Sean Gordon has returned to Thompson Hine as a partner in its bankruptcy practice after a nine-year hiatus at Greenberg Traurig.

“There's a buzz going on at the Atlanta office. It's been expanding rapidly, and I'm excited to be a part of that,” Gordon said.

Thompson Hine has been on a growth push in Atlanta. Gordon is the fourth partner to join the Cleveland-based firm's Atlanta office this year, taking it it 30 attorneys. Labor and employment duo John Wymer and Bryan Stillwagon joined from Colorado-based Sherman & Howard in January, and trial lawyer Marla Butler joined from Robbins Kaplan in May.

Tim McDonald, Thompson Hines' Atlanta managing partner, called Gordon an important strategic addition to the office. “Sean originally helped expand Thompson Hine's insolvency and bankruptcy litigation practice to the Southeast and now provides additional experience at the local level,” McDonald said in a statement.

Gordon spent the first nine years of his career at Thompson Hine, joining the bankruptcy practice in the firm's Cleveland headquarters in 2001 after law school at Case Western Reserve University.

At that point, Gordon said he was already set on bankruptcy law. He volunteered with the Legal Aid Service of Broward County before law school and was assigned to its housing unit, where he screened potential clients for Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies.

“I really loved the bankruptcy world,” he said. “I thought it was fascinating that you could help people in financial trouble to get relief.”

Gordon and his family moved to Atlanta in 2007 after Thompson Hine opened its office, and he joined Greenberg Traurig in 2010 after the recession hit.

Gordon said the main reason he returned to Thompson Hine was because of the firm's push to “provide innovation, value and transparency” to its clients, most notably through its investment in SmartPaTH, its proprietary approach to legal project management.

“All firms look at data on a larger-scale level, but I think this is very unique to Thompson Hine,” he said. “It includes data analytics and other tools that help clients budget their matters and reach targeted goals.” The ability to track all steps of their matters helps clients make strategic decisions about next steps and cut down on legal costs, Gordon said.

“I know everyone here,” he added, noting he started his career working with Curtis Tuggle, who heads Thompson Hine's bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors' rights practice.

Gordon said he brought clients to Thompson Hine but declined to name them. He said most are banks as well as bankruptcy trustees and hedge funds. He said his bankruptcy practice is national, but he handles a lot of real estate valuation disputes as part of foreclosure-related litigation in Georgia. During the Great Recession, he estimated he handled 70 to 80 such cases.

Bankruptcy is often considered a countercyclical practice, but Gordon said that even in good times, companies “need bankruptcy assistance,” and “it can be credit issues or operational issues that lead to bankruptcy filings even in the best of times.”