just left," Croke said.

The other two founding partners are Drew Beres, a former Kirkland attorney, and Geoffrey Morgan, who spent eight years at Schiff Hardin and 23 years at Michael Best & Friedrich.

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