Freeman Mathis Moves Into Boston With 18-Lawyer Raid
The group includes 13 partners, representing the latest in a series of departures from LeClairRyan and a big gain for Atlanta-based Freeman Mathis.
January 09, 2019 at 12:39 PM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The American Lawyer
The Beantown legal boom is continuing into 2019, with Atlanta-based Freeman Mathis & Gary picking up an 18-lawyer team, including 13 partners, from LeClairRyan and launching a new Boston office.
Jeff Alitz, Janet Barringer, Catherine Bednar, Paul Boylan, Ben Dunlap, Michael Giunta, Neil Hartzell, Warren Hutchison, Kevin Kenneally, Tom McCraw, Nancy Reimer, Dave Slocum and Michael Weinberg all joined Freeman Mathis as partners last week.
Kenneally, who led LeClairRyan's Boston office, will now lead Freeman Mathis' new outpost.
LeClairRyan's Marc Finkel is also joining the firm as of counsel. William Gildea, Thomas Hay, Sandra Lynch and Eric Martignetti are joining as associates.
“This is an amazingly attractive group of lawyers,” said Ben Mathis, Freeman Mathis' co-founder and managing partner. “They, from day one, are in our key practice areas and have partner-level expertise in all our key practice areas and that's very hard to find.”
Founded over two decades ago in Atlanta, Freeman Mathis has grown from a three-lawyer firm to one with 150 lawyers spread across 15 offices in eight states.
In 2013 it completed its first merger in a combination with San Francisco litigation boutique Strazulo Fitzgerald, and it has been expansion mode ever since. Four years after its initial combination in California, the firm merged with California litigation defense firm Gilbert, Kelly, Crowley & Jennett, which gave it new offices in San Diego and Sacramento.
“We believe that having a bigger presence in major markets is what our clients are interested in and that has been our strategic goal,” Mathis said.
“Our growth and whether or not we grow is really dictated by our ability to find those groups of people,” he added, noting that the firm plans on making several lateral partner additions in the coming months as well as pursuing potential mergers in two major markets.
Freeman Mathis' new office will be located in Boston's financial district at 60 State Street, sharing the building with LeClairRyan's now greatly reduced Boston office.
Prior to these departures, its Boston office was LeClairRyan's third largest, behind its Newark, New Jersey, and Richmond, Virginia, offices.
“We wish our former colleagues well at their new firm, which provides a platform that is likely better suited to support their practices,” said the firm's New Haven, Connecticut-based litigation department leader, Elizabeth Acee. “As we did in 2018, LeClairRyan will continue to focus on growth concentrated on market segments that provide diverse business and litigation services to our clients, while generating better profits per partner at the firm.”
Last June, LeClairRyan partnered with UnitedLex Corp., an Overland Park Kansas-based alternative legal services provider, to launch ULX Partners LLC, a platform that outsources nonlegal operations for law firms for a minority equity stake in the venture.
As a result, more than 300 LeClairRyan employees joined ULX Partners in what it then touted as a way to help the firm provide “what we need today and in the coming years,” LeClairRyan CEO Erik Gustafson told The American Lawyer last year.
But it remains to be determined whether the move will help LeClairRyan overcome years of declining revenue and partnership departures.
Over the past three years, the firm has seen a sustained drop in revenue, falling 13 percent from $163 million in 2016 to $142 million in 2018, Am Law 200 figures show. Last year LeClairRyan saw 42 partners—nearly 20 percent of its equity partnership—head for the door, according to data compiled by ALM Intelligence.
But LeClairRyan CEO C. Erik Gustafson said the firm was executing on a strategic vision, and that it was continually recruiting in key practices.
“The movements over the past year are reflective of our efforts to shift our focus to one that includes a greater proportion of corporate, business litigation, employment, financial services, regulatory, and intellectual property engagements as evidenced by the addition of more than 20 lateral partners in those practices in 10 of our offices in the past year,” Gustafson said in a statement. “From a business perspective we recognize the importance of continuing to improve our financial performance, increasing our profits per partner and revenue per lawyer. This necessarily involves heartfelt changes.”
READ MORE:
How One Atlanta Law Firm Planned for Growth
UnitedLex and LeClairRyan Announce Innovative New Law Venture
Will LeClairRyan's UnitedLex Deal Be the Accelerant Big Law Innovation Needs?
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All12-Partner Team 'Surprises' Atlanta Firm’s Leaders With Exit to Launch New Reed Smith Office
4 minute readAfter Breakaway From FisherBroyles, Pierson Ferdinand Bills $75M in First Year
5 minute readOn the Move: Freeman Mathis & Gary Adds Florida Partners, Employment Pro Joins Jackson Lewis
6 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Paul Hastings, Recruiting From Davis Polk, Continues Finance Practice Build
- 2Chancery: Common Stock Worthless in 'Jacobson v. Akademos' and Transaction Was Entirely Fair
- 3'We Neither Like Nor Dislike the Fifth Circuit'
- 4Local Boutique Expands Significantly, Hiring Litigator Who Won $63M Verdict Against City of Miami Commissioner
- 5Senior Associates' Billing Rates See The Biggest Jump
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250