Litigation firms — on both the plaintiffs and defense sides — made some of the biggest attorney hiring inroads in Florida in the past year, the Daily Business Review's annual Review 100 survey found.

For a second year, Cole, Scott & Kissane sits on top of the list of the largest law firms in Florida by attorney count and is moving away from full-service firms near the top. The Miami-based litigation firm known for representing insurance companies and large self-insureds grew by 13 percent with the addition of 51 attorneys in 2018.

Among the top 10, full-service firms Greenberg Traurig, Akerman, GrayRobinson and Carlton Fields lost attorneys. For Greenberg, it was only one, allowing the firm to squeak ahead of Akerman, which was on top in Florida as recently as 2017.

Cole Scott managing partner Richard Cole found it “very satisfying” that growth at his firm came across the state and promised more to come. He said the firm will open a Tallahassee office with three attorneys in the next few weeks. A firm committee also is exploring moving across the state line for the first time.

“We've never opened an office that was not done by existing partners because we want to keep the firm culture the way it is,” Cole said. “If we were to start acquiring law firms, small or big, there's a real risk of losing that.”

Cole said he doesn't interview many job candidates but he did earlier in the day and conveyed what sounds like an old-school, values-driven formula.

“We think of each other as a family,” he said. “We treat each other with respect and dignity, then we are a business, enough billable time in order to justify our salaries.” Then the firm's lawyers give back to the “community that's been good to each and every one of us.”

Growth At The Top

Overall, the number of legal professionals at the 100 largest firms in Florida grew more than 4 percent to over 8,000 in 2018.

The top 10 law firms accounted for nearly half of the net growth, led by three homegrown litigation firms. Fifth-ranked Morgan & Morgan added 61 attorneys, 10th-ranked Wicker Smith O'Hara McCoy & Ford added 33, and eighth-ranked Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer added 24. Wicker Smith broke into the top 10, displacing Gunster. Wicker Smith and Quintairos Prieto are defense-driven litigation firms.

The 31-year-old Morgan & Morgan has grown from its Orlando base to 13 states and spends $130 million to $150 million a year on advertising, primarily plugging its core plaintiffs personal injury work, said partner Matt Morgan, son of firm founder John Morgan.

But the firm has broadened its practice areas based on John Morgan's conclusion 10 years ago that auto injury cases will plummet by 2035 by factoring in autonomous vehicles and improved safety features. The firm's targets have expanded to products liability, class actions, workers' compensation, Social Security and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

“In short, we've diversified significantly and have been hiring to staff these diversified areas,” Matt Morgan said. 

Geographic expansion includes the addition of satellite offices, for instance running five locations in Central Florida catering to the firm's Orlando base. In the face of urban sprawl, it “allows the client to have their lawyer in their backyard.”

Fast-Growing Firms

Looking at percentages, growth was seen across a wide spectrum of firms led by Lewis Brisbois, 66th on the Am Law 100 list, Chartwell Law Offices and Kubicki Draper. All three firms have been on hiring binges.

In Florida, Lewis Brisbois and Chartwell nearly doubled in size in a year, taking Lewis Brisbois to 38 Florida attorneys and Chartwell to 33. And defense litigation firms Chartwell and Kubicki Draper were on the latest National Law Journal's NLJ 500 list of firms with the nation's highest percentage growth.

Seven of Chartwell's 18 offices are in Florida, and firm CEO Cliff Goldstein in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, said, “We've toyed with Tampa from time to time, but we haven't found a group yet that would be a good fit.” The latest office addition was two weeks ago in Baltimore, and New Orleans and Los Angeles are possibilities later this year or next year.

Growth has pushed the firm to what “I would call critical mass. We're at the point where if you name a client or a prospect, we probably have someone in the Chartwell network who knows them.” He called the firm “the antithesis of an eat-what-you-kill shop,” instead falling back on early-childhood lessons about sharing. “The folks in one office work really hard to get work to people in other offices.”

Goldstein pointed to client pressure on hourly billing rates when asked why he thought litigation firms were growing in Florida as opposed to full-service firms.

“A lot of clients that were using the big-name brand at $700 to $1,000 an hour are really going to have a hard time justifying that over time,” he said. “Not all firms are thriving. We've seen a lot of firms close shop.”

From his perspective, “everyone knows that insurance carriers are not in a great mood to pay more and more money.” Seeing the client-driven changes, Goldstein said, “We launched a huge alternative fee program in Florida, and it was so successful that the client expanded it to five or six other states with us.”

Rate pressure can make strange bedfellows. Morgan is known for its signature For the People web address but benefits from corporate resistance to high hourly rates. The firm has made inroads representing companies on breach-of-contract claims on a contingency basis. Plaintiffs attorneys have been known to slide into hyperbole, but Morgan said, “That department is growing exponentially every day.”

Declining Counts

The biggest percentage declines for attorneys were concentrated at firms with Florida attorney counts ranging from 32 to 52 and led by two Am Law 200 firms, Hinshaw & Culbertson, down 16 percent, and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, down 14 percent, and Palm Beach County's Jones Foster, down 15 percent.

A Hinshaw spokesman emailed a statement saying annual attrition is common in today's legal market. Its survey responses indicated 61 Florida attorneys last year, and the firm is now reporting 67.

“We experienced some Florida turnover in early 2018, and we have since added a dozen new Florida attorneys in 2019 alone, including Rory Eric Jurman and his team in Fort Lauderdale. We are focused on expanding our depth and connections in the industries and markets in which our clients operate,” Hinshaw spokesman Oliver A. Thoenen wrote.

Buchanan Ingersoll spokeswoman Ela Friel called an eight-attorney decline to 50 minor and attributed it “to typical attrition and lateral movement in the marketplace.” The firm now counts 67 attorneys in Florida and expects “that number to increase as we continue our focus on growth in the state.”

One newcomer to the rankings is Day Pitney, which announced plans last October to take over the 58-year-old Richman Greer litigation boutique. It has 25 attorneys in four South Florida offices.