Panama City-based Harrison Sale McCloy will merge its three northwest Florida offices with one of Alabama's largest firms—Hand Arendall—to form a new firm at the start of 2018.

The new firm, Hand Arendall Harrison Sale, will be headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, and led by Hand Arendall managing partner Roger Bates. Harrison Sale founding partner Franklin Harrison will be managing partner of new firm's Florida offices and have a seat on the firm's executive committee.

Franklin Harrison

Harrison said his firm, which he helped co-found in 1985, had been expanding west over the last several years and Hand Arendall was likewise interested in expanding to the east. The firms began serious merger discussions in April of this year. Harrison said the firm had been approached by others in the past, but he hadn't found one he felt had the same core values in the practice of law.

“It's how they treat their clients, how they put their clients first, how they treat their staff. They have staff that has been there for years same as we do,” Harrison said. “We knew each other by reputation for many years. They did some inquiring into this area as to firms and talked to some people who made recommendations. They reached out to us. We agreed to have a conversation. It worked out really well.”

With Harrison Sale's 15 lawyers and Hand Arendall's 70, the new regional firm will have 85 attorneys serving clients in Northwest Florida, Alabama's Gulf Coast and Mississippi. In addition to Panama City, Harrison Sale has offices in Destin and Santa Rosa Beach. Hand Arendall has offices in Birmingham, Fairhope and Athens in addition to its headquarters in Mobile.

Harrison said his firm handles a sizeable amount of real estate-related work and may be able to expand that work with the merger. Likewise, Hand Arendall has a very strong litigation department.

“We do litigation as well,” Harrison said. “It's just the more experience you can have in different types of litigation the better it is for your clients.”

Harrison's firm also represents clients in school and government construction financing and has represented the Bay County School Board since 1979. Similarly, Hand Arendall represents the Community College System of Alabama, Harrison said. Both firms represent local governments.

The new firm will serve commercial and government clients in real estate, commercial transactions, litigation, economic development, public finance, education, health care and employment.