As Akerman marks the one-year anniversary of its Atlanta office launch, it is close to the goal of building a full-service location. Since last September the office has grown to 14 lawyers, spanning health care, corporate, litigation, labor and employment law–and now real estate finance.

The office added three new partners last week: two in real estate finance, Anne Marie Garavaglia and Kinan Obeidin, from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, as well as construction litigation partner Robin Johnson from Dentons.

At the end of September, Akerman will take a full floor of space on the 17th floor of 999 Peachtree St. N.E. in Midtown, moving from a partial floor elsewhere in the building, to accommodate the growth.

Even though Akerman has added 12 established Atlanta partners in the last year, it has somewhat deliberately kept a low profile, said local managing partner Sidney Welch over coffee at Empire State South in the 999 Building one morning last week.

The firm quietly launched its Atlanta location last September with Welch and two other health care partners from Polsinelli, Jeremy Burnette and Amy Jeon McCullough.

"Actions are louder than words," she said. "We are finding the right group of people, because we want Akerman to be in Atlanta for a long time. What you are seeing now is the fruition of efforts that we have been working on since day one."

Welch said Akerman lawyers in Atlanta meet three criteria: they are highly skilled in areas that add to the other Atlanta partners' practices, they value collaboration, and they are involved in the local community.

Illustrating her point, six of Welch's colleagues came by to introduce themselves during her meeting last week with the Daily Report.

"There is room to build in the ecosystem of Atlanta," said Bill Ide, explaining why he joined the Florida-based firm last spring after 23 years at Dentons and its predecessor firm, McKenna Long & Aldridge.

There is a lot of potential for private equity investment in Atlanta, an emerging hub for tech companies, he added, for funds that used to go to New York, Boston and California.

Ide, who has a corporate practice, said he envisions a triangle between Akerman's Miami headquarters, its New York office (the 700-lawyer firm's second-largest) and Atlanta for the firm's "M&A and private equity money-center practice."

Ide and another Dentons' corporate and M&A partner, Amanda Leech, were Welch's first new hires in May, followed by associate Hunter Carpenter in June. Former Dentons partner Anthony Morris, who has an insurance litigation practice, joined in July.

Four labor and employment lawyers arrived in July as well, with partners Erica Mason and Sul Kim from Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete and Peter Spanos from Barnes & Thornburg.

Atlanta Goals

Leech said the Atlanta Akerman office is becoming a close-knit group, with a brainstorming session every Monday morning for everyone from the receptionist to Welch. "It's still small enough that, when somebody asks for help, everyone is very collegial and supportive," she said.

Combining skills across practices is the goal, Welch said. When one of her clients, a health care provider, faced a potential data privacy breach, she said, Ide advised on the corporate governance aspects regarding data security, and Morris advised on insurance issues.

"We don't want islands," Leech said. "We want people who are inclusive and find opportunities to work together."

"If you have the drive they are willing to help you," Morris said. "That's refreshing."

"You need to have that entrepreneurial spirit, but you're joining a team," Garavaglia, one of the new real estate finance partners, agreed. "People have been asking me: 'Who do you want to go after [as a client]–and how can we help?'"

Support for pro bono is part of that, said McCullough, another health care partner and the vice chair for the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network, which represents asylum-seekers. "I asked them for $2,500 for GAIN, and they gave us $10,000," she said.

Morris added that the firm allows unlimited credit for pro bono hours, instead of capping them at 50 or 100 hours like many firms.

Relationships have been part of the glue for the new Atlanta office, Welch said, explaining that almost all of the new hires have come colleagues' connections or from one degree of separation.

Garavaglia said that's how she and Obeidin got to Akerman. A client connection encouraged the duo to talk to Allen Cohen, the head of Akerman's real estate finance practice in New York. He had joined the firm in February as part of a five-lawyer team from New York real estate firm Duval & Stachenfeld.

From talking to Cohen, they learned that developing a real estate finance and capital markets practice was a priority for Akerman, she said. "We liked the team idea and the cohesiveness."

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